Story of hanging 'everything'
The verdict was out. The terrorist was sentenced to death penalty. He was to be hanged till death. The term made me wonder, what would be the point of hanging someone halfway to death? It would be sheer torture or a way of pleasure maybe!! Anyway, being precise doesn’t hurt, does it? So, the final decision was made after years of court case proceedings. It was supposed to calm the fuming minds of people, to bring to peace the souls of those who had lost their lives in the massacre. It did, partly; partly because the road towards implementing the verdict was as long as that of the decision itself.
It was a hot topic at that time, until a TV channel decided to make it hotter. Dumbass started a new reality show ‘The True Hangman’. The candidates were to be chosen through auditions all over the country. The auditions included group discussions on topics like ‘Is hanging fun?’ and ‘Hanging someone needs balls!’ (Sadly the hanging part was lost in the heated discussions). The interviews included questions such as ‘Which Bollywood celebrity you’ll love to hang and why?’ and of similar kind. Huge crowd turned up for the auditions (or so the channel claimed). Finally 10 candidates were selected, two of them wannabe hangmen from a neighbouring country. The winner would get to meet Mr. Terrorist and hang an effigy of him on live television. (And of course fame & money!)
The finalists were asked to prove why they were the best choice to hang Mr. Terrorist through tasks that tested their cruelty, insensitivity and stone heartedness. In one of the quizzes, candidates were asked what the cruellest thing they ever imagined was. The winner of the round answered that he once thought of tying up his wife and making out with his neighbour in front of her. His family roared with triumph when he won the round. Others who couldn’t think of anything better than feeding poison to colleagues and thus lost in the round, drew sympathies from crowd for being too noble. The show was an instant hit. It had everyone, from small children to elderly, talking about each other’s cruel intentions.
Some elements in the society took objection to the show stating that it would cause adverse effects on children. A high court order moved the show timings to midnight, giving it an adult certificate and also distributed a ‘Jan heet main jari’ ad appealing children to ‘Sleep early, Be healthy’. Some people asked why the same thing had not been done for other shows like Big Ass 4. Court was prompt in replying that it was better to have children thinking about sex rather than cruelty & death. But due to strong opposition and filing of a case from the retired hangmen who complained that the show disrespected them, it was put on hold until further court notice.
Meanwhile a pro-Megastate political party argued that it would not let hangmen from outside Megastate hang the terrorist because he was Megastate’s property. When asked that where they would bring their own hangmen from, the leader replied that there were many youths willing to take up the job. He appealed the youth to consider becoming a hangman. The son of soil ensured that his message was carried to the youth by rioting and burning down things in different parts of the state. A case was filed against the court order of sending the hangmen of Royal Estate & West Coast to Megastate. The whole scenario went into a deadlock situation. The court said that parallel processing of all cases could not be done and the cases had to be solved one by one. The government had other priorities too. It was clear that the matter would take time.
With the show now stopped and the cases pending, public gradually forgot about the verdict and continued peacefully with their own lives. Not far from the TV studio, somewhere inside the RoadSide Jail, Mr. Terrorist had fun reading newspapers.
The problem was that such cases had been rare. Also, majority of convicts who
were on death row were still not hanged. So whether to move serially through
the queue or to give a higher priority for Mr. Terrorist was the question. More
important issue was ‘who will hang him?’ Due to rarity of such cases, lack of
decent salary and disturbing nature of the job, not many hangmen were in the
business lately. The last hangman in Megastate where the punishment was to be
carried out had retired 10 years ago. Throughout the whole country, only two
hangmen remained in the job. One was from Royal Estate, other from West Coast.
Megastate police department decided to choose between the two through a test.
Both were required to appear in the head-quarters for an interview. That’s
where the lengthy procedure came into picture. Some
formalities had to be completed to give them approval to carry out the job in
Megastate. The high court order stated that the procedure could take at least
six months. Megastate police department postponed the interviews till then,
giving people ample time to scratch their heads and think whether the action
was necessary.
It was a hot topic at that time, until a TV channel decided to make it hotter. Dumbass started a new reality show ‘The True Hangman’. The candidates were to be chosen through auditions all over the country. The auditions included group discussions on topics like ‘Is hanging fun?’ and ‘Hanging someone needs balls!’ (Sadly the hanging part was lost in the heated discussions). The interviews included questions such as ‘Which Bollywood celebrity you’ll love to hang and why?’ and of similar kind. Huge crowd turned up for the auditions (or so the channel claimed). Finally 10 candidates were selected, two of them wannabe hangmen from a neighbouring country. The winner would get to meet Mr. Terrorist and hang an effigy of him on live television. (And of course fame & money!)
The finalists were asked to prove why they were the best choice to hang Mr. Terrorist through tasks that tested their cruelty, insensitivity and stone heartedness. In one of the quizzes, candidates were asked what the cruellest thing they ever imagined was. The winner of the round answered that he once thought of tying up his wife and making out with his neighbour in front of her. His family roared with triumph when he won the round. Others who couldn’t think of anything better than feeding poison to colleagues and thus lost in the round, drew sympathies from crowd for being too noble. The show was an instant hit. It had everyone, from small children to elderly, talking about each other’s cruel intentions.
Some elements in the society took objection to the show stating that it would cause adverse effects on children. A high court order moved the show timings to midnight, giving it an adult certificate and also distributed a ‘Jan heet main jari’ ad appealing children to ‘Sleep early, Be healthy’. Some people asked why the same thing had not been done for other shows like Big Ass 4. Court was prompt in replying that it was better to have children thinking about sex rather than cruelty & death. But due to strong opposition and filing of a case from the retired hangmen who complained that the show disrespected them, it was put on hold until further court notice.
Meanwhile a pro-Megastate political party argued that it would not let hangmen from outside Megastate hang the terrorist because he was Megastate’s property. When asked that where they would bring their own hangmen from, the leader replied that there were many youths willing to take up the job. He appealed the youth to consider becoming a hangman. The son of soil ensured that his message was carried to the youth by rioting and burning down things in different parts of the state. A case was filed against the court order of sending the hangmen of Royal Estate & West Coast to Megastate. The whole scenario went into a deadlock situation. The court said that parallel processing of all cases could not be done and the cases had to be solved one by one. The government had other priorities too. It was clear that the matter would take time.
With the show now stopped and the cases pending, public gradually forgot about the verdict and continued peacefully with their own lives. Not far from the TV studio, somewhere inside the RoadSide Jail, Mr. Terrorist had fun reading newspapers.
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