Bach Gaya Sala
“Bach gaya sala!” I told Lulu, my parrot. There is something in the dialogues of Sholay, you can use the lines so often.
“Who? Salman?” Lulu asked as he settled on my table. I almost saw ‘Kalia’s fear-written-all-over face. Salman would have been no different.
“Yes. Convicts get bail faster than customers get bhel in hotel.”
“Tut tut tut! Why are you so upset? He is the darling of masses.” Trust parrots for having a different world view. Never thought ‘Bird’s eye view’ can be so funny.
“So you mean we should have a different law for him? What are you suggesting?”
“Didn’t somebody say that some are more equal than others?”
“He breached the law merrily. Not just once but repeatedly.”
“So?”
“What do you mean by asking ‘So’?”
“You buy a kidney, a liver, an eye, a heart. He bought out a life. So why are you complaining?”
“You buy a liver, a kidney to save somebody’s life. You can’t compare it with Salman’s buying out a life.”
“That’s the way your world is. Self-styled intellectuals like you talk of morality. The world has been placing a monetary value on everything.”
“And the Bollywood stars and producers are visiting him and rejoicing his getting a bail. What nonsense.”
“Look, don’t get emotional. Check what your legal system has done.”
“What’s that?”
“Sanjeev Nanda had killed 6 people including three policemen and got away with 2 years community service as punishment and 50 lacs fine, Alistair Pereira had killed 7 and got three years imprisonment. Salman killed one man, got five years imprisonment.”
“And you know what?”
“What?”
“Nikhil Wagle’s reference to Ambani car accident was censored by NDTV in Big Fight show!”
“You have literally added fuel to the fire!”
“There is something wrong about values your society upholds. There is something wrong about the way human life is valued. You are more worried about life of cows than human beings.”
“You said it.”
“Stanford economists have demonstrated that the average value of a year of quality human life is actually closer to about $129,000.00.” [Read it here]
“Something is wrong somewhere. I think our leaders, our men of wisdom in the society have failed us, the common people.”
“Bertrand Russell says he never had any evidence that man is a rational animal. Man is perhaps a ‘commercial’ animal.”
Vivek