What was the most obvious impact of the Barberini family that Antara had felt in her life, given she was unaware of how the Barberinis controlled the fate of her paternal grandmother Pratibha Das?
Well, it was alleged that the Barberinis had devised the way the Class 10 students of Asansol AG Church were sent off every year, once the Class 10/ICSE Board exams were over.
It was called a 'Miss AG contest', it was altogether based on the concept of beauty contests (say Miss Universe or Miss World) and given Donald Trump's close association with beauty contests before he became a politician, the Barberinis had chosen an effective way to introduce Trump's influence within Asansol AG Church.
'Miss AG contest' was a closed event, managed only between the two senior classes, the Class 10/ICSE batch being sent off and the Class 9 batch which was organising the send-off. The school's teachers attended, some of them as judges of the 'Miss AG contest'. A sumptuous lunch was arranged, paid for by subscriptions from the Class 9 students. Thus, this was a farewell event for the seniormost class of Asansol AG Church.
Antara wouldn't know about the Miss AG contest/farewell events of the previous ICSE batches and what they had organised for each other, since either the rest of the school would be closed that day or they'd go home earlier than usual as schoolteachers got busy with the 'Miss AG contest'.
The same logic would apply to fraudulent leases, Global South countries kept challenging the legit lease every few years since the 1980s but given it was a closed event, how would the lease family know what transpired? How did NS Road's agents argue against Ajit and Anjali? When no one defended Ajit and Anjali, when there was no mention of the Jews or the Nazi Holocaust, how did those gathered at the Treasury offices react?
Did they giggle, did they suppress their sly smiles?
ii. When Antara was in Class 9 (March 1994), it was the turn of her batch to organise the send-off/farewell for the Class 10/ICSE batch of 1994, along with the 'Miss AG contest'. She contributed her financial share but given the frenzy among her classmates about the decorations and the lunch menu, well, Antara didn't remember a single detail, she was not involved.
It was unwise to take names but since Antara was not assigned any responsibility, she decided to stay away from the event. She was not the sent-off batch, she was not the organiser, so she was neither the United States Govt nor the RSS in Nagpur, what was her role in the scripted game of fraudulent leases?
What if all fraudulent leases were connected by some common theme or motif from Pratibha Das's life, the Clintons would know and be on their guard, so would the Chinese, why should Antara alone appear foolish?
Thus, Wall Street was a complicated place, we all had different needs from it, if Antara avoided the send-off for the Class of 1994, she could follow the BRICS fraudulent lease from a distance. Oh, you should have seen them the next day, "Antara, you didn't come, there was chicken for lunch, and fish."
Come again? Why did you notice my absence?
iii. For the send-off/farewell for Antara's batch, the Class of 1995, Antara did turn up, wearing the customary elegant saree. At home, she had been practising walking the ramp/catwalk for a modelling career (forget STEM, Antara didn't even want to go to college). She knew she could use it as a farewell gesture for the school and its teaching staff.
"Huh," the school principal and the teachers gasped as Antara walked down, in her practised fashion, down the ramp/aisle in the middle of the classroom. The sending-off batch/the Class of 1996 was ecstatic, "Antara, you looked great, your catwalk was perfect, you were excellent in studies, you were definitely 'Miss AG 1995'."
When they announced the shortlist in a while, Antara didn't even make it to the final round.
Did Antara have the above in mind when she chose tough topics from war and defence for her allusions? Did she want the Pentagon chiefs to resign, one after the other?
Not at all.
Circumstances within India had left Antara to herself, no one wanted to know or employ her, she pursued what interested her the most:
Why men fight, why women pay the price but never protest, and as a woman, how could she change the weaponry with which wars were fought?
There were private financiers galore in the world, someone or the other would take an interest in what she was doing, Antara didn't need the Pentagon.
If Antara found success, she'd involve or employ a few women in her war/weaponry firm.
iv. For the Class of 1995's farewell, the sending-off batch (the Class of 1996) had served a vegetarian lunch. One of Antara's Bengali classmates took her aside, "Antara, was that right? What a sumptuous meal we had arranged last year, and such a bland meal for us, only to please the Marwaris and keep them happy?"
Antara didn't know what to say, the Marwaris did run some influential shops in Washington DC, along Pennsylvania Avenue.
August 21, 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment