Of Friends & Frauds

I have a major grouse to air on the blog today and it concerns my best friend turned fraud.
And its now time to name and shame and its none other than…

HRH (alleged) Prabir S J B Rana.

Prabir during his Coronation... oops Wedding rituals

The lazy bum that he always was, has now resorted to an original method to not reply to mails.

He just claims he is not receiving them at all. Period!

The address is the same and everyone else’s mail seem to reach him at the same address but somehow my mails go missing into cyberspace. Close Encounters of the Third Kind anyone??

So hopefully he still has access to the internet and will be able to read this blog.

His wife meanwhile does manage to write a few bitchy lines once in a while but I am terribly worried about her.

When I met her during the wedding she & myself got along fabulously and she is quite a cracker of a girl (as opposed to Prabir who needs to take his 40 winks almost 80 times during the day) and her best quality seems to be her ability to call a spade a spade.

Lately however she is changing and getting menacingly materialistic.

However in her defense, she does like to mention to almost everyone else, that unlike us, she does have a child, a job, a hubby etc to take care of. And to buy shoes too.

Yeah! And the rest of us are just sitting idle underneath coconut trees typing out mails to friends and trying to keep in touch.

I think the problem is that she is suffering from the Brook Shields syndrome.

You know.... post-partum depression and all that jazz.

Just hope she does not end up hurting her hubby, who apparently has begun to spout new tufts of hair and a hint of a belly.

Wonder what ‘cream’ he is using and licking? Tsk Tsk

By the way the couple had sent a recent pic of the baby. Cutie Patootie! But why was there the need to disturb the little guy's sleep and distort his little fingers and make him look like an Ozzy fan. (see below)

Child Welfare anyone???

Talking about frauds…

Her work has endured for two centuries, sold in its millions and inspired countless film and television adaptations. But would Jane Austen be able to find a publisher and an agent today?

A cheeky experiment by an Austen enthusiast suggests not.

David Lassman, the director of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath decided to find out what sort of reception the writer might get if she approached publishers and agents in the age of Harry Potter and the airport blockbuster.

After making only minor changes, he sent off opening chapters and plot synopses to 18 of the UK's biggest publishers and agents. He was amazed when they all sent the manuscripts back with polite but firm "no-thank-you's" and almost all failed to spot that he was ripping off one of the world's most famous literary figures.

Bloomsbury, publisher of the Harry Potter books, for instance, suggested the chapters had been read "with interest" but were not "suited to our list".

Then he played his trump card, sending off Pride and Prejudice, calling it First Impressions. The names of the main characters and places were changed, but with no great guile.

Mr Bennet became Mr Barnett while the estate Netherfield becomes Weatherfield, and he did not change the opening line, one of the most famous in world literature:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

Still the deception was not spotted and the rejection letters thudded on to Mr Lassman's doormat, most notably one from Penguin. Its letter read: "Thank you for your recent letter and chapters from your book First Impressions. It seems like a really original and interesting read."

Only one person appeared to have spotted the deception. His reply read: "Thank-you for sending us the first two chapters of First Impressions; my first impression on reading these were ones of disbelief and mild annoyance, along, of course, with a moment's laughter. I suggest you reach for your copy of Pride and Prejudice, which I'd guess lives in close proximity to your typewriter, and make sure that your opening pages don't too closely mimic that book's opening."

Our alleged HRH would probably feel right at home with some of these publishers.

Continuing with the frauds….

Almost all of you must be aware, by now, of the fate of the Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt who was sentenced to 6 years rigorous imprisonment.

I am a big fan of Bollywood and would personally love it if the Supreme Court granted him bail tomorrow but at the same time you have to marvel at the Indian judicial system.

The old adage about the windmills of the gods churning slow but exceedingly fine probably best sums up the Indian system.

The whole idea about the jail system should be to make the culprits reform, repent and not repeat the same again.

It should not be incarceration for the sake of incarceration

By that measure Sanjay has not only been reformed and repented but there is no way he is ever going to repeat the same again. So what does society gain by imprisoning him.

If making him an example is the idea then it would be better served by making him use his popularity to inform & educate the aimless youth of the country against making similar foolish mistakes.

But coming back to the much reviled Indian Judicial System, just look at the facts.

Sanjay, one of the richest of actors, had access to the best legal representation money could buy. His mother was the first lady of Indian Cinema. His late father was not just a 6 term Member or Parliament (elected mind you, not nominated like the 2 Jaya’s and a Hema currently wasting time in Delhi) he was also much revered for his charity and social work even from his political opponents. Sanjay’s sister Priya, is a sitting Member of Parliament. Her party is in power in both the center as well as the state where the trial was held.

And yet…..

As a fan you can feel sad for Sanjay but as an Indian you cannot help but be proud of the system.

For Today!

Tomorrow the BMW case and and Jessica Lall case etc will bring you back to earth.

On a lighter note:

This is a packet of Dorito chips sold in Japan. I can't read Japanese and as a people they can be quite quaint but what the fcuk is this packet trying to tell/sell us?

If you have any informed guesses please do write in to me or post a comment.