Ode to the dark

Not many appreciate the beauty in darkness

In reality she is more beautiful than light

Her magic lies in her endless expanse

Like long hair, the depth of the night

She is mother to more than just fear

Creatures nocturnal roam about here

Thieves and murderers hold her dear

Without her, light cannot adhere

Not many appreciate the beauty in darkness

In reality she is more beautiful than light

Shreerag

Ramayana and the Illiad - a continuation of the comparison

Last year i wrote a comparison between two of the greatest epics in history, the Ramayana and the Illiad. I'll link it here so I don't have to go through the points again.

http://epicmakers.blogspot.com/2010/01/illiad-and-ramayana.html

In going through that post again I found i left out the biggest point of similarity in the epics - the reason for it all. To understand my statement, we will need to look back at a little of the mythology involved in both epics. Lets start with the Illiad.

The Illiad is a magnificent piece of literature that is set in the time of Greek gods and more importantly, towards the end of the popularity of Greek gods. The Greek gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades were getting worried about the rising number of heroes and demi-gods (which is completely their fault). So they devise a plan to trigger a war that will reduce this alarming number of unnatural population. With a reduced population of Greek heroes, it gave a rise to the popularity of Roman gods, which are merely warlike clones of the Greek gods themselves.

The Ramayana is regarded as among India's greatest gifts to mankind. At the beginning of Ramayana is Ravan, the great king of Rakshasas and conqueror of all known realms. Here too there was a rise in an unnatural population, namely the Rakshasas. The gods, scared for their places in heaven, as usual run to Vishnu who devises a plan to completely destroy the entire Rakhsasa population with one careful constructed war.

Both had the higher purpose of eradicating a growing unnecessary and most probably dangerous population.

Again I'm no conspirator or mythologist. Just a person who noticed these few similarities and wanted to tell the world. A special thank you to Nayantara Gupta for making me think and realise this last similarity, which by far is to me the most interesting.

Man(iac) Kind

On fellow man

Had we trust

That too has gone

Up in dust

Look around you,

Lives are being taken

Time has come

For us to reawaken

Spared has violence

Not one!

People, oh People!

What have we done!

A father kills

His own daughter

Reduced has the world

To a house of slaughter

What can I do

I ask

Changing the world

Has become a Herculean task

I cannot help

But weep

I want to go into

Eternal sleep

I am not ashamed

To say

In this world,

I am afraid to stay

 - Shreerag

Arguments and comebacks that one would normally find being used by teenagers

1)      The comeback that makes no sense but insults the crap out of you: The guy with the comeback has nothing substantial to say that is related to the argument and instead insults the crap out of the other guy. This normally works as people are retarded enough to believe that an argument is won just by letting lose barrage of profanities.

EXAMPLE:  

Guy 1: dude, Manchester United played like shit yesterday. Their defense tactics were seriously messed up.

Guy 2 (die hard Manchester united fan whose world starts and ends with MAN U .) : U BLODDY PRICK , GOOD FOR NOTHING SHITBAG , I’M GONNA  SMASH YOUR FACE TO PULP SO BAD THAT EVEN YOUR MOMMA IS NOT GONNA RECOGNIZE YOU! MOFO !

Guy 3(random onlooker): guy1 got owned so bad!

2)      The comeback which is nothing but what you just said.:

EXAMPLE:

Guy 1: dude! You are such a bas***d

Guy2 : YEAH ! ,you know what. You..you…YOU are the bas***d. HA!

Guy1: WTF.

3)      The comeback that makes use of your past embarrassing moments:  Again, the guy has nothing to say and to divert attention brings back to light past moments that most people probably forgot.

EXAMPLE:

Guy1: dude! Do u have shit for brains? What kind of an ass are you to think that the earth is flat?

Guy 2: hey, remember in second grade when you crapped your pants in front of the whole class.

Surrounding people: HAHAHA!

This comeback effectively diverts people’s attention from the fact that Guy 1 is highly stupid.

4)      The Punch In The Face/Kick In The Balls: Consider yourself dumb if you need an explanation/example for this.

5)      The comeback that tries to use logic:

EXAMPLE:

Guy1: dude, Justin Bieber is gay and you’re gay for liking him.

Guy2: Shut Up!! Justin is awesome!

Guy1: you should probably marry him and live happily ever after then.

Guy2: wait , you first called me and Justin gay and now you are telling me to get married to him. Don’t you know that gay marriage is illegal! DUH! Ha! Get your facts right next time.

Guy1 uses comeback no.4

Note: comeback no.4 and no.5 go well together.

6)      The ‘YOUR MOM’ comeback: This comeback is supreme and rules over all other comebacks. The insult and shame that follows the person on whom this comeback is used is so great that he should probably never open his mouth again and just die in disgrace. Even if the guy appears to be losing an argument, by using this comeback he wins any argument however deeply buried in shit he might have been.

EXAMPLE:

Guy1:  dude, what are you doing tonight other than watching your stupid team MAN.U. lose?

Guy2 : I’m doing YOUR MOM

Guy1: You want to know who is more gay than you ?

Guy2: YOUR MOM!

Guy2: you’re such a nerd that no girl would ever sleep with you.

Guy1: last night, YOUR MOM thought so otherwise.

Adiya Rao

Herada File Part 4

“You know who killed them?” There’s no way.

“Yes. I’m not sure but I think I have it all figured out.” said the Inspector. “Round up everybody tomorrow. But before that I need to talk to talk to some people…”

Of course he told me who the killer is but, there is a time and a place for everything. Without suspense, this story would be useless. At the end of this Part, all will be revealed.

The next day was very hectic. All the people involved in the case had to be rounded up. We made them assemble in the school assembly area.

“Good morning everybody.” said the CI in his most excited voice yet. “You may wonder why I have made you assemble here on such short notice. We have solved the case.” Gasps went around.

“Yes, after careful research and many problems along the way, we have found the killer.” I said.

“Our first clue came when the forensic report showed that the time of HANGING was around 9-10 pm.” said the CI. “The actual time of death was much earlier. By the looks of it, it was around 2 hours before that. That made me wonder, why would a person kill another of his kind and wait 2 hours to set up the crime scene? But we will get to that later.”

“Alibis for all the people involved here are pretty good. Some were so good, we got suspicious.” I said. “I looked into many of the alibis and had them confirmed myself. Interestingly, the weakest of all alibis fell through. Mr. Sen, if you noticed is not present with us. His excuse of being at the bar that day has been disproved by a friend who he had payed to keep quiet. He has given a confession that it was him who hanged the boy.”

“What? He is the killer?” asked Principal Verma.

“Gill said hanged ma’am. The person who hanged the boy and the killer are two different people. Mr. Sen was merely an accomplice to murder. We figured this out by the boy’s autopsy report, which had an interesting connection with Mr. Gupta’s autopsy report. Both indicated an MO(Method Of) that with a feminine touch. Yes, our killer was a woman.” Everybody jumped.

“The hanging was done as a way to create a solid alibi for the killer. This was why Mr. Sen was involved. This got us thinking. Why would someone help out another person to this extent? Using our, uh methods, we got the answer out of him.”

“He was having an affair with the killer. Love can make us do some crazy things. Now we knew the person, but we didn’t have a motive. The whole affair thing got us thinking again, what if this was person’s first affair.”

“Mr. Gupta was a wealthy man.” I said. “What was stopping him from getting some action on the side?”

“No way, my husband was perfectly clean. He didn’t have an affair with anyone.” said Mrs. Gupta.

“That was precisely what I went into the city to investigate. I discovered that a certain someone used to live in the city till about two years ago. And true enough, Mr. Gupta had a flat rented in her name, the money for which came from his personal bank accounts.”

“Our first suspect was Ms. Das. Her ‘personal problem’ haunted us a lot. But it turned out that the problem was financial. She had lost a lot of money to a gambling vice. Ms. Das and Principal Verma were discussing how to get her out of this habit that day. If you had told us this before, you wouldn’t have been our prime suspect.”

“Sorry about that, I didn’t want anybody finding out about that little incident.” said Ms Das.

“Well, we all have our own vices ma’am. But that shouldn’t stop you from withholding information from an ongoing murder investigation. This little piece of information was very significant as, if we hadn’t gone behind it, we wouldn’t have cracked the case.”

“What do you mean?” asked Ms. Das.

“Alibis in this case were pretty weak. Providing alibi for a murder is a hard thing to do. But your discussion served its purpose didn’t it, Ms. Verma?” Everybody’s eyes faced the Principal.

“What?” asked the Principal.

“Discussing personal problems gave you the perfect cover for the time of hanging didn’t it Ms. Verma? Yes, Principal Verma is our esteemed killer.”

“What proof do you have?”

“Ah!” I said. “So you’re not denying it then?”

“Uhm, no..no of course I didn’t do it.”

“No use denying it ma’am. We have proof. You have no alibi for the time of death and a motive for murder as well as a very reliable witness. Confess to your crime and maybe the punishment would be a little less.”

“Haha…” Ms. Verma started laughing. A cold and almost psycho laugh. Her eyes had a very cruel glint. “Yes, I did it. I killed the boy and his father. The stupid fool betrayed me. He said he’ll leave his wife for me, but he just left. I was crushed, my heart wanted revenge. I calmed myself by going to therapy but when I saw Jai Gupta’s picture on the school roster, revenge consumed me once again. Killing the boy dragged HIM here. And then that stupid Mr. Sen was easy to twist around. But killing Gupta has thoroughly enjoyable.”

“The crime wouldn't have been solved if you had chosen your alibi properly, Ms. Verma. The term personal problem was what made us investigate through those lines. Your alibi during Mr. Gupta’s murder was very week. Carelessness lost you a perfect crime. Take her away Gill.”

Ms. Verma was sent sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with no chance for parole. After that life became boring again.

Killer’s Mind:

My reasons may not have been the most justified, but I did what I had to do. There are no justifiable causes for murder – except to save the innocent. I hope my story taught you something. Killing never solves anything.

Yeah right, although murder never goes unpunished, it has its own rewards. I would have been driven insane(although I’m there already, I guess) if I hadn’t killed that man.

Who knows…maybe I can commit another one!

THE END

Herada File - Part 3

Note to readers:

I’m very sorry about the delay but I got tied up in exams and stuff. Please forgive me and continue to read the blog. No more delays expected. This part of the story is dedicated to a few people: Aishwarya Parthasarathy, who claims to be my fan and was the first one to read my story and Shweta Daryani, who helped me in some other writing ventures and actually took the time out to read this story. I would also like to thank everyone who read the other two parts and hope you all enjoy this one. Now on to the story………………….

 SI Gill:

Today is shaping up to be exciting. A father and a son murdered. I wonder who it is? My superior most probably has no clue as to who it is, not that I do of course.

“What do you think, sir?” I said in the car on the way over to the crime scene. “Any suspects?”

“All are suspects, Gill. No one can be narrowed down. Although all have alibis, I’m still very suspicious.”

“Not all alibis check out….”

“Exactly.”

By the time we arrived the crime scene, everybody was there already. That too everyone was in the room where the crime took place! Word of advice from a trained professional : Crime scenes are to be dealt with by police, all non-police are burdens who destroy evidence.

“Whats everybody doing in this room?” I asked. “Doesn’t anybody know that crime scenes should be left to the professionals?”

“Sorry sir.” Said the Principal.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Verma.” Said the CI.

“Actually it’s Ms. Verma, I’m not married.”

“Really?” was that a smile on his face?

“Sir, a dead body.”

“Yes, yes. Looks all clear to me. Stab to the neck. Looks like our killer has a fondness to the neck.”

“What makes you think this is the same guy?” asked Mr. Sen.

“Just a guess. By the way, where were you when this happened Mrs. Gupta?” asked the CI.

“I was with Principal Verma looking at all the old photos of Jai.”

Great now we will have to make the whole alibi list again. Its going to fall on my head only I’m sure.

“Yes, thank you. Ms. Verma, where are the students that are supposed to be residing in this hostel?” asked the CI.

“I told them to stay in their rooms.”

“Good thinking. No reason in giving them nightmares about a crime scene.” Apparently this guy doesn’t know about this generation…. “Tomorrow we will have to take a whole new batch of interviews. This time it will be conducted by Gill alone.”

“What?” I asked. This guy is mad. “Why what are you doing?”

“I have to go to the city and conduct some research. Don’t worry you can handle it here.”

Sure leave me to do the boring interviews while you go frolicking in the city. What an exciting day tomorrow is going to be.

Interviews started and ended as usual. Many anomalies were detected as all the facts were not as given. The principal again refused to cooperate on the whole personal problem concerning Ms. Das. The final conclusions drawn were:

1.      1. People living at the hostel all had alibis for both murders. Some were very suspicious and others were too clean.

2.      2. Personal problem between Ms. Das and Mrs. Verma is still shrouded in mystery.

3.      3. After interview with Jai’s friends, it was found that he was not very liked. According to them, he was very pompous and rude. But this doesn’t qualify for a motive for murder.

4.      4. Relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Gupta was, as much as to her opinion, not that bad. He was a very hard worker and didn’t come home till late 10.

5.      5. Mr. Gupta owned a very successful business in the city by the name of Gupta Exporters Inc. The business could have resulted in many enemies, who could have easily snuck in and killed off the both of them.

By the time my interviews were done, the CI had returned. I asked what the hell he was doing leaving me to those boring interviews…..okay maybe not in those exact words…

“Hello sir. How was the city? Found anything interesting?” ok I’m a bit of a suck up.

“Yes, you can say that. I’m not that sure yet, but I think I know who the killer is……”

Killer’s Mind:

They say in death, all questions are answered. I hope those two got their questions answered. Many may think I had no valid reason for killing a child but then again, who needs a valid reason? The boy was a mere causality on my path to redemption. My only objective for killing the boy was to attract his father to this place. The blade I had reserved for him was thirsty. My inner thirst only grew when I saw the name of the father in the parent’s registry. Plan was set, time was now. No looking back.

The Herada File - Part 2

SI Gill:

“What?! Why do you say that?” asked Principal Verma.

“Gill, why don’t you take this one.” said the CI.

“Okay. Have you ever seen a suicide victim? Have anyone seen for that matter”

“No.” they all said in chorus. I find this very weird. I mean a school staff and all……

“Anyway, when a person is hanged vertically, the mark on the neck will indicate it. The marks will go upwards in a V-shape. But here…..”

“The marks are horizontal!” said, surprisingly, Ms. Das.

“Yes.” said the CI. “It was almost as if someone came from behind, put a rope around his neck and strangled the life out of him.”

“Oh my God! This is great! Just great! Just what I need.” Said Verma looking sarcastic(I should know). “The school’s reputation, which I spent years making…..poof!”

I don’t understand how she is taking this so angrily for? I mean this could result in a lot of publicity. I would be overjoyed if anything like this happened in my school…ok now I’m just being insensitive.

“Calm down ma’am.” I said. “Sir, do we need to release this to the press yet?”

“Uh, what? No not yet. Declare a holiday in school….” He paused as though something had hit him hard. He finally looked sort of interested.”But wait today is a holiday, isn’t it? In fact the next few days are holidays. Dussehra, I believe. Why doesn’t that strike me as a coincidence?”

“You think this was deliberately committed on this day?” I asked.

“I do. Suspicious isn’t it? Three days of holiday for Dussehra and then the weekend totally 5 days and on the second of those holidays a murder. Why was the victim here in the first place?”

“He had a special class. Some of his friends and him are participating in the Robotics competition and they stayed back to build the robot.” said Mr. Sen. Finally one of those teachers talk. Mrs. Das still looked nauseous.

“Okay. Now Gill, call the forensics dept. and the coroners. Tell them it’s urgent.”

“Yes sir.” I said and took out my mobile.

“Sir” started Principal Verma “should I inform the parents?”

“You haven’t done that yet? Please go tell them to come immediately. Oh yeah, Mrs. Verma, I’ll need to conduct some interviews with you, your staff and some of the victim’s friends. Is that going to be a problem?” asked the CI.

“No problem. Do you want to start now or….?”

“No, not now. First the forensic department has to examine the crime scene. Did you call them Gill?”

“I think they’ll get here in about 5 minutes.”

The forensic department like all police departments in India arrived 20 minutes late. There search was pretty routine and didn’t find anything new. Preliminary reports of the coroner confirmed our theory about murder. The coroner also put the time of death to be approximately between 9 to 10 yesterday night. The body was sent to the morgue for autopsy right after the arrival of the parents.

Interviews began with a bang. The most boring part of my job is nothing but interviews. People say the most minor things in interviews (like what they had for lunch, I mean why would anyone want to know that?). A good officer can take out the unnecessary details and bring out the clean hard facts. Sometimes it’s the most minor of things that get a killer caught.

I’m not going to bore you with the whole interviews that took place but I will give the details in a very organized form as I had to write in my report. The first to be interviewed was the janitor Mr. Qureshi, then the Principal, the two teachers, the parents and finally the three students who stayed back to build their robot.

Name: Jalaludin Qureshi

Occupation: Janitor

Relation to victim: None

Age: 52

Alibi: Left school at 5 after Ms. Das asked him to leave the robotics team alone. During the time of murder, suspect was at home with wife and children. Goes to bed around 9:30 and wife can confirm.

Notes: Could have snuck out at 9:30 and come in again.

Name: Girija Verma

Occupation: Principal

Relation to victim: None

Age: 45

Alibi: Was in the school till 4. Goes to bed at 10:30 sharp due to military habits taught by father. Was with Ms. Das discussing some personal issues till 10. Alibi confirmed.

Notes: Very reluctant about ‘personal issues’ talk with Ms. Das.

Name: Achintakumar Sen

Occupation: Mathematics Teacher

Relation to victim: Class Teacher

Age: 38

Alibi: Left school at 4 and went home. Was in Herdy’s Bar from 7 till 11. Witnesses found for presence. Alibi confirmed.

Notes: Very easy to escape from a bar, with all the drunks around.

Name: Kritika Das

Occupation: Physics Teacher

Relation to victim: Robotics Advisor

Age: 32

Alibi: Left school at 6. Presumably one of the last to see the victim alive. From 9 to 10 was with Mrs. Verma discussing ‘personal problems’. Alibi confirmed.

Notes: Even after persuasion did not say what ‘personal issues’ were.

By the time we finished those interviews, it was already 4 in the evening. CI was getting bored and nothing new had come out of the suspects except the whole ‘personal issue’ thing. I wonder what it was? All of them had acceptable alibis. Mr. Sen’s was the only one that worried me. We still had the parents and the friends left.

“Sir don’t you think it’s time we wrapped things up here?” I suggested when I caught him looking at the clock.

“You read my mind. I guess we should say goodbye to the Principal then.” Said the CI. Was it just me or was the CI taking a special interest to the Principal? Mrs. Verma was waiting outside the classroom we were using for interviews.

“Inspector! I’ll send the next person….” started Verma.

“That will be all for today Mrs Verma. We will continue tomorrow. Have sleeping arrangements been made for the parents?” asked the CI.

“Yes. They are staying at the hostel.”

“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow then. Bye!”

“I’ll see you to the door.”

“Thank you. Come along Gill we have a lot of work to do. Filling and all.”

“Yes sir.” I said. I don’t think you should know what I thought!

Killer’s Mind:

The detectives are good. They found out it was not a suicide so fast. Well, everything can’t go as and how you plan can it? But at least the parents came. That part played out exactly as planned. I’ve waited for so long now I can have revenge.

Thankfully the better half of the couple was with the teachers admiring photos of the dead boy. I am ready. Poised to strike. Knife in my hand. I had thought to myself that there was no point in making it look like a suicide since…well…the boy’s murder was caught so easily. How could I be so careless. Hours of planning all gone to waste! But what is done is done. Time to find my peace.

Look at that! Son has just been killed and my victim is playing on a laptop. Typical. Good for me, back is turned. I entered the room carefully lifted the knife and thrust it to the victim’s throat. Only one word escaped…. “You?!” Yes, me.

SI Gill:

Paperwork is such a drag. I can’t believe that CI left me to do this all alone. Huh? Who phones at this late hour…oh its only 8 o’clock.

“Hello?” I said in a very unprofessional sleepy voice. What do you expect from a guy who has been filling for three hours…

“This is Principal Verma. There’s been an incident….again!” I’m trying to remember a time when I picked up a phone and it wasn’t her!

 “Again? What happened?”

“Mr. Gupta was, uh murdered!”

To be continued…………………………………………………..