Smita gets government aid to fight legal battle

It is not a sin to be deadly attractive, no doubt. But unfortunately, many a young officers have been victims of feminine jealousy and the fourth estate seems to be the villain in most of the cases. Well, most often the victims of fetishism are left to defend themselves, but this pretty, petite civil servant is luckier than her counterparts. Smita Sabharwal, the IAS officer who was insulted by a national magazine and its Hyderabad-based assistant editor through a caustic column has got a mentor in the form of none other than Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Looks like it doesn’t hold up, but the government, yes, I mean our own Telangana government, has given its Additional Chief Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office (read Smita) a financial aid of Rs 15 lakh for her to take a legal battle to its logical conclusion. Remember, hurt and humiliated, Smita filed a defamation suit against the magazine and sought Rs 10 crore from the magazine management.

Millions protested against the outrageous treatment of a promising officer and condemned the magazine in unison (I was one among them).

Soon the snarky piece and Smita’s outbursts hit the headlines across the country, my close friend and a senior journalist with a Mumbai-based tabloid spoke to her husband, Akun Sabharwal, who is currently heading the Drug Control Administration. Outraged by the column, he said, “We were shocked and upset that a reputed national magazine had carried such a nasty, slanderous piece against a woman IAS officer. It took no time for her to realise that she should fight. We are married for 10 years. No slanderous piece against my wife by anybody is tolerable. Fortunately, I did not need to console her, as she is very strong. We were initially shocked but quickly realised our duty lay in taking on the magazine. What does the so-called journalist who wrote that indecent piece know how Smita is treated by the CM? The CM addresses her ‘naanna’, which means ‘little child’. How can such affectionate relations be misinterpreted?”

And that is it. How affectionately the legislature treats the executive? Chief Minister treats her as a little girl and heaps on her his affection in a fatherly manner. And now that his affection turned out to be true, with him providing her financial aid from the tax payers’ money, where can you find such a compassionate government?

I just remember how Merin Joseph IPS, a trainee officer went viral on social media in January this year when someone in her native Kerala posted her ‘very attractive’ photo on facebook with a caption “Merin Joseph IPS - How many likes for our new ACP of Kochi?” even as she was undergoing training at Hyderabad’s National Police Academy and how she handled the situation with ease.

Poor Smita does not know Madhavi Tata, the assistant editor of Outlook, but I do. It was after all a wrong way to handle a hitherto little known and insignificant journo for an IAS officer of Smita’s caibre. Now, with the government joined the fight, Tata stands a formidable challenge to the government and the bureaucracy.

Racist pigs, Miss America has Indian blood!

While it was a moment of pride for people in the country in general and Andhra Pradesh in particular, for 24-year-old Nina Davuluri, who was crowned as the first ever Miss America of Indian origin, she had some tough time facing the racist comments in social media.

When there was a huge outcry against racist comments across the world, Nina was calm and composed. She said she just ‘had to rise above such things. Nina, daughter of a gynecologist who emigrated from India, from Vijayawada to be precise, some 30 years ago, showed her true inner beauty, rather than just skin and curves and sizes.

The racists even termed her an Arab and a terrorist who had ties with Al Qaeda! One hater tweeted: "It's called Miss America. Get outta here New York you look like a terrorist.” There were so many such comments, but Nina said: "I have to rise above that...I always viewed myself as first and foremost American."

And that is true. She was born and brought up in the US. She lived her whole life in America. She is very much an American but with Indian blood. And for those do not know, thousands of years ago, much before Christopher Columbus landed in the land, America was inhabited by Indians. Indians were the aboriginal tribe of the present USA.

Those white racists do not seem to know about this bit of a fact. Though the general idea is that racism is largely against people of African origin, the fact is Indian Americans are the largest victims of racism in the States.

From 1980s, this hate groups have been growing in number, apparently unable to digest the “outsource-offshore” white-collar labour and Indian Americans’ economic growth. It may be recalled that a man of Punjab origin was murdered, a pizza delivery boy of Indian origin was manhandled and mauled and another American Indian was pushed out of a running train over the years.

Haters, remember the US is the land of Indians, and not anybody else’!

An untimely piece on premarital sex!

I am sure you will say this is an untimely piece, but humbly, yet firmly I disagree with you. I know you are busy discussing the national calamity and abhorring people and the governments for their insensitivity in times of chaos, crisis and catastrophe. You are heartbroken, you are woebegone. Yet, people will forget this soon and the nature will continue to nurture its spitefulness and as long as we don’t love her, respect her and stop ill-treating her. Yes, hell hath no fury as nature scorned!

But then, my ‘untimely piece’ will remain relevant forever, as the topic is sex and that too premarital sex! The day The Hindu carried a big report, ostensibly misinterpreted, about Madras High Court’s ruling on premarital sex, an old friend of mine (she is of course young!) called me and threw this question. “Hey, did you read the report? How can a court of justice make such a judgement? If this is the case, all young men and women have many wives and husbands!”

Yes, I understood the undercurrent. You can’t say when sex happens and how. Though the Firstpost carried a detailed report on the context the court had made this ruling, social networking sites were abuzz with discussions, for hours together. Youngsters were apparently angry. They have all reasons to be angry.

Let me clarify. The Madras High Court’s judgment conceived premarital sex as a mode of solemnising a marriage. But what was the context? A Hindu woman and a Muslim man were living under one roof and had sexual relations. The woman gave birth to two children between 1994 and 1999. Documents proved that the man was the father of the second child and that he had applied for a family card for himself, the woman and the two children. The marriage was not registered in the Islamic marriage register. The woman was deserted by the man in 1999 and the woman in 2000 filed for maintenance for her and the two children from the man.

When the case came up for trial, Madras High Court Justice CS Karnan said, “A ‘valid marriage’ does not necessarily mean that all the customary rights pertaining to the married couple are to be followed and subsequently solemnized.  Solemnization of marriage is only a customary right and obligation and not a mandatory one. In the instant case, both man and the woman lived together as spouses and therefore the relationship between them cannot be termed as ‘illegitimate’. If a woman aged 18 or above has a sexual relationship with a man aged 21 or above, and during the course of such relationship, if the woman becomes pregnant, she would henceforth be treated as the wife and the man would be treated as the husband. Even if the girl does not become pregnant after having such sexual relationship with a man but if there is a strong documentary evidence to show the existence of such relationship then also the couple involved would be termed as wife and husband.”

And that was it. But newspapers and television channels did their best to blow things out of proportion. Their over-creative sub-editors worked overtime to come up with flowery headlines. Good job for aspiring Mehtas and Nayars and Khushwants!

Human relations are strange and beyond any definition. Man-woman attraction cannot be judged and defined by any court of law. It has been pre-destined by the Maker. If a man, or a gang of men, assaults a woman… or if a woman or a gang of women assaults a man, let the law take its own course, but if two grownup human beings, man and man, or man and woman or woman and wo

man, have consensual sex, please leave them alone, as long as they are happy and content!

Pre-teen takes police for a ride

A 12-year-old girl from South Carolina has literally taken the police for a ride, when she stole a car that led cops on a hot chase.

According to a report appeared in the Huffington Post, the police initially thought the unidentified pre-teen was a drunk driver after noting her swerving and reaching speeds up to 70 miles per hour.

It all happened when the girl got into a brawl with her father that spurred her to leave the house. Angry over this, the girl stole a truck from a nearby VFW hall and hit the road, the report quoted the police.

“Police gave chase to the girl for 20 minutes from near her Gaffney, S.C. home all the way to Charlotte, N.C. The girl covered around 50 miles overall during the joyride,” says the report.

The owner of the truck had no clue how the little girl was able to steal the car telling WSOC in Charlotte that he wanted to know how she got inside the car and was able to get it started.

Officers corralled the young girl after she slowed down enough for officers to surround the truck.

The girl and her father may face charges in Charlotte for the incident.

Though the girl’s dad has to be mad and punish her for her reckless actions, on some level, you have to be proud, right? Endangering herself and others aside, it’s kind of cool that your daughter got all Dukes of Hazzard. Raising a badass ain’t easy, says the report.

UK Parliamentarians use comps for porn

If some of the BJP members in the Karnataka State Legislative Assembly are still embarrassed over their alleged porn surfing a year ago, here is bigger news of how elected representatives use their official computers to enjoy hardcore pornography, albeit not in our country.   

According to a report in Daily Mail, parliamentary computers are being used to view hardcore pornography featuring sadomasochism and foot and fat fetishism. In a shocking discovery, it was found that the X-rated websites have been accessed more than 2,500 times on computers used by MPs, peers and their staff.

The report says that gay cruising websites have also been visited a further 3,500 times along with obscure erotica sites – including one showing naked women posing with cats. Asked for an explanation, a parliamentary spokesman claimed the sites may have been “visited accidentally”.

The Mail claims to have obtained the information through a Freedom of Information enquiry. It covers a 14-month period between May 2011 and July 2012. The visits are a breach of parliamentary IT rules, which bar online ‘pornography’, ‘nudity’ and ‘adult/mature content’.

It was earlier reported by The Mail that parliamentary computers were used to click thousands of times on a website that encourages adulterous affairs.

Harry Potter, a barrister specialising in obscenity cases was quoted as saying: ‘Having viewed the material, it does not in my opinion fall foul of the law as constituting extreme pornography. It is, however, undoubtedly hardcore pornography.’

The report further says that a variety of foot fetish websites – which include pornographic images of lurid sex acts involving feet – have been viewed 470 times. Another website featuring an array of pictures of naked women lying next to cats has been viewed 17 times.

According to the report, a Polish pornography website was accessed 292 times in May 2011. In the same month, a dating website was clicked on 653 times. The website boasts it is ‘dedicated to connecting fun-loving singles across the UK’.

Further shocker by the report: “A gay dating website was accessed 2,828 times in May 2011. The website states it provides a ‘platform for the gay and bisexual male and transgender community.” And here is the most bizarre news: another website that allows users to pick which MPs have ‘the most sex-appeal’ has been clicked on 12,371 times.

So, should we understand that politics and porn go hand in hand?

Wolf in sheep’s skin

It was found that an English nurse turned out to be one of the worst serial killers, Britain has ever seen. According to criminal records archives, Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, killed 400 babies in the Victorian era

In what looks like a practical adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hide, an Englishwoman fondly called the “Angel Maker” one has now emerged as Britain’s worst-ever serial killer. In a spine-chilling discovery, it was found that she brutally killed 400 babies in the Victorian era, according to criminal records from 1770 through 1934 placed online by the National Archives.

According to reports, Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, born in 1829 in Bristol, killed about 400 babies - mostly illegitimate infants - between 1880 and 1896. The killings horrified society, and the public outcry led to stronger regulations on adoption and foster care in England.

Dyer was a trained nurse and decided to be a caretaker who would look after children until they were placed in foster care or were adopted, because it was a more lucrative business. She advertised her services and got responses from desperate unwed mothers who gave their children to Dyer for a fee to place them for adoption. Greedy Dyer was quick in pocketing the fee from the mothers – mostly impoverished laborers - but never took care of the babies. Instead, she gave them an opiate drug to keep them sedated and let them starve to death, says the report.

For almost a decade Dyer continued to do her nefarious activities, but was arrested for child neglect and sentenced to six months in prison. It was then that she was believed to have realized that killing the children immediately would be easier and safer than putting them to a slow death.

After her probation period, Dyer moved to Reading, which had liberal adoption rules, and started an adoption agency. She preyed on unmarried mothers who were more than relieved to hand over their unlucky children to Dyer. Some of the mothers asked her to kill their illegitimate children while others trusted her to find their children a loving home, say reports.

Dyer reportedly strangled the babies with a dressmaking tape and threw the bodies to the River Thames. She could continue her crimes unabated as doctors at the time couldn’t differentiate a stillborn baby from one that was strangled, reports say.

She continued her ghastly crimes for about three decades until 1896, when she was arrested after scores of bodies fished out of the Thames aroused suspicion and triggered an investigation. When interrogated, Dyer confessed to the crimes.

She was sentenced to death and hanged at Newgate Prison June 10, 1896.

A princess blackmailed!

Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al Saud is not that kind to be easily mortified and cornered. Instead she has decided confront the situation boldly and to expose the matter to the public.

Princess Basmah -a Saudi Arabian princess – fell victim of a blackmail attempt involving a video of her that could anger and shock the establishment in the hardline Islamic state.

According to The Daily Mail UK, the Princess is being held to ransom by a man who plans to embarrass her with a video - if she does not pay him £320,000.

The video shows her blowing a kiss and smoking with her head uncovered - taboos in strict Saudi Arabia.

But Princess Basmah did not bow to the demands of the man, but exposed the extortion attempt on her website and through social media channels.

The London-based Princess campaigns for human rights in the kingdom. According to the report, the plot began while Princess Basmah was on holiday at Christmas at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland.

She received a message on Facebook from a man claiming to be a friend, who she refuses to name but described as a sheikh in his 30s from the United Arab Emirates. She later discovered the account had been hacked by her blackmailer.

She was quoted as saying: 'He sent me a message saying how fascinated he is by my work, how he admired my writings and how I was a hero of the Arab world.'

She continued corresponding and then had a long video conversation via the internet just after Christmas. 'He was a young man. He started getting emotional, saying he would be coming to see me and that I had to see him. He said he was very attracted to me and I started to become suspicious.'

She felt the man, who resembled the sheikh, was trying to entrap her into saying potentially embarrassing things of a sexual nature and confronted him. Her blackmailer has demanded money not to publish the contents of conversations the princess was tricked into having, as well as videos and photographs. Princess Basmah says the video was stolen from her laptop and has no sound but shows her talking to her son by Skype.

Princess Basmah is the the granddaughter of Saudi Arabia's first king and founder of the modern state, King Abdulaziz, and the 115th daughter of his son King Saud, who reigned from 1953 to 1964.

She describes herself on her website as 'a tireless advocate of peaceful but essential reform in the Kingdom and elsewhere'.