Monday, September 28, 2015

Bulletin: Rajesh and Nupur Talwar; ‘I Want To Be Famous’: As Aarushi’s Relative Remembers Her.' (An intimate, revealing, heartfelt article by Shree Paradkar, published by The Quint, which discloses yet another significant irony: 'Talvar', the movie adaptation of the Aarushi case, releases worldwide on Friday, October 2 - which just happens to be the internationally dedicated "Wrongful Conviction Day." Must, Must Read. HL)


Countdown to Wrongful Conviction Day:  Friday, October 2,  2105; 4 days. For information: http://www.aidwyc.org/wcd-2015/

“Bad news,” read a one-line email from a relative on May 16, 2008. “Aarushi was murdered by the servant last night.” Five months prior I had been blessed with my first-born in Toronto. I had thought there could be no similar life-changing moment again. What happened next is part of urban legend in India, in its various forms of imagination, innuendo, lies and part-truths; with one thread of truth holding it all together – both Aarushi and the household help Hemraj were dead. Today, Aarushi’s parents Rajesh Talwar and my cousin Nupur are serving life in prison for the murders. All of us in the extended family believe they are wrongfully convicted – there simply has been no evidence of guilt and no motive for murder...I knew of Aarushi’s developments through her grandma, my mother’s older sister Lata Chitnis. But I have got to know Aarushi much better since she was gone. I have interviewed her friends, quizzed family members and pored over photographs and videos to understand who she was. One thing that will always stay with me is what she once laughingly told her friends, “I want to be famous.” Our poor little girl.  She never deserved to have her life taken or her dignity shorn apart as it has been seven years since her death. RIP, people say, when they think of Aarushi. But as long as her parents are in jail, how can she rest and where is the peace?"(Shree Paradkar is Nupur Talwar’s cousin. She is also Deputy Digital Editor at ‘The Toronto Star’, where she has written extensively about the case.)
 http://www.thequint.com/women/2015/09/26/i-want-to-be-famous-as-aarushis-relative-remembers-her