Acts of commission

Have you ever done something stupid? I do so all the time, whether it is buying a pair of spiky-heeled shoes I know I will never wear or whether I eat chutney that a friend makes so well, all the while sure that the dates it contains will make my throat swell and my breathing constrict with allergic reaction. I know I am doing something very stupid when I walk into a make-up store when I am feeling blue and I know I will do something even more stupid when I start day-dreaming of chocolate laden concoctions that I will one day conjure up in my kitchen when I get the right chocolate. Because that day will come soon, I will do the concocting soon after and my middle will out-measure my imagination, sooner rather than later.

That apart, the reason for this blog is the hot news of the day. Actor Sunjay Dutt has been given a five-year punishment for an act of what can only be described as stupidity. He got himself a couple of lethal weapons during a bad time in Mumbai’s fairly recent history and then found himself doing a stint in jail. From there, he emerged almost like a phoenix from the ashes, flying into stardom with films like Vaastav and Munnabhai. But, even as his career boomed, his personal life bombed, and he went through divorce, the death of his father and, finally, a re-opening of the case that incarcerated him for so many months. He has been exonerated from the tag of ‘terrorist’, but still have to face the consequences of his actions. Today he admits that he was stupid. A little too lost, too late?

The OJ Simpson case has similar undertones. While many believe that he did kill his wife, he was acquitted of the charges, even after the great chase scene involving the white SUV. But only last week he was back in the news for almost the same matter, discussing in a book how he would ‘theoretically’ have committed the murder. Had he done so, of course. Which he insists he didn’t. At this stage, does it matter? His stupidity in running away when he had to talk to the police and then to write about it, however hypothetically, can only rank with the best of them all!

And then there are so many others who have done this sort of thing, from the burglar who went back to the scene of his crime to pay his lunch bill and the granny who killed her husband and then complained to the sanitation department about the smell that came out of the cellar. And there is, of course, me, who keeps doing what she should not with the blithe self-assurance that her crimes will never ever result in any kind of punishment. Except after she talks about it in her blog, that is!