Thursday, December 04, 2008

The doubt. That nagging doubt.....

There is an old story that I am sure you would have heard, but which I want to use in a new context.

"A husband suspected that his wife was cheating on him. But he could never be sure. He felt he did not have adequate proof. Or the clinching evidence.

So, he goes to a detective agency and seeks their services. He tells the detective, “I have this doubt, this nagging doubt about my wife. But I don’t have any proof to back it up.” The detective assures him that he will unravel the truth in a week and put an end to his misery.

In exactly a week, the detective reads out his report:

'On the evening of Thursday, the 19th of June, your wife (subject) was spotted walking out of your house. She took a bus and went down to Hotel Regal at the other end of town. There she met up with a tall, handsome man, around thirty years of age. They went to the restaurant where they had a candle-light dinner. The waiter at the table, whom we talked to later, informed us that subject and man were holding hands and uttering sweet-nothings to each other’s ears. The waiter managed to take a photograph too, which is attached with this report.

Soon after dinner, they walked out of the restaurant together, took the elevator and went up to a deluxe suite on the 3rd floor. The elevator operator told us later that they were locked in a tight embrace throughout the journey up. He also photographed them going into the deluxe suite.

We had positioned one of our spotters at a cafe across the road from where he had a good view of the window of the deluxe suite. Through the light falling on the curtains, he caught the silhouette of the pair kissing each other. Here’s a photograph of that too.”


At this stage, the husband stopped the detective, “What happened next? What happened next?”

The detective replied, “After that, they switched off the lights in the room and we couldn’t take any further photographs”.

The husband thumped the table and cried in frustration,” Damn it. That doubt again. Always, the nagging doubt. That clinching evidence still eludes me”.

I was reminded of this story when I read about Prime Minister Zardari’s reaction to India’s demand that Pakistan hands over terrorists, "I am definitely going to look into all the possibility if any proof is given to us," Zardari said. "At the moment, these are just names of individuals. No proof, no investigation, nothing has been brought forward.”

No proof?. If GPS data, IP addresses traced back to Lahore, recorded confessions, intercepted messages by US agencies, satellite images, CCTV footages, don’t constitute proof, I wonder what will satisfy Zardari.

12 comments:

DC said...

oh my god! this is EXACTLY what i have been asking!! what more proof does he want??

i was just about to do a post on it, but, in your own inimitable way, you have done it far better than i could have even attempted!

Ramya Shankar said...

Even if the LeT is going to come and confess, he will dismiss it as not enough proof !

Just bloghopped here. .

Raj said...

DC: Yes, he can keep saying that the Prosecution hasn;t made out a case/

ramya, I agree.

Usha said...

what an apt joke to describe those idiots there. I am reminded of thaty old adage : "thoongiravanai ezhupplam. thoongarada nadikaravanai?"
enna pannalam?

Rachna said...

Hey, good one - the simile that is. I totally agree ! I read it today in Bangalore Mirror.

Anonymous said...

Well, have the proof been given to Pakistan yet ? Especially since the private eye claiming the crime happens to be employed by ur competitor and not u.

Anonymous said...

No,no, emotional drum beating is not the hallmark of India! We rely on you guys' example.

Just because you are getting, what is the word I want, anyway attached to preconceive views, ask the question the other way around. What would satisfy you that Zadari is being reasonable? Of if we begin with that assumption, what would follow?

Anonymous said...

Jo: Kasab's parents live in Pakistan and his father after seeing the picture of Kasab in mumbai, vouched it was his son that he brought up in pakistan.

we cant expect terrorists to carry birth certificates, drivers licenses, group photographs taken in school, can we? Or if they do, some groups may accuse India of manufacturing and planting them on the terrorists... There is no end to this. We do not need to convince anyone, if we know what we are doing is right. As though terrorists convinced us India deserves to bleed and attacked us?

indicaspecies said...

An excellent analogy drawn up. Good job.

author_number_2 said...

haha, wonderful example illustrating mr. zardari's response. what more does he need? these days he sings war tunes

Bird and Buffalo said...

dont blame Zardari, it is this doggedness, that helped him become the President of Pakistan. Otherwise, he would have divorced her long before she died.

Anonymous said...

Mr. ten percent is in complete denial mode these days after sending ten terrorists to India. The denial is to such an extent that if India said the ten men came from Karachi, Zaddu would retort by saying, Karachi is not in Pakistan!