The fallen angel.....

I have had my eye on the on going case of Jon Anand, the young Indian designer who made it big in the fashion world of the USA . Today he is behind bars with a 59 year jail sentence for rape and sexual assault, and I remain baffled as to whether these accusations are true, and if so what prompted a young person whose career graph was a success story for others, to indulge in criminal behaviour.

Maybe it is the mother in me and the fact that I have a young and successful son who lives away from home too, that makes me look at Jon Anand with a personalised sense of anguish and conflicting emotions as he remains incarcerated in a foreign land. I have never met him personally, but each time I see him through the media coverage of this story, handcuffed and shackled, I see a young man who is both lost and frightened. And I wish so fervently that I could set the hands of the clock back where he could start his life all over again, only this time with a framework of values that could avoid him being misguided and where accountability of actions governed his deeds.

There is such a thin line of difference between being over protected in ones youth or being completely unsupervised. I think that no one decides to tip a balance that crashes one into excesses in life, but the danger lies when small transgressions go unnoticed, which boosts the bravado of the person acting out such behaviour, to up the stakes of risk just that teeny bit more......and that's how the apple cart finally tumbles.

The lure of money and the dream of fame is a lethal combination that can entice many to behave in ways that are foolhardy. But where are the opportunities where young people may stop and consider, because the myth that they are fed on is that once you are on that roller coaster ride to success you are supposed to hang on and just go wherever it takes you.

I want to believe that Jon Anand is a victim of conspiracy. I want to believe that all the 16 cases are trumped up accusations that falsely implicating an innocent man. I want to believe that this young successful Indian boy could not have done what he is being accused of. And if it is all true, then why Jon, why?!