February 21, 2006

Where are you, Mustafa?

Ah, we now have a name for the dog. That name, according to this MidDay report, is Mustafa, pet dog of the actress Manisha Koirala. And that name (Mustafa, not Manisha) has offended a politician called Sheikh Furkhan.

A dog's name.

But it gets curiouser and curiouser. The honourable and offended Furkhan has spoken to five neighbours of Koirala, all of whom have seen her take this dog "for a stroll". But ask Koirala herself, and she said "she did not have a dog"; a police inspector who visited her home also "discovered that she did not have a dog."

So we have a name, that may or may not be Mustafa, for a dog that may or may not exist. But if it exists, and if that name is Mustafa, some people have got offended. Enough that the police have posted 12 men outside her home as protection. Enough that the police arrested the reporter who wrote about all this to begin with.

In my schoolyard cricket games, I used to open the batting with a boy from one class below mine. We developed quite a partnership, mainly because he would hit the ball with aplomb and I would run like a demented hare. I've lost touch with him, but he definitely exists. And I remember his name. Mustafa.

I want to know why, through these three-plus decades, Sheikh Furkhan has not taken offence at my batting mate's name.

***

Postscript: Naresh Fernandes's letter to the press about this.

4 comments:

Suhail said...

Holy cow, this is getting curioser by the day. Dang!

zap said...

Hey..this is unrelated but you'll enjoy it much the same way I did :

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-creation11feb11,0,6286102,full.story

Anonymous said...

Hey, Bush has a cat named India.
Make sure friends of Dilip who are opposing Bush visit to India milks this issue to the hilt.

kuffir said...

patrix,
mustafa is not one of the names of the prophet but one of the many honorific attributes/titles by which he is called (just as jesus is called the christ, i guess).. none of the titles ascribe godlike attributes to him.. only virtues that make him an exemplary being... one of the names/titles arif means messenger (the messenger).
dilip,
i vaguely remember reading the original report.. i had wondered then why none of the kooks had immediately risen in protest..i was hoping, in a way, that none of them would notice it..