Euripides may well have lived at 7 Safdarjung Road. Because nothing short of a Greek tragedy unfolded there with amazing alacrity.

First, a father shot for what we believe is money and other trivia and then the son drowning his ashes-laden sorrow with champagne and cocaine. But there is a much deeper malaise and once again, Rahul Mahajan is nothing but a poster-boy for India’s new rich and powerful. Who get elected when they can barely spell, whose fathers hide them from the law as can be seen in the Nitish Katara case and where they, the future of India, believe they can hold the system to ransom much like their parents did.

But there is a slight twist to the plot. Something that would have even delighted the master: William Shakespeare.

There is a character flaw, which transcends caste and creed: stuff that dinosaurs like Arjun Singh are fighting for. It is also representative of the new India that we are in denial of. The new India, where the new rich want to be seen to have arrived. Where being Rahul Mahajan is more important that behaving with a sense of sobriety and responsibility. And the fault lies not in them, but in the way they’ve been brought up and as I mentioned the Mahajan brat is only representative of his era.

The concept of some sacred cows is now long over and we as a nation need to come to terms with it. Periods of mourning, much like the Greek, have now become periods of celebration and the ubiquitous Ganga jal has been replaced with some fine Dom Perignon and these are signs of the times we live in. The police continue to delight us with their Keystonian attitude as do hospitals, which can so easily doctor (no pun intended) blood reports.

... contd.