A case quite bizarre

Indrani Mukerjea: Buried Truth (2024)
Docu-series, 4 episodes.

From the land of the Veda and the Arthashashtra comes an intriguing case of a missing person, which has remained unresolved to date. In the land that believes that every nasty action has a compelling reaction with the belief that no evil deed will not go unpunished in this birth or next, perhaps punishment could only be meted out in the next life.

In 2008, The Wall Street Journal hailed Indrani Mukerjea as one of the 50 ladies to watch, and India conferred her with the award 'Uttar Ratna' for her outstanding work in the art, media, and broadcasting sector. By 2015, she had her hands full fending off money laundering charges and fighting a murder charge.

Her past is blurry for a start. Born Pori Dora, her actual birthdate is queried. In her early teenage years in Guwahati, Assam, she accused her father of sexually molesting her. She went off to Shillong, Meghalaya, for studies, where she met her first husband, Siddharta Das, with whom she had two kids, Sheena and Mikhail. She soon left her kids with her parents to move to Kolkata in 1990. In Kolkata, she married her second husband, Sanjeev Khanna, to have her third child, Vidhie. Vidhie is the main narrator in the documentary. Somewhere along the way, there is even a mention that Sheena could be the product of Indrani's father's despicable act.

In 2001, Indrani moved to Mumbai, where she met Peter Mukerjea. Her recruitment company became a hit, and she dabbled in the media industry. Together with Peter, they climbed the corporate ladder to become prominent figures in Indian media. She was the CEO of a media mogul.

Her daughter, Sheena, appeared in the Mukerjea fold in 2006. Indrani introduced her to her new family as her sister! Sheena also got herself embroiled in the Mumbai corporate rat race. She apparently had a relationship with Peter's son from a previous marriage. Indrani's side was resistant to this relationship.

By 2009, Indrani was pretty much out of the media limelight as her corporate rule went south with accusations of appropriation and money laundering. She left India to live in the UK.

In 2012, Sheena disappeared without a trace. Everybody assumed Sheena had run away from her fiance and had probably gone incognito. Three years later, Indrani was arrested for the murder. Indrani's driver admitted to having helped her to kill and bury Sheena. The driver let her to the remains, but DNA evidence from the body was rejected for technical reasons. The case was twisted, and Indrani, Peter, and the driver got out on bail.

The docu-series is so twisted. It smells of sensationalism and trial by the media. Nobody shows sensitivity to the deceased or the family in the programme. I guess it does not matter as the accused is family (the mother killing her firstborn). The family gave the green light to tell their side of the story, having been in the media, knowing how well media can spin the truth, of which Indrani had been part and that the case is still ongoing; Indrani and the family should know better. Perhaps they are just garnering public sentiments before the case gets mentioned again.

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Forgive for peace?

Rubaru Roshni (Where the Light Comes In)

Directed by Svati Chakravarthy Bhatkal

 The general order of things in the Universe is such. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. An eye for an eye, a tit for a tad, and 'you do the crime, you do the time'. Even the karmic rule dictates that we pay our dues. We have been taught to take responsibility for our actions with no recourse. The others will jump at the slightest chance to pounce and breathe down on the perpetrator as if he, in the wise words of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is eligible to cast the first stone.

Rumi once wrote, 'The wound is the place where the Light enters you'. A person who is heartbroken but remorseful after a regrettable act is open to amends. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as swiping the slate clean and turning over a new leaf. As practised by Roman Catholics, confessions may offer solace to the perpetrator but not to the victim. The aggrieving party will also have to deal with their own heartaches and trauma. A face-to-face meeting is a logical choice to reach conciliation, but is it really the solution? Can it even happen in this day and age?

This whole exercise of vis-à-vis intervention is, as solicitors would term, perverse to natural justice. In a world where nobody turns the other cheek anymore but slaps back instead, resolution and forgiveness are unthinkable. In an environment where one seeks 'justice' that all the money can buy or the highest court they can go to, it is terrible for business. Unless, of course, you are a nobody. Then, God is your witness, judge and executor of the 'other' party.

Rumi

A wound is where Light goes in. Light heals. Like that, cracks can be filled up, as is done in the Japanese pottery craft of Kintsugi. Defects repaired with powdered gold or silver dust end up being more robust than before.

All these sound nice and easy, forgiving and moving up. In reality, it takes a lot of courage and patience. Courage to accept the tragedy affected both parties, the perpetrator and those close to the victim. Patience to hear out what either party has to say to each other. On top of it all, both parties must have suffered enough. The offender must have done time and must have remorse to descend the throne of grandiosity.

That brings us to the case of commuting pardon to Najib, whose innumerable cases are still ongoing. First, he must have been comprehensively grilled and laid bare of any other possible crimes, lived to have paid his dues as decided by Law and be remorseful of his actions, as he is deemed to have committed the crime by Law. Otherwise, it is putting the cart before the horse.

Forgiveness is what we see in the three real-life events that are shown here. Forgiveness only comes after deliberation when both parties realise that carrying the burden or guilt is self-defeating. Tackling it head-on with empathy and humility goes a long way.

Avatika Maken and her father's 
assassin, forgiven.

In the first case story, following the 1984 Operation Blue Star, after the alleged desecration of the Golden Temple, there was nationwide resentment against the Indian Government. Never mind that weapons were stored there and anti-nationalist activities were in full swing. PM Indra Gandhi was assassinated later. A riot broke out between the Sikhs and Hindus, claiming 17,000 Sikh lives in three days. A neutral report on the riot blamed the Congress Party M.P.s for the mayhem. Sikh separatist groups noted that and put Delhi Congressmen on their hit list. By chance, they shot Lalit Maken. His wife, Geethanjali, was collateral damage. Their only daughter, Avantika, then 6, grew up an angry orphan. Of the assassins, two were apprehended, charged and sentenced to death, while the third, Ranjit Singh Gill, escaped to the USA. Ranjit was arrested and spent a good 13 years in the U.S. prison before being expedited to India. In India, he received a life sentence. He appeared for parole three years later only to be opposed by Avantika.

Sr Selmy and her sister's murderer, forgiven.

The rest of the tale is about how Avantika and Ranjit, both feeling drained out because of the turn of events, met each other by chance. This led to reconciliation, with both starting a rejuvenated new life. It takes someone extraordinary to forgive and guts to admit mistakes and make amends. Ranjit realised he had been used as a pawn by power brokers who just scooted when things went south.

The second case study involved the brutal stabbing of a Malayali Catholic nun, Sr Rani Maria, in Udainagar, Madhya Pradesh, in 1995. The talk around town was that the Christian missionaries were busy converting tribal and Dalit communities. Riled by this, Samandar Singh, a farmer, with many landowners, stopped the bus Sr Rani was travelling and stabbed her more than 50 times in broad daylight. Cooped in prison for more than 11 years for his crime, Samandar felt remorse after seeing his accomplices go free.

Kia Scherr

Meanwhile, Sr Rani has a sister who is also a nun. The sister, Sr Selmy, and their mother did a lot of soul-searching and concluded that it was all God's plan. God and Sr. Rani would have forgiven Rani's killer. So when a Swamiji contacted the family about Samandar's regret, Sr Selmy made a trip to the prison where Samandar was imprisoned to tie Rakhi on Raksha Bandhan. From then on, it was raw emotion all the way. After his release, he makes a trip to Kerala to the mother. The family adopts him as another sibling.

Kia Scherr's husband and daughter had come to Mumbai for a meditation retreat. Unfortunately, the Oberoi Hotel where they stayed was in the way of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008. Rather than hating India as she lost her whole family there, she has resorted to making annual trips to India as a peace entrepreneur and co-founding a global peace initiative that works to bring tools of peace to education, business and government.


P.S. I struggle to comprehend why some forgive their aggressors while others go all out to throw the heaviest weight of the Law at them to get the maximum of incarceration for them. They would insist that no form of punishment is adequate enough.

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The state of a state

Kohrra (Fog, Punjabi-Hindi; 2023
Miniseries S1E1-6.

Shrouded in fog, that is how it is. It used to be the food basket of India and the provider of the country's most significant tax returns from its businesses and income earners. Punjab used to be prosperous. People of the diaspora have been instantly recognised worldwide for their resilience, entrepreneurial skills, confidence and ability to adapt and integrate. 

Sadly, the situation in their home state now is a far cry from what it used to be in its pre-independence days. The downward spiral started when a large chunk of the State was sliced away amid bloody butchering to satisfy specific political ambitions. Just as they recoiled back to health with the erection of a dam and the introduction of Green Revolution initiatives, they were the envy of many, including their poor Eastern cousins, Haryana. 

Religiosio-linguistic politics dictated that Hindi-speaking Hindu Himachal Pradesh and Haryana be cut off from the predominantly Sikh Punjabi province in a way that contributed to the tumultuous, violent sectarian politics of Akali Dal, Bindrawale and Operation Blue Star. After that, it was downhill all the way. The Punjabis missed the bus that brought various revolutions: IT, automobile manufacturing, biotechnology and retail. Haryana went places.

20th century Punjab sees an average Punjabi dying to get out of Punjab to get a green card in Canada. Hardy, hardworking Sadarjis are replaced by drug-peddling, gun-wielding gangsters who glorify female objection in their music videos. Then there is a constant external pressure to demand an independent country of Khalistan where Gurmukhi is the script, and Sikh is the national religion, which will be in harmony with their neighbour, Pakistan, so they believe. 

Interestingly, Chandigarh is the common
capital of Punjab and Haryana.

This miniseries, a compelling six-episode first season, brings the audience to the daily dealings of two small-town police officers. It paints an unsettling township where the police have too much power and too much on their plate. Police brutality is the norm, and it seems justified in wanting to mete justice to the grieving family. Opulence is the game the wealthy display to claim their societal role. Family pride takes precedence over everything else. 

Life is cheap, and people can be knocked off for a song. Truth somehow gets buried somewhere in the chaos of things, much like how the splendour of the Saraswati river and its civilisation disappeared into annal of times. 

At least, this is what I, as a non-resident of Punjab, take home after watching this miniseries. It starts with the death of a soon-to-be-married NRI groom found dead in the field with his pants down. The investigating police officer teases out in piecemeal all the undercurrents behind the death. The officer himself has a complicated back story. Losing his wife to depression, he cannot see eye to eye with his adult daughter. His daughter, married with a young child, hates her husband and has an affair. 

Meanwhile, the bride to the deceased groom has a morbidly clingy musician boyfriend who tries everything to regain his beau. But the boyfriend also has a side chick. The dead groom's boyfriend, who came from the UK, is also missing. Now, where is he?

With everyone breathing down his neck, the grieving groom's family, the anxious UK mother, and the aggressive groom's father handling his family issues and pressure from his superiors, sub-inspector Balbir Singh has to tie all the loose knots and close the case. Forgot to mention that Balbir Singh also fancies the widow of a former informant whom he killed!

With such a bizarre storyline, there is no guessing what will happen next. It all makes sense in the end, like most things in life. Nothing is really so straightforward. Nothing is black or white.

P/S. It would appear on the surface that emigration improves one's standard of living to emulate the citizens of their host, to grow and be part of the nation. Wrong! It is true what the migrants want is a peaceful existence, the ability to prove one's purpose of existence, to impart wisdom to the next generation and a final seamless transition to the Otherside with the least morbidity. The host country believes it can assist with resources; in return, the arrivals should blend into the system. Integration, the newcomers will not do for they are convinced their hosts are inferior for the arrivals brought in with them the real civilisation, which is superior and time tested. This is evident in this miniseries. Despite being an NRI, whom one would perceive to have progressive thoughts in sync with the Western world, here the father is showing none of those. Even though he left his home country because it was not good enough to nurture his family, he still brings his old ancient belief systems. 

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Pleasure in pain?

Crimes of Future (2022)
Director: David Cronenberg

Despite all the good deeds attributed to Tipu Sultan in fighting the British and planting the seed of nationalism amongst the people of Bharat, the Muslim monarch is infamous for signature torture. He would slice off his enemies’ noses. There was a time in South India when many defeated Hindu soldiers with gaping nasal openings on their faces. 

It is said the peddlers on market squares of old India were trying to insert prostheses to correct the victims’ nasal defects. Two visiting surgeons from the UK saw this during their visit to exotic India and decided to write it up in medical journals. That was the birth of rhinoplasty and the conception of cosmetic surgery. 

Tipu Sultan

Soon everybody found something wrong with their appearances; too fat, too plain, too Asian-looking, too unalluring, lines of ageing or even too short. Everything could be corrected if one were daring enough to go under the scalpel. The fear of surgery itself was a put-off to potential customers (not patients since they were not technically sick).

For those who braved the procedure or danced the nectar of joy of improvement of their perceived looks, an enhancement to the first cut became the norm. In a way, the first cut was not the deepest but became a stepping stone to many more to follow. As experience had proven, it soon became an obsession, no longer a therapeutic correction. In the real world, repeated nose jobs have resulted in necrotic nasal cartilages and the nose literally dropping off one’s face! If the rumours about Michael Jackson were true.

The movie tells us of a not-so-distant future where humans develop tolerance to pain, and somehow people do not get infections. The human body constantly evolves and is able to produce synthetic organs. A group of people can digest plastic. Because pain is ‘pleasurable’ and is tolerated well, surgical incisions and public displays of self-mutilation replace traditional sex. In this topsy-turvy world where growing new organ is an art form, the authorities try to register new organs!

Kosaji, after his nose job

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The diplomat's wife and the holy man.

Dancing on the Grave (2023)
Written and directed by Patrick Graham

This an interesting case that, on paper, is considered closed. The victim's next-of-kin asserts that justice has been meted out and the perpetrator is doing time even more than they had bargained. The prosecutors are jubilant about how they solved the case despite the long timeframe it took. The defence (and the affected) are adamant, however, that the accused is being punished for a crime he did not commit.

At one look, it sounds like a case of mismatched personalities from totally different backgrounds coming together in the name of love. This case also reminds us of India's past history, about the Diwans, the aristocrats, and the vibrant Shia-Persian community in Karnataka and the fact that India is not quite a homogenous society but one rich with a plurality of cultures and societies. It takes a peek into the life of the rich and famous ambassador and the type of life the family once led.

Shakereh Khaleeli nee Namazie was a high-spirited 19-year-old member of the rich and elite of India when she was married off to her first cousin, Akbar Mirza Khaleeli. Their grandfather was Sir Mirza Ismail, the Diwan of Mysore. Albar was a diplomat, an envoy to Iran and many other places later. Shakereh was the live wire of all parties and was a born socialite. They went on to have 4 daughters.

With the Iranic Revolution, Sharkereh returned to India whilst Akbar stayed behind to continue his ambassadorial duties. She involved herself in the family construction business.  

Murali Manohar Mishra, aka Swami Shradhananda, came to know the couple around 1982. By 1985, Shikereh unilaterally proclaimed divorce in front of an audience at a mosque after failing to obtain her husband’s talaq. It is said that the Shradhananda, who is not a saintly man but one who proclaimed to have special powers, promised Shikereh a son. They got married in Hindu tradition and lived in Bangalore.

Her action became the talk of the community then. A Shia-Parsi woman of a reputable family marrying a Hindu from a poor background and living as a Hindu was scandalous enough. Her daughters, though, maintained continued telecommunication with their mother. They were then living in Italy with their father. 

In 1991, the second daughter filed a police report for failing to contact her mother. The police were dragging their feet until a habeas corpus case was put up. In 1994, the police managed to get a confession from the Shradhananda. The remains of Shakereh were unearthed within the confines of her home.

The story says that the couple did have a stillbirth. The gender of the child is not mentioned. There were frequent tiffs between them regarding her close communication with her daughters. Shradhananda, the ever-subservient one, started demanding his role as a husband. He had also managed to get himself the power of attorney to all her properties. 

Shradhananda had summoned a wooden box to be made for allegedly water storage purposes. He drugged his wife, rolled her up with a thick blanket into the box and buried her in the courtyard. He managed to convince everyone that Shakereh had gone overseas, holidaying, attending this wedding and that. Shradhananda himself was having ravishing parties, symbolically having dances at the site where her body was buried. (hence, the title. The phrase is defined as ‘celebrating a person's death or downfall triumphantly’.)

The case shocked the nation. In 1994, the mystery was solved. Shradhananda led the police to the body. The exhumation work was videographed and accepted as evidence. Clawing marks from the inside of the box suggested that she was buried alive. DNA confirmation was used for the first time in India.

The judgement at the Session Court passed a death sentence on Swami. It was challenged at the High Court and Supreme Court, which conferred with the sentence. In 2008, 13 years after incarceration, the Supreme Court called it a case of 'a man's vile greed coupled with devil's cunning' but commuted his sentence to life in prison "without remission" and refuse his plea for parole. He has to spend his living years in jail.

It sounds like a cut-and-dry case of a purportedly holy man befriending the rich, gaining the trust of the lady of the house, winning her heart, her hand and subsequently, her property. When the mission was accomplished, she was eliminated. Despite being found guilty by a total of eight judges, Shrahananda's lawyer insists evidence against him is circumstantial. The series gives the defence state their arguments which appear to be mostly harping on technical issues.

But despite the fact that he was found guilty by a total of eight judges from India's trial court, the high court and the Supreme Court, his lawyer insists that the evidence against him at best is circumstantial - and in the web series, we hear from Shraddhananda himself who admits his guilt. Still, at the time of the crime, he just wanted to cover his misdeed and get scot-free.

The miniseries helps to bring out this case to the mainstream, the viewing public wants to know more. They want the story to be built up as if an actual investigation is ongoing. The mental state of Shakireh for wanting to leave her beautiful family and go off with an obviously less erudite than her, and her worldly exposure is not explored.

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Punjab's Breaking Bad?

CAT (Punjabi, 2022)

Miniseries, Netflix.

Starting off as a martial race, the Sikhs stood up against Aurangzeb and his brutal imposition of jizya. There was a dire need to replenish the national coffers after his father, the megalomaniac Shah Jahan, had depleted them, completing the magnificent Taj Mahal. Their prowess continued during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. The emperor remains the lone leader who managed to unite Punjab and conquer the region now referred to as Afghanistan. After Ranjit Singh's demise, it had been downhill all the way.

Maharajah Ranjit's heir Dalip Singh was placed under the care of the Crown after the second Anglo-Sikh War. He soon became a lost white man who signed off the Kohinoor to Queen Victoria, whom he looked up to as his mother. 

From then on, the land of five rivers had only seen nothing but misery. First, it witnessed its land carved up to appease certain quarters. A heart-wrenching swapping of citizens illustrated by brutal slayings ensued. The nation had hardly recovered from that blow just 30 years later, and a major religious riot occurred between Hindus and Sikhs. Radical Sikh leaders had stockpiled weapons and explosives in the Golden Temple. When the authorities marched in to defuse increasing security concerns in the state, it was deemed as disrespecting the sanctity of the august place of worship. The only remedial solution, at that time, the terrorists felt, was to assassinate the Prime Minister who gave the marching orders.

The late 20th century spilling into the 21st saw Punjab fighting enemies from within and without. If the earlier stock of Punjabis had a roaring nationalistic (or the glory of the Sikh teachings) spirit, the newer generation had lost it. They had to deal with declining agricultural produce, traditionally their selling point. It is no longer the state that generates the most taxes for India. Alcoholism is a big problem; no matter how hard drugs are curtailed, they keep popping up. Young Punjabis all have one life ambition: to migrate and settle in Canada. Therein comes the trouble from outside. The radical Khalistani movement rooted in Canada is hell-bent on demanding separatism. The other external annoyance is, of course, Pakistan, whose raison d'etre is to derail India. Most, if not all, of Punjab's drugs are parachuted across the Pak-Punjab northern border. 

How does one solve a problem like Punjab? This web series seems to suggest that it is impossible. Even if one is resolved to do it, the grit is often met with a corrupt web of politicians, police personnel, civil servants and a lethargic system that is quite content with the status quo. The lure to get some quick bucks and get the hell out of the badland is so compelling that people are willing, not batting an eyelid, to cheat their loved ones blind.

Gary, a teenager in the mid-1980s, became an orphan after his parents were killed by Sikh terrorists. He worked as an informant to the police to nab terrorists. He goes into a witness protection program, caring for his younger pre-teen siblings and working incognito as a car mechanic. He got his sister married, settled in Canada, and hoped his brother would do the same after passing his entrance exams.

His brother, however, has other plans. Hooked on the good life and recreational drugs, he gets into the wrong company. He is arrested. The devasted Gary, now Gurnam Singh is devastated. He meets the policeman who got him into the witness program by chance. That snowballs into Gary doing what he did before, as a police mole, to infiltrate a web of drugs nicely controlled by the police, local hoodlum and politicians. Gary realises that things are complicated now.

If one were to understand the psyche of the generation of Punjab, just listen to their latest trend in music videos. The videos of the 80s typically show greenery, tractors and village bungalows. Now, the theme is masculinity, booze, drugs, guns and about girls falling flat for gangster-like characters with flashy cars. Women are often portrayed as brainless sex toys waiting to be picked up.

There used to be a time when the general public felt secure in the presence of someone in a turban. A girl cat-whistled by a gang of boys will seek solace in the company of a Sadarji. The Standard Chartered Bank, a few years ago, used the image of a Sikh guard as an example of their impenetrable security. I wonder if people will still feel the same after watching this series.

Sidhu Moose Wala (1993-2022)

Controversial Punjabi Rapper infamous for promoting

gun culture and challenging religious establishment.

He was shot dead by Canadian gangsters in a gang-related rivalry.

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