The buck doesn’t stop here..

it dies a silent death at the hands of #%#*@ like Salman Khan

Media circus will soon descend on the city after a long time.. after the Brangelina episode I guess. This time the reason is, perhaps the ‘most famous and most talked’ about accused of the 1993 Bombay blasts case, film star Sanjay Dutt. He has been shifted to a jail here, which is just a few kms from my office, from Mumbai for security reasons. My mom and I were having a debatable discussion whether the punishment meted out to him (6 yrs RI) was correct. Mom was of the opinion that he should have been released on probation for his exemplary behaviour while I said that it was a good judgement which would set a high standard for the judiciary. Here is my take on the whole fracas over his imprisonment..

Rarely do Bollywood stars get punished for their crimes (note that I am not calling all Bollywood stars criminals but you are mature enough to get the hint) and this seems to have made the stars comfortable to go on committing ‘mistakes’ and go unpunished like many politicians & influential people and their kith and kin. Sanjay Dutt has confessed to having friendship with some of the big names of the underworld mafia and possessing gun/s so it would have been very unfair to all those who are convicted and sentenced & especially the victims of the blasts and their families, to let him go scot-free even after the confessions. Regarding the point that the 6 years punishment is huge, yes I agree that it does seem big when you compare it to other movie stars like Salman Khan (running his vehicle over people on road while driving in an inebriated condition and shooting endangered species of black buck) and Fardeen Khan (possessing drugs in person) who were simply let off or the case is still pending? The masses are defending Sanjay Dutt saying he is a messiah of peace and goodwill now after his on-screen character Munnabhai has topped charts and he is spreading Mahatma Gandhi’s message of non-violence across the world with his movies. Excuse me but he was paid for enacting that character and a reel character is different from a real person so one cannot pardon him for his good roles. I believe that it is appropriate that he got sentenced for the crime he committed.. regarding the term of imprisonment I am not a lawyer to know intricacies of how long a convict should serve for the crimes so won’t comment on that.

Today I got my hands on the CAT (the exam which I would be giving for admission to MBA course) form after a frantic run from branch to branch of UTI bank. For the last 3 days not a single employee of the bank (they have the rights to sell the forms) was aware when the new set of forms would be available after the earlier stock got exhausted. Last year the form was available online but this year they don’t even have it online. What a shame that the premier management institutions which are compared with the Stanfords’ and Harvards’ don’t have the basic form online. I had to wait for almost one and half hour in a queue to get the form which I think sucks especially when last time I had filled it online. In the last few days I saw hundreds of students waiting for the forms and no one to give an answer as when they will be available. Who is to be held responsible?

I had a fight with the seniors (management) in the company when they expelled 8 junior people for ‘non-performance’ even after their team leads had rated them well in their performance. The HR person and my project manager said that they couldn’t do anything for them and can’t do anything either coz it is not in their hands to argue with the top rungs of the hierarchy. Then why the hell are you in that position? If you can’t fight for your people then what a wasted life you are living. I had a meeting with the senior project manager where I got a letter of promotion and he asked what suggestions I would like to give. I told him that I am really disappointed with the administration and I won’t be giving any suggestions coz they are never considered and just for formality we are being asked about those. Why I am still in this company.. I have some reasons to stay back but the fiscal year 2007-08 would be my last here is a sure thing. I hate people who can only accept appreciation and not digest criticism and accept blame.

Mr. Truman, sorry but the buck doesn’t stop anywhere.