Keenan and Reuben died a long time ago
2011........ What was I doing. Enjoying, happy, careless, roaming, living life & feeling happy about it, I was so happy, was I not.
2011........ What a day it must have been for the parents of Keenan Santos and his friend Reuben Fernandez, 20 yeras old who were killed by a group of men when they tried to protect their female friends from being harassed.
2011........ What a day it must have been or an evening for the owners of Amboli Bar and Kitchen and Mohsin Khan (the steward who set out to help Keenan and Reuben). Well, they had to close down as they were shunned by the so-called-community of locals.
2011....... What a day it must have been for Avinash Bali. For he was a prime witness and also a dead man soon enough. What a day!!!
2011....... What an evening it must have been for Priyanka Fernandes. A friend of Keenan, she said this "Keenan was fighting for his life on my lap, trying to speak to me, and I was not able to do anything. At that point of time I was numb and helpless. Seeing the one I love dying in front of me n not being able to do anything still kills me from inside". How can we as a nation, when we are staring down Pakistan and trying to be all Popeye and strong and all forget this incident. AN incident when all of what is left of humanity was lost forever and all we were left with was the desperate eyes of Priyanka who could not believe what happened to her almost perfect life. How will it ever matter that the perpetrators will be convicted, will go to jail and will die one day. How will it matter to her when her loved one died and all that was ceteris paribus in life had ceased to exist. Can I show my face to her ever, even though it has been 8 years since they died and she may not even know who I am. Will I ever be able to show my face to her or to Shilpa Mittal whose brother died one fine Delhi evening. How do I justify this to anyone, how do I justify it to myself.
2011....... What an evening for Jitendra Rana, Sunil Both, Satish Durgaj and Deepak Piswal. I guess that they must have seen photos of Keenan and Reuben and seen that they were happy souls and must have thought that this wrong and they cannot be this happy. Or they must have been offended that their masculinity had been challenged. Or they must have been purely some angry young men. Or perhaps, they were were offended that they could not be as nice as Reuben and Keenan. Or what........... I fail to understand. Maybe, they were the initial seeds of a new India where we are offended at everything, where everything irritates us.... where we we feel challenged and where we need to prove a point. I wonder that now, whether Mr. Rana will really be able to justify why he managed to destroy about 10 families of Bombay without any reason. But, I really wonder whether he will answer me...
2011...... What a night it was Mumbai/Bombay. The city. Keenan and Reuben lived nearby where they died, they were killed by team of 17 people, 50 people were standing when it happened and no one did anything... Why Valerian Uncle, why Priyanka.. you know... why... because it did not happen to them,,,,, because we are Indians,,, because we are humans, because my family was safe and it does not matter what happened to Keenan and Reuben as long it did not happen to us. Because your Bombay is an illusion. Because they should have left for Europe much earlier and been happier there. Because, we are and never have been humans.
2011...... What a night it was for a neglected CCTV camera. 2011 was still early days for the CCTV era and Amboli Bar owners must have been really rich for they did have several of them. But none of them worked and none of them recorded. And none of them performed their duty. Maybe, they should have been dismissed the next day. And Mohsin Khan along with them.
And again... 2011.... must have been a strange year for Priyanka. She died and never a moment after that did she ever become the old Priyanka ever. And Valerian Santos would have been shattered beyond what words can dare to describe and yet has the father's resilience to fight the war. Sir, I am so sorry for all of this.
2011....... There I was. Happy. What if I was there. I have always thought of that. What would I have done. Would I faced the knives as easily as Keenan and Reuben. Would I have been a man that my mother always taught me to be...
2011........ What a day it must have been for the parents of Keenan Santos and his friend Reuben Fernandez, 20 yeras old who were killed by a group of men when they tried to protect their female friends from being harassed.
2011........ What a day it must have been or an evening for the owners of Amboli Bar and Kitchen and Mohsin Khan (the steward who set out to help Keenan and Reuben). Well, they had to close down as they were shunned by the so-called-community of locals.
2011....... What an evening it must have been for Priyanka Fernandes. A friend of Keenan, she said this "Keenan was fighting for his life on my lap, trying to speak to me, and I was not able to do anything. At that point of time I was numb and helpless. Seeing the one I love dying in front of me n not being able to do anything still kills me from inside". How can we as a nation, when we are staring down Pakistan and trying to be all Popeye and strong and all forget this incident. AN incident when all of what is left of humanity was lost forever and all we were left with was the desperate eyes of Priyanka who could not believe what happened to her almost perfect life. How will it ever matter that the perpetrators will be convicted, will go to jail and will die one day. How will it matter to her when her loved one died and all that was ceteris paribus in life had ceased to exist. Can I show my face to her ever, even though it has been 8 years since they died and she may not even know who I am. Will I ever be able to show my face to her or to Shilpa Mittal whose brother died one fine Delhi evening. How do I justify this to anyone, how do I justify it to myself.
2011....... What an evening for Jitendra Rana, Sunil Both, Satish Durgaj and Deepak Piswal. I guess that they must have seen photos of Keenan and Reuben and seen that they were happy souls and must have thought that this wrong and they cannot be this happy. Or they must have been offended that their masculinity had been challenged. Or they must have been purely some angry young men. Or perhaps, they were were offended that they could not be as nice as Reuben and Keenan. Or what........... I fail to understand. Maybe, they were the initial seeds of a new India where we are offended at everything, where everything irritates us.... where we we feel challenged and where we need to prove a point. I wonder that now, whether Mr. Rana will really be able to justify why he managed to destroy about 10 families of Bombay without any reason. But, I really wonder whether he will answer me...
2011...... What a night it was Mumbai/Bombay. The city. Keenan and Reuben lived nearby where they died, they were killed by team of 17 people, 50 people were standing when it happened and no one did anything... Why Valerian Uncle, why Priyanka.. you know... why... because it did not happen to them,,,,, because we are Indians,,, because we are humans, because my family was safe and it does not matter what happened to Keenan and Reuben as long it did not happen to us. Because your Bombay is an illusion. Because they should have left for Europe much earlier and been happier there. Because, we are and never have been humans.
2011...... What a night it was for a neglected CCTV camera. 2011 was still early days for the CCTV era and Amboli Bar owners must have been really rich for they did have several of them. But none of them worked and none of them recorded. And none of them performed their duty. Maybe, they should have been dismissed the next day. And Mohsin Khan along with them.
And again... 2011.... must have been a strange year for Priyanka. She died and never a moment after that did she ever become the old Priyanka ever. And Valerian Santos would have been shattered beyond what words can dare to describe and yet has the father's resilience to fight the war. Sir, I am so sorry for all of this.
2011....... There I was. Happy. What if I was there. I have always thought of that. What would I have done. Would I faced the knives as easily as Keenan and Reuben. Would I have been a man that my mother always taught me to be...
