Saturday, September 09, 2006

What the hell was that?

On Thursday last, after work as I watched T.V I was horrified to see images of Telgi (the man behind the multi-crore (i.e millions) rupee stamp paper scam) being interrogated in a room in a Hospital in Bangalore. I wonder if this is standard operating procedure because for the first time I saw a man being interrogated under heavy sedation. He was lying down. Wires and tubes stuck to his body suggested his blood pressure, heart and maybe other vital organs were being monitored. Telgi is supposed to have been administered some "Truth Serum" which I believe is some highly intoxicated drug-dose. Telgi was lying down on a bed and hospital staff all dressed in traditional surgeon's clothing and with gloves and face-masks were positioned all around him. One lady was asking him questions from a note pad. Telgi was in a semi-concious state but it looked as though he was almost on the verge of lapsing into an unconcious state. It was just terrible to watch. The lady who was asking him questions was constantly slapping his face (gently but firmly) to make him speak. Telgi seemed to be answering only half of what was being asked. His answers were slow as an L.P record would play in "Slow motion" speed. Another person near his head was also constantly shaking him as though to keep him awake. It felt like a scene from a "concentration camp". Was all this done with his consent? An explanation of this unusual method of interrogation by any of the news channels would have been very useful. Instead one after the other they all went on and on and on describing the statement Telgi had given and the names he had mentioned of politicians and other high ranked people involved in the scam. One channed even boasting that their's was the first channel to do so and such. It just goes on to show the callouness of our media. First of all the media needs to know one thing: "THEY ARE SUPERSTARS WHEN IT COMES TO IMITATING THE WEST (U.S.A)". Every nuance of behavior, reporting, dressing and what-not are imitated. Indian media, particularly television has almost lost the word "originality". These guys have sold their souls to copying and imitating the west. Even if Telgi had been a hard core criminal was it just to show the bizzare proceedings of his interrogation to the public as it was done.

The only consolation is this. Why wasn't this procedure used on hard-core criminals? It could have avoided torture and better still, may have brought out the truths.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

One year of blogging.

Yes it is 2.45 A.M. Today is Onam, the big festival of the Malayalees world wide. Happy Onam to all you "Mallus".

I cannot believe one year of blogging has gone by. Last year on Sep 4'th I published my first article. 2005 was also the year of the blog, August 31'th was blog day and the blogger's conference is taking place at Tidel Park this weekend. The conference has been sold out. If not for my appointments on that day I would have keenly participated. Another reason to celebrate - I have received 100 favourable votes for my reviews on Amazon.com so far.

Here's a big "Thank You" if you have been a regular or a casual reader of my blog and reviews.