King of Spades

“Mother, I want to live,” she wrote on a paper undergoing the worst pain anyone possibly could. Her spirit was high, irrespective of the fact that her life would never be the same again. The doctors called her brave. The media christened her Nirbhaya while the public named her Damini. The outpouring for her was a huge and unprecedented sea of humanity never seen before. Quite possible since her story had woken them up from their deep slumber of years. Through her plight she had managed to touch everyone. She was just like any other normal, fun loving, college girl a few days back. But today she had become Nirbhaya- the courageous one. The entire country was shocked beyond measure on learning about her brutal rape and sexual abuse. Still remember my mother getting very depressed and putting the paper away on reading about the same. I myself could not come to terms with the fact that someone can be so demonic without even a slight ounce of humanity in their hearts, to commit a crim...

The 30th of April in the summer of 2009. Possibly the most talked about, hyped and eagerly awaited date in the recent history of Mumbai. Most talked about by the NGOs who wanted people to come out and exercise their right to vote. Hyped by the media who needed fodder to run their 24x7 news channels and ... Eagerly awaited by the politicians so that they can remove their goody-goody masks after the day. Among all of these was the common man, yours truly included who were waiting to vote for a change. After all,things were different this time.Mumbai was held hostage for 3 days and the Mumbaikars for many more. Some survivors still recounting the horror that they had to face and the ones who lost their dear ones,for them god knows how many days will it take to overcome the fear and shock of the terror attack. It was the 26th of November. Actually the drama began at midnight, when terrorists from across the border entered Mumbai and created havoc on the streets, platforms and tou...