The not-so-strange

Muntader al-Zaidi has found at least three imitators in four months since the journalist chucked his shoes at George Bush Jr; there was the German student hurling his footwear at the visiting Chinese PM Wen Jiabao in Cambridge who is awaiting his trial now, there was some unidentified Iranian who threw his shoes at his own President after Ahmedinejad's motorcade apparently hit some old guy in the crowd, and the latest is the Sardar journalist here in India lobbing his Reebok at the Home Minister.

What amuses me is the way all these four men did what essentially amounts to the same thing - chucking a shoe - and its consequence. The first was the bravest of the lot, and with all the luck of the brave, finds himself in prison for two years. The second was the stupider of the lot, considering he should have learnt a lesson or two from his predecessor about throwing things at visting heads of states. The third was the cleverest of the bunch, for he has remained forever unidentified in a country where it is perhaps best to remain that way. And then comes the Sardar, about whom all I can say is, well, he is the Sardar of the lot. I mean, come on! He had removed his shoe well before throwing it, and after missing his target sitting barely 10 feet away from him, he calmly sat back down almost like the shoe had been a part of his question for the Home Minister. And he got let off after some questioning. What kind of questions does one ask at a time like this? "Why did you sit down calmly?", "Why do you wear Reebok?" or maybe "How long is your turban?"

But strangeness is nothing new to the world. Take the case of Adam Leon, a Canadian student who stole an aeroplane and flew it in to United States and was chased by military aircraft for a few hours, before being forced to land because of running out of fuel. So why did he do it? Because he had been feeling depressed and figured this was a good way to go. You know, get shot down by a fighter jet. I mean, get a gun and shoot myself? How droll!