Mahalakshmipura Police makes me proud!

I had the most amazing experience recently that strengthened my belief that there is some good left in this world yet. 

Early into the morning a few days ago, I realized that my iPhone had been stolen. I suspected a kid who used to visit us often and ask to do some odd jobs for some pocket money. As he was a familiar sight in the neighborhood, he has a free run of all the homes in the vicinity. My suspicion was confirmed when the 'Find my iPhone App' indicated that the phone was in the vicinity of this boys' home. I approached the Mahalakshmipura Police with this information and the phone was in my possession before the end of the day! Awesome Police Work! 

What really made this a happy-happy-happy day was the way this juvenile offender was treated. I was worried that he would face the strong-arm treatment and suffer a lot of trauma. Surprisingly, all the officers and staff were totally conscious of the fact that he was and underage offender, and made all efforts to treat him with compassion and understanding. Finally releasing him to the custody of an adult relative. I was happy to write them a Letter of Appreciation commending them for their sensitivity, and I hope that all police stations in the country will be as humane and professional. 

Proud to be a resident of Mahalakshmipura! I am happy to reproduce that letter below: 

In a similar vein, I should not forget Apple! What a brilliant product! You guys really made my year!! Congratulations to the entire team of designers at Apple Inc. Worth every buck I paid. 

LETTER OF APPRECIATION 

I write this letter with much pleasure and satisfaction to record my sincere and heartfelt appreciation to Inspector Kumaraswamy and his team of Offices and Staff of Mahalakshmipura Police Station Bangalore for the excellent job done in locating my iPhone in just a couple of hours. 

As you may recall, I had suspected a young boy of the theft as he used to frequent our house very often and hence had free access to the house. My suspicion was confirmed by the iPhone locator application, which indicated that the phone was located in the vicinity of that boys’ house, hence permitting the recovery of the same in no time at all. 

This was great police work, no doubt, but I write this letter to bring everyone’s attention to another issue. As this boy was a minor, I was quite concerned as how he would be treated when he was found to have committed the theft, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised to note that the views of virtually everyone in the Mahalakshmipura Police Station was that he should not be subjected to a harsh experience, and hence he was to be treated as a juvenile offender and handled in a very humane and sensitive manner. 

This is indicative of the sensitivity of the entire station to the rights of underage offenders and the approach was one of ‘counsel’ instead of ‘punish’. I really appreciate this approach of yours and I hope you will be held up as a good example of Police Sensitivity and the same will be practiced in every police station in the country. 

Do keep up the good work. 

Thanking You, 

Yours Sincerely, 

Hemanth Sharma 

Are Indians oversensitive to satire? The Assam Rape Festival

Recently on Facebook, a very good lady friend of mine from Malaysia shared an article posted in the National Report, titled “The Assam Rape Festival in India begins this week” http://nationalreport.net/assam-rape-festival-india-begins-week/ which spoke of a festival that dates back to the year 43 BC, wherein all the men in a village in Assam chase down and rape every girl in the village to exorcise their demons! 

To be honest, to begin with I too read the article with a lot of concern and decided that I need to learn more about this barbaric festival, when I started noticing some cultural inconsistencies and realized that this was a hoax. Unfortunately, many of the other readers were readily fooled by the mock seriousness of the article and had posted comments that were very critical of India and its customs. The indignation of some of the commenter’s was quite funny to me as I was ‘in on the secret’, but I felt that it was necessary for me to write to the site and put things in perspective. My comment to the site is reproduced below: 

 This article is a work of satire. It is as true as the next article in the series “The Great American Mass Shooting Festival Begins Next Week (Response from India) - See more at : http://nationalreport.net/great-american-mass-shooting-festival-begins-next-week-response-india/, which should be billed as The Great American Mass Killing Jamboree”, perhaps a more 'American' term. Even the section in which it is posted - 'Entertainment' is a dead giveaway. Poorly researched – the names used of the so called protagonists are not even culturally accurate. Not particularly funny too, one must add, but surely we need to thank this author, as all Indians really need to wake up to the problem of violence against women. Rapes do happen in India and happen too often for us to be complacent anymore. One can argue that out of a population of 1.2 billion, there will always be a few bad eggs, but that is a specious argument that we should not hide behind any longer. Many political parties and the media are constantly lobbying for stricter laws and the sensitization of the police and society at large, to make rape an unacceptable criminal act, which will be dealt with an iron fist, and each and every Indian must support such forces. 

The lady friend of mine from Malaysia, who I spoke about earlier, wrote to me and asked me if this festival news was true. My response: “Not a chance. Rape is punishable with life imprisonment. We do hear a lot of rapes taking place but they are on account of individual depravity and not some institutional or cultural sanction. India has a 5000 year old history of civilization and one of the safest places on earth.” 

What really surprises, are the indignant and sometimes vituperative reactions from some gullible readers who were fooled into thinking this article to be true. One is shocked to see how many people are ready to believe the worst of a country like India, which has been a beacon of non-violence, philosophy and ethics since thousands of years and was the cradle that gave birth to people like Gautam Buddha, Mahaveera, Mahatma Gandhi and millions of lesser known personages of the human endeavor story. 

I also read in the news today, that this article has stirred up a major controversy with the story sparking widespread protests among the people in Assam, who say it has tarnished the image of the state. I’m also shocked to learn from Yahoo News that “The Assam Criminal Investigation Department has registered a suo-motu case against the website for posting the "defamatory" article. CID Additional Superintendent of Police Nirmal Baishya said that investigations have revealed that the article was sourced from Uganda and the website is hosted in Houston in the US”. Surely a gross overreaction, I would think. 

The best response to this article was from the internet troll, Frappy the Anti-Masturbation Dolphin - "There better not be any masturbation at the festival." That is the level of seriousness that it deserves!