Was Goldy Brar killed in Fresno, USA? Brar, whose original name was Satinderjeet Singh Brar, was thought to be a person killed in a drive-by shooting last week. The felicitously named Goldy has admitted on video to having had rapper Siddhu Moosewala killed in 2022, but the Fresno police said that he hadn’t been killed. It was somebody else.
It made me wonder if it was a case of mistaken identity. Somehow, that was singularly appropriate for Moosewala, who was a rapper. He was killed efficiently enough, but the wellwishers who wanted revenge are probably a shambolic lot, and even if they didn’t, are quite capable of killing the wrong guy. I’m sure it wasn’t his family though. His parents would be too busy taking care of Siddhu’s younger brother in March, conceived by IVF. The mother was 58, the father 60. All three were in India, so they wouldn’t have anything to do with the incident.
Well, the passing of Syed me Anjum Nisar was more of a shock to than either Siddhu Moosewala or the Goldy Brar doppelganger, though his was not a violent death. Anjum Nisar had retired as head of the English Department at what is now GCU, but I remember him as a young lecturer there, with a hearty voice and a hail-fellow-well–met manner that endeared him to us students. The world will be am emptier, and probably more frightening, place without him around.
One person who has regained new life is Harvey Weinstein, who single-handedly launched the #MeToo movement, with the revelations about his exploits among female actresses. He has had his conviction overturned, and he will go to retrial. Ali Zafar, I hear, celebrated this most loudly in Pakistan, though he hoped his defamation suit would not get retried. After all, though the case, about a 2018 incident, has been decided, it is making its way through the appellate courts.
Well, even though he has not been convicted, he was pulled from doing the PSL anthem, and was not invited to perform at Mukesh Ambani’s son’s wedding. Instead, the other singing star we’ve got went, Atif Aslam. The flak he faced was very little, considering that it was an Indian’s wedding. However, he could argue that performing at the wedding of a hippopotamus was a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity he couldn’t miss. Not to mention, the money was good.
Talk about making hay while the sun shines. Unseasonal rains across the country have meant that the weather has not been as hot as one would expect for this time of the year. I mean, I haven’t turned on my fan yet, something which I normally have done by now. Global warming? Well, according to Trump, who’s heading for the US Presidency again, it’s just a Chinese conspiracy to stop America becoming great again.
You know how Trump would get elected? Because of those disgusted with his complicity in the Israeli slaughter of Gazans. But by not voting, rather than voting for the virulently pro-Israel Trum[p, they would ensure Biden’s defeat. So should they go on supporting Biden? And perpetuate his support of Israel? It’s a tough choice for any US voter who doesn’t like babies being slaughtered.
Staying with Palestine, it is interesting to note that Saudi Arabia is rounding up all those who criticize Israel online. I don’t want to criticize Saudi Arabia, but I wonder how the PTI’s keyboard warriors would have liked it if there had been a similar crackdown here. There have been some, and Teitter is still banned, but the Saudi single-mindedness has not been practiced. Maybe that’s why there’s been a new Authority set up to combat cyber crime.
I hope the new Governors of three provinces won’t be cybercriminals. Actually, there’s no reason why they should be. But they’ve all tasted the bitterness of defeat. However, for my monet, the new KP Governor, Fazal Karim Kundi, probably has the hardest row to hoe, for he was beaten last election by the very man who is now his CM, Ali Amin Gandapur. And just to make things really interesting, they contested a National Assembly seat, which Ali Amin duly vacated.