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ShareAt the risk of over-simplification I'd like to say that the Sanjay Dutt verdict has once again exposed the diametrically opposite camps that most people belong to.
There is as always the view of the cynics and then there are those held by 'the sentimentals'.
Roughly this is the way it fans out: the cynics say, 'It's a scandal that he has been let off so lightly'; 'We can't understand why people are so maudlin about him, why is he being given special treatment?' 'Bollywood has always got away with murder -- look at Salman Khan walking away a free man when he ought to be in jail'; 'And what about all the sons of rich fathers like Fardeen and Puru Raj Kumar'; 'Bollywood has an insidious advantage'; 'It's a crying shame that people are above the law of the land!"
And the sentimentals' say: 'Thank God he's been cleared of the terrorist stigma'; 'He's got a heart of gold'; 'He's suffered enough'; 'Look what a terrible life he's had'; 'After all he's a father too'; 'He's misunderstood but a good soul after all.'
And of course there's name calling between the camps. The cynics call the sentimentals maudlin, soft in the head, simple-minded, wimpy, gullible and naïve. This is because for some reason the cynics have seized for themselves the epithets of being smarter and more sophisticated with their conspiracy theories and their being quick-to-establish motives and hint at networks and nepotism.
Without taking sides, and trying very hard to position myself at the dead centre of both groups here's what I have observed: Particularly provocative to a cynic are love, good deeds, Bollywood, anything New Age and compassion. When a sentimental mentions these topics to a cynic the cynic invariably strides up and pricks the sentimental's balloon.
Sentimentals on the other hand go to great lengths to believe in goodness and charity and the best about other people, and often do so even when there's no reason to. Generally they are female, and more likely than not have come from the school of hard knocks. In my experience, and contrary to popular perception, hard knocks don't make people cynical, they make them softer and more forgiving of others.
And where do I belong in this battle of the yin and yang, the black and white, and the soft and hard?
Honestly? I think until 10 years ago I was more of a cynic, then life turned me in to a sentimental and now I am muddling along somewhere between the two.
As for Sanjay Dutt, he has become the latest bone of contention in the battle between the cynics and the sentimentals.
