Badge of honour
The outspoken member from Sheikhupura, MJL, is a fully paid-up subscriber to The Man of Steel’s narrative. He let rip recently and laid the blame squarely at The Boyz’s door. In his scorching rhetoric, he traced the history of Pakistan’s extra-constitutional deviations and the crimes perpetrated against those who struggled to change the status quo. Naturally, his “sins” could not have gone unpunished.
He was hauled up, remanded to police custody for a fortnight, and sent to jail. His family, though clearly devastated, backed him fully, picked up cudgels and rallied to his defence. In this, they were not alone. They say there has been an outpouring of support for MJL from every direction. The family tells of the state’s lowly minions who treat MJL with great courtesy, constantly apologizing for the distress caused by their actions. They speak of adjudicators arbitrating MJL’s case, who speak frankly of their “helplessness” in the face of intimidation. They bear witness to “calls” in the midst of hearings; above all, they speak of the solidarity of ordinary people and especially of Party cadres. They say there was a time when they had to call up their cadres to ask them to attend rallies and protests. No more. Now they are inundated with calls from Party workers, asking for the time and place of meeting so that they can accompany protesters to MJL’s hearings. To a man, to a woman, all are in unison. It is a badge of honour, they say, to be hauled up for speaking truth to power.
Billionaire bodyguards
A video clip from Bollywood has gone viral and it’s all about the bodyguards of A-listers and the phenomenal amount of money they are paid. Deepika Padukone’s bodyguard is a Muslim named Jalal. He shadows her everywhere she goes; the pair is rumoured to have such a close relationship that Deepika ties a rakhi on his wrist at each rakhsha bandhan, signifying their brother-sister relationship. Jalal even shadowed Deepika and Ranbir Kapoor at their wedding. Jalal is paid a handsome INR 1 crore per annum. Similarly with Anuskha Sharma and Virat Kohli – their bodyguard gets INR 1.25 crore as his yearly salary. Katrina Kaif’s bodyguard Deepak is said to be the hottest of them all, costing KK INR 1 crore per year. But the King of the Bodyguards is the one who works for the King of Bollywood, naturally! SRK pays his bodyguard Ravi Singh, who has worked for him for 9 years, INR 2.6 crore per annum! Beat that.
