"mangal"war

i wonder how many of u have seen mangal pandey - the rising. after a four year exile aamir khan is back with a bang. the theatres are jam packed and u can see serpentine queues extending far outside. people are eager to see the short statured khan in the role of the sepoy who started the sepoy mutiny.coinciding with the release of the movie comes a book called "Mangal Pandey: Brave martyr or Accidental Hero" by rudrangshu mukherjee. the book claims that whatever mangal pandey did was under the influence of "bhaang", a kind of narcotic substance, commonly consumed at the time of holi in north india.
mangal is said to have been a very dedicated soldier in the army.according to history the revolt had flared up due to greased catridges which were required to be bitten by soldiers before loading into the rifle. this "grease" was actually made from animal fat and this was deeply resented by the indian soldiers. so much that loyal ones like mangal turned against them.
the book claims that mangal was just an accidental hero but ends on a note of doubt.kudos to the author and the publishers for such a wonderful timing. i'm very sure that if it had been launched at any other time, very few copies would have left the stands.its a common phenomenon in india that whenever something good comes up, there is always something to create a controversy at the very same time and a number of puppet buffoons to sway to the tunes of these problem makers.i'm reminded of a joke with regard to this matter. once an american got very fascinated with crabs. he wanted to eat crabs , rear them and maybe start a crab farm. he went to a sea shore market to buy fresh live crabs. he saw many glass jars with crabs inside all of them secured carefully with lids. except one.he aws surprised and asked the shopkeeper the reason why that particular jar was open. the shopkeeper replied,"Sir, these are crabs from india. they dont need a lid because whenever one crab tries to get out, all the others pull it down!".Mera Bharat Mahan.