Monday, April 23, 2012

Ad nauseum!

The Maoists have struck again, this time, in Chhattisgarh. They've abducted Alex Paul Menon, the collector of Sukma district and mind you, he's the first incumbent in that post! The abduction drama took place on 21 Apr after the renegades had knocked off two of his bodyguards. His crime? The local people had started warming up to his people friendly policies and his efforts at being one with them, by offering himself without the usual bureaucratic restrictions were getting to be a big draw!

Sukma, incidentally, has a tryst with the past. Located at the state's southern most tip, in the tri-junction of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, many areas of the Sukma district form part of the so called liberated(?) zone of 'Dandakaranya' of the Maoists. And the perennial river, Sabari - named after a tribal woman, by that name, who'd offered berries to Lord Rama while on his 14 year exile - flows through the district!

I felt sad, yet proud, to see the collector's wife, Asha Menon, making an emotional appeal to her husband's abductors on prime time TV without a tear in her eyes and maintaining a steely calm in the face of such an adversity. I'm sure her husband will return safe, without any harm, as the whole country has joined her in her prayers.

And she's the face of the Indian woman - strong and resolute, who can make anything impossible, happen!

 I too join in your vigil, Asha!!

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