Confession of a Kangaroo: Touch and Go

Summary : Kangaroo courts are known for their speedy and ruthless trials and execution of the judgement . These courts are not legal but forces the legal machinery to act swiftly. Justice delayed is justice denied.

It was years back. Now I can safely narrate the prelude to the accidental death of one of my  co-passenger on the Howrah-Ranchi  Express. His half eaten body was found three days after in the jungle of Ghatshila near Jamshedpur by the side of the Railway track. He seemed to have slipped from the footboard of the running train . I was  also called for interrogation by the police. I said that I thought that he got down at Jamshedpur while I was sleeping. Jamshedpur was his parental home.

We were returning from Calcutta after appearing in the qualifying examination for selection as a Probationary Officer in a nationalized bank. So were hundred of others. There were no seats or berths available on the train, such was the crowd that volumized due to returning examinees. Some were sharing berths and seats with others; some were squatting on the floor; a few were enjoying the fleeting wind by sitting on the footboard and a some less fortunate were standing.

Mahendra was remotely known to me. He was doing post graduation in Mathematics while I was undertaking Physics. Both of us got employed in the same company. He was in HRD while I was in quality control.

Mahendra was tall, dark and handsome. He became easily the odd person out among us. As such, he was also lucky regarding girls. He easily found  girlfriends. We used to envy more so when he boasted that he had 29 or so and would complete a century by the time he married.

We had grabbed a seat each by the side of windows while the general compartment was still waiting to be towed out of the shunting yard. After we settled down,and in between conversation,  I asked him about the latest  score. He replied smilingly that it was 32.

It was an overnight journey. As the train was due to start, we  saw two girls peering inside the window  frantically searching for a place in the compartment. Mahendra recognized one of them. He asked her to come inside. We gave one window seat to the two girls and shared the other between ourselves. They  had also appeared in the same aptitude test.

By middle of the night, almost all passengers were sleeping; some on the seats, some on the luggage berth and some on the floor. Surprisingly, everybody had a place to sleep. Only Mahendra and the girl had a lot to talk. I might have also slept for a while.

I was awakened by the cold air hitting my right shoulder adjacent to which Mahendra was sitting and providing warmth.  I found Mahendra and his newly found girlfriend missing. A few minutes after, the girl came staggering and sat on her seat. She was crying. A moment after, Mahendra came and sat by my side. I could very well imagine.

I tried to ignore. But the girl was looking dangerous. She was staring with wide red shot eyes at Mahendra. It looked to be more than just touch and go affair. Mahendra could not stand the girl’s hateful stares. He left the seat and proceeded towards the door perhaps to pass the remaining journey somewhere else.

After considerable coaxing, the aggrieved girl mumbled her agony to her companion. Mahendra volunteered to escort  the girl to the toilet through the sprawling bodies of sleeping passengers. He did more than that. He gate crashed and succeeded.  This was too much for me. It filled me with disgust when I conjectured that most of his exploits might not have been compromising but forced . I made up my mind to give a piece of my mind to Mahendra.

It was almost 3 AM in the late night. The train was passing through the dense jungle of Ghatshila. Mahendra was standing at the open gate . He was smoking and staring into the night of the jungle, perhaps savoring the experience.  

I let him take the last puff at the cigarette.

Bonafide Kangaroo Courts : Need of the Hour

Summary: Kangaroo court which passes quick and ruthless judgement is described as a sham legal proceeding. Kangaroos are one of the most docile and well behaved  animals. It may be because they present a blank stare like a jury and have great leaps.  

Kangaroos are the biggest marsupials. Their main diet is grass. Over 2 meters tall, they move in the mob (herd) of over 50. Found mostly in Australia, they are harvested for flesh and skin.

Just like cows and goats, kangaroos are very docile animals .Sensing some threats, they pound their big hind legs in warning. On hearing barking of a dog, a fully grown adult male (called Boomer or Boss) gets terrorized and begins a frenzied shrieking. They fight among themselves, most of the times to win a female. They kick and bite. It is the only animal where female kangaroos (called flyers) have a built-in pouch to carry their infants.

They are not even remotely connected to people, places or matters concerning a court of law. Yes, when they sit on their hind legs like a tripod and have a vacant eye contact with the human being, one may relate them to the jury members . This frozen stare coupled with maximum speed of 70 kilometers per hour with 10 meters long leaps are perhaps the reasons to relate to some sort of fast track courts.

The Macmillan Dictionary describes,“Kangaroo courts are sham legal proceedings which are set-up in order to give the impression of a fair legal process…..” Compared to this, jurisprudence adheres to the proverb- “ Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty.” The law takes its own course, most of the times shaming the speed of an old tortoise.

However, we are quick and ruthless when it suits us. The same authorized machinery is silent when some innocents are killed in a legal police firing on a mob or when a place inhabited mostly be innocents is bombarded. For the innocents getting deprived by natural calamities, there is great dependence on the act of God when it comes to paying compensation.

Kangaroo court seemed to have become popular during the California Gold Rush(1849) or  Australia Gold Rush(1850). There used to be speedily carried out legal proceedings to decide upon the matters of land claim or the claim jumping by miners. Judges and judicial proceedings leapt like Kangaroos.

Such connotation is still prevalent in Major League Baseball and Rugby tournaments where instant punishment is meted to erring players or to maintain discipline. We may find such parallels in almost every walk of life, be it punishment like caning in educational institutions, on the spot fine/punishment/disqualification in sports and athletics, fines for breaking traffic rules, breaking glasses in routine household affairs et.al.

In countries where justice is delayed and hence denied, beautiful minds must come forward to convert sham Kangaroo courts into bonafide courts and restructure time management of the existing tortoise courts so that justice seems to be round the corner and not at an infinite distance.