Sunday 27 January 2008

17 GREEDY MEN, 1 MISSING KID

It was the 1998 FIFA World Cup and that amazing match between England and Argentina. When a 10 men England toiled for almost half the game, after David Beckham in a rush of blood tripped Argentine mid-fielder Diego Simeone that earned him a red card. Argentina finally won in a penalty shootout.
Oh... what a match...
The reason we have rambled on like this, is a tremendous header which appeared in one of the Brit tabloids the following day. We really don't seem to recall which one was it.
There isn't a phrase 'One sentence is worth a thousand pictures', but it bloody well should have been invented that day.
We still recall the blown up photograph on the front page. 10 tired English players. Even with their backs to the screen, their body-language showed that they were crestfallen. The header was above the picture in a thick font. '10 BRAVE LIONS, ONE STUPID BOY'
Well, the header we've written above, surely is no match for the one that appeared in the tabloid then. But we just wanted to tell you guys what inspired us to 'fabricate' this one.
Anyway that's another story... But look at this one guys... A kidnapped kid is rescued and 17 grown ups including a home minister (Ravi Naik), an MLA (Francis Silveira) the state DGP and the Goa Police top brass grab the photo opportunity.
And then to top it all we have this story-of-a-kind which appeared in The Navhind Times which is 'supposed to have' a human interest peg.
Its probably written by Jamal... One thing we just dont understand... a story can make you feel its written by so and so person. But does it really have to reek of the guy who writes it?
The story is more a 'quirky spiritual', than human interest. What do the subs do when they read Jamal's copies? Faint?
Guys who read the blog have said earlier that we target Jamal, but we'd like to take this opportunity to state that there is no personal grudge here. But Jamal is a good person, but a very very bad journalist. And this is his story.

http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=011559

Almighty united us, say Maraya’s parents
NT Staff Reporter
Panaji, Jan 14 : Though our baby is with us today by the grace of God, yet the fear of insecurity is at the back of our minds, said the parents of kidnapped child, Ms Maraya De Souza.
“My child is everything to me. She is in my lap now -- safe and secure,’’ her mother added.
Speaking to The Navhind Times, Ms D’Souza said, “Now we have lost faith in everyone. We used to be friendly with any Tom, Dick and Harry. Even our child was lovable and likable in the whole neighbourhood.’’
“She is to wave her hands to anybody and speak a word or two with fisherwomen who used to pass-by from of our house. But now we have learnt a lesson from this episode,’’ she said.
Goa is changing rapidly and it is not what it used to be. We would be more cautious in future, she added.
“The maid-servant had joined just eight months ago. She was like second mother to the child. Both had become close friends. So she was very friendly and comfortable with her,’’ said her father, who works in Yemen.
Upon asking how they managed to get the maid, she said one of her hotel colleagues introduced her when their previous servant left the job.
Ms De Souza disclosed that when she returned from her duty at around 10.15 p.m. on January 11, she was surprised to find her mother-in-law, Ms Lydia De Souza tied to a chair. She was more shocked and almost fainted after discovering her child missing besides the servant.
“I raised an alarm and called the neighbours. Everyone gathered within minutes and soon a police complaint was lodged,’’ she said.
The timings of the servant and Ms De Souza were set in such a way that upon her arrival she used to leave the house.
She further said, the maid confessed to having done this for the sake of money.
Child’s father said, “I believe in Almighty creator. He united us.”
“When the friends in the neighbourhood came to know about the missing child, they all rushed to the churches and chapels and offered prayers. It is God that helped us.’’
On the fateful day, when the doorbell rang, the servant pretending as if she was engrossed in her work, told the grandmother to open the backdoor. From there, two masked men entered the house and started attacking the old woman while the servant did not retaliate.
After stealing the gold jewellery and some cash from the house, they disappeared with the child along with the maid in the bushes, leaving a note behind demanding Rs 50 lakh as ransom from the mother after tying her mother-in-law.
The police stated that Sanzad Ali reached the house diabolically and pretended to console and help the traumatized family. He had planned to collect the booty by staying back, they said.
When the NT reporter reached the house of the child, she was seen playing with the parents.
Meanwhile, the Home Minster, Mr Ravi Naik has complemented the team which traced the kidnappers of 18-month-old child, Ms Maraya De Souza from Candolim.
Mr Naik had a word of praise for the DGP, IGP, SP (north), Mr Neeraj Kumar and the team comprising SPs messrs Mangaldas Desai, Om Prakash Kurtarkar, Dy SPs Messrs Raikar, Mahesh Gaonkar, Shamba Sawant, and PI, Mr CL Patil and others.
Mr Naik said the the government would suitably reward the team members for tracking down the culprits and restoring the kidnapped child to her parents.
The IGP, Mr Kishan Kumar said the accused were produced before the court and were remanded to 5-day police custody.
The police are yet to recover the stolen jewellery and cash from the accused.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gay be. Singh cant help but take credit for this

29 January 2008 at 00:24  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Before pointing fingers at others, you have still not replied or rather apologised for accusing The Navhind Times newspaper staff of a blunder in the caption in the newspaper, when a perfectly right caption was printed on the newspaper.
To recap penpricks has somehow managed to get the unedited caption from somewhere when a perfectly edited caption has been printed on the newspaper.
As I have always said penpricks is biased against Navhind times and Herald.
Why the silence?

29 January 2008 at 09:45  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Todays Navhind carries a similar story of a sweedish tourist and Apollo Victor Hospital.

29 January 2008 at 22:50  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is a blatant public relations press replease plant on behalf apollo victor hospital, the swedish story...welcome to planted news yet again!

30 January 2008 at 00:14  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why does PP not reply to comment No 2 and put the issue to rest. It tells on your credibility guys.

30 January 2008 at 01:29  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon 2 & 5 are probably talking about http://penpricks.blogspot.com/2008/01/lug-dugged-road.html

What is PP gonna do? This silence is irritating and worrysome.

30 January 2008 at 23:29  

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