Channel surfing, I came across Madventures on Discovery channel. Riku and Tunna are in Varanasi for the Magh Mela. They are allowed to film a supposedly secret ritual that Aghoris perform. An Aghori dances around like a madman oblivious to the people around him and his surroundings. He jumps over fire. Catches a hen. Rips its head off and drinks its blood. He offers it to Riku who also has some. Riku and Tunna then get out of there as the completion of the pooja brings with it bad forces.
Google News was full of headlines about Shashi Tharoor, our former Minister for External affairs with declared assets between Rs 15 to 23 crores, depending on the exchange rate applied to convert his US dollars, Canadian dollars, Euros and UAE Dirhams. When appointed head of the public affairs division in the UN headquarters in New York, he moved his girlfriend to the office next to him. Tharoor is also alleged to have sent an sms to the journalist Karan Thapar with abusive language after he interviewed Farooq Abdullah . His sms read "I've...seen yr grilling of Farooq, putting words in his mouth & I've just realized what a sh... u (you) r (are). Pls don't call me again." KC Singh, former secretary in the external affairs ministry, who had watched him from close quarters as he coordinated Tharoor's campaign as India’s candidate for UN secretary-general in 2006, remarked, “He is a narcissist, totally in love with himself and his image.”
Right before sleeping, I realise I don't get to choose the India I want to remember. There are firangs who have washed their sins in the Ganga which I still have to do, pseudo firangs who lead my country and certain things that India has always had and won't ever change. All I am assured of is its conflicting nature and organised chaos that probably will survive all of the three above.
