Saturday, May 24, 2008

Story Behind Arushi Murder--By times of india

The shocking murder of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar in Noida has all the ingredients of a classic whodunit.

In the week following her death, it seems, an entire nation – the police, the media, and even the neighbourhood where the Talwars reside, has become obsessed with solving the crime. Suggestions and plausible conspiracy theories and motives are pouring in from well-meaning and concerned citizens. And justifiably so. No one wants to have a killer lurking outside the window.Or worse still, in the confines of our ‘respectable’, ‘safe’ middle class homes.

Sadly, it is these very ‘respectable’ and quite ‘ordinary’ middle class homes that are breeding crime. Crimes of passion, frustration, envy, hate or honour. As the Senior Superintendent of Police (Noida) A Satheesh Ganesh stated in a media briefing: "In a flat where only four people live..., there are reasons for "extreme hatred or frustration. There is a possibility of honour killing." In Aarushi’s case, the fact that suspicion is pointing its ugly finger towards the Talwars is a chilling reminder of this. It forces us to look beneath the veneer of respectability and filial bond and ask: Could the Talwars have really killed their daughter?

Maybe so. Difficult as it may be to believe, Dr Rakesh Talwar, the victim’s father has apparently been arrested for the crime even as this story was being written. While authorities decipher the motive, the very fact that the question has been raised only shows that times have changed, and so have relationships.

Take the case of Mumbai-based TV producer Neeraj Grover who was brutally hacked to pieces just days after Aarushi’s death. The reason: a three-way love story that turned macabre. The culprits: A girl called Maria Monica Susayraj, who had been dating Neeraj and her boyfriend, Lt Jerome Mathew. While both Maria and Mathew have been remanded to police custody we ask: What could have driven Maria and Mathew to take a life so mercilessly?

You may well ask: What’s the big deal about these two incidents? After all, hasn’t history been witness to similar crimes since biblical times? That may well be so but not in the guise of so-called middle class respectability. The fact that both the murders were committed in upwardly mobile urban homes makes you wonder where we are headed. The brutality with which both Aarushi and Grover were killed has brought out the ugly side of relationships in urban India. “It is unfortunate and heartrending to hear such stories and to know that it is becoming a reality in today’s world. Change in lifestyle - change in culture, societal values, mindset, attitude all have their own characteristic role to play. Today with growing competition, changing priorities people seem to have been desensitized to softer aspects of life such as compassion, care, love, empathy which is why we see and hear of such horrific tales,” says leading psychiatrist Dr. Sanjay Chugh, founder chairman of the International Institute of Mental Health.

Horrific tales and times, where human life, no matter if it is your own child or closest friend, has never been so cheap. Where materialism and self-gratification are a priority over relationships. As Dr. Chugh says: “The 'I' is domineering and walking all over the 'We' and ‘Us.' People seem to have become so egocentric that they fail to look at other's rights and choices and forget where to draw that line! They would make or break relationships purely out of convenience, caring little about its impact on those who might be directly and/or indirectly related to it.”

“If at an individual level you have your fundamentals in place, your environment would have little power to affect you/influence you.” What are these fundamentals? For one, tolerance. Tolerance to situations, to people, and to the world around us. Sadly, intolerance is a fallout of this ‘I, me, myself’ attitude, which is pushing us to perpetuate barbaric acts of violence on those close to us. Where is it all leading to? A society where it is so easy to walk away with murder. Scary.

We can continue debating on who or what really killed Aarushi, or Grover for that matter. We can dedicate more column space and prime time slots to the wonderful people that they were. But the fact of the matter is that they are gone. And nothing that you or I can at this point do or say that will bring them back. What we can do is take a deep, deep look within and ask: Are we really safe behind the four walls of our middle class homes and it’s aspirations?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Based on the publicly available information thus far, it's not clear to me whether the Talwar case is a dishonor killing case.

But I hope justice is served.

Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"