Aarushi ne phir se hamara show kha liya!

One fine day at a news channel in Mumbai, an intern was sitting and sipping her coffee, quietly amused about how a producer was complaining. “Aarushi ne phir se hamara show kha liya!” (Aarushi ate up our show again.) There were some new developments in the case, and love it or hate it, you just couldn’t ignore it. The crime reporters in Mumbai were discussing what might have happened at the Talwar residence that night – they were so sure, sitting in far away Mumbai, that this definitely could not have happened in this particular way, and it must have happened in that way. Speculations, speculations, speculations…

“Raga!”
Ouch! I burnt my tongue! “Yes sir?”
“Take this number; this is Tanu. Go to her house.”
“Oh ok. But…”
“Yes?”
“Um, what is the story?”
“You don’t know Kahani Tanu? Get her byte. She’s going to play Aarushi. You know about the twist in Kahani right?”
“Oh… but…”
“Go fast! There’s no time to waste!”

She’s gonna play Aarushi? Isn’t Kahani one of the longest running serials? What does he mean she’s playing Aarushi? Did they create a new character who’ll die??? The intern had a lot of questions in her mind. Obviously the boss wasn’t gonna answer them… Oh well, she decided to find out once she met the girl…
“My character resembles Aarushi a lot; she, the character, is a battameez girl, who parties a lot and never listens to her family. Because of her behaviour, the family is very angry and very unhappy. This is also honour killing.”
What?!! The entire country is still speculating as to what happened, and a production house has concluded that it was honour killing, and that Aarushi was a battameez girl whose family was angry with her??? What do they know about Aarushi?
“Well, my clothes have been designed along the lines of what Aarushi was wearing in those photos, and my new hairstyle is also exactly like hers. Research? No… Everyone knows… The news channels have been telling us what she was like…”
The intern came back to office that day, half-disgusted at what she had heard. But the girl speaking it was only a little older than Aarushi herself, and was excited to be on her ‘first time on news!’
You can’t blame the kid – neither kid. One was dead and the other was a dummy. Who do you blame? Definitely NOT our responsible police force and our respectable media!
The Police did such a great job – they declared the murdered within days of the crime without proper evidence. Speaking of evidence, they were so careful to let the entire world trample all over it, especially the media. They were so careful to not block off the scene of crime, the neighbour saw great scenes of the relatives performing puja and the media celebrating Diwali. How can anyone blame the police? They did a great job of messing up everything!
They messed it up so well infact that the CBI had to step in. Our Investigators decided to go against the police’s decision of letting kids play hop-scotch on the Talwar terrace and warded off the scene of crime for some reason the police couldn’t comprehend. They caught some more people and made the media-diwali even grander. Aarushi had become so famous that our intern was a little anxious. Her seniors in the office weren’t very happy with Aarushi. Oh no. If Aarushi hadn’t died, it would be us going around all over Mumbai for Neeraj Grover!
And then one fine day in Chennai, a college student who had just returned from a month’s internship in Mumbai, was sipping a cup of coffee and watching TV when CBI gave a press conference and told the media that they had ‘narcotically’ found the murderers. The case would be solved as soon as they found tangible evidence, as the narco tests were not going to be accepted in a court of law.
She was half-disgusted to see the reporters pound the father who was not even allowed to grieve for his only daughter; they announced that he had murdered her; they tarnished his image – from being called a man who had an illicit relationship with his colleague, to a man who had killed his daughter who possibly had an affair with her 42 year old household help… The Talwars, Father, Mother, Daughter all, became ‘famous’ quite suddenly, thanks to the media…
At least the Daughter is dead. May the Father and Mother rest in peace!