Suspicion of Plagiarism

There is a recurring theme in novels and filmdom: a man is accused of murdering himself and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1954, I saw on our Pilani engineering college campus, a Hollywood movie (I forget the name!) in which a man disappears and due to twists and turns of the story, his face is disfigured and the police nab him, as the missing man's murderer. In the court, he hears his wife and children reiterate the loss of a man they loved so dearly and accuse the man in the dock, for having murdered their husband and father. He is sentenced to life imprisonment. Similarly, next month on our campus, we saw a Hindi movie produced in 1953: 'Sholey' directed by B.R. Chopra and starring the inimitable and debonair Ashok Kumar and the beautiful Bina Rai. The story was ditto. Veteran film director and producer of evergreen classic movies, V. Shantaram, also produced a stunner of a movie, 'Pinjara' starring Shreeram Lagoo and danseuse Sadhana. This is a story of a highly respected village headmaster, who disappears. Murder most foul is suspected. After years of chase the police nab a man - this very head master, now with looks beyond recognition. He is brought to the village by the police. He is paraded in the village on a donkey with his face blackened. His own students pelt him with stones and the village elders, who would always seek his advice, now abuse him. He goes behind bars for the rest of his life.

Mercifully, nothing so dramatic has happened in my life. But I got a minor taste of it this Saturday. I got an e-mail from an Indian e-journal. It suggested that an article I had submitted to them was in fact lifted in toto from an article in Associated Content. A click on photo in AC, next to the title would have revealed the real identity of 'Suman'. Perhaps it is not widely known, that in the US and elsewhere, nick names and pen names are largely used instead of one's real names. Sometimes, what appear to be real names are also concoctions! Sometimes, more than one nom deplume is used, to segregate the nature of contents. One name, for business and financial matters and another for articles on travel, etc.!

In my case, the irony goes farther: The nick name I use on Associated Content , viz. 'Suman' is my real life nick name also! Right from my childhood through school, university, engineering college and 45 years of association with a German multinational - I have been called 'Suman' , even by my colleagues and superiors, rather than 'Mr. Shyam Saksena' !

Life would be so dull, without these absurd punctuations! Of course, I would not like be in the dock in the court and see my wife accusing me of murdering her husband. Three cheers to Life!