Quick side bar:
August 1947. Partition. The borders have just been announced.
MANISH:
[Pointing out either side of the boundary]
India.... Pakistan.
DOCTOR:
It's not just the land that gets divided.
Rioting in the cities, tens of millions of people about to be displaced, more than a million about to die.
‘DOCTOR WHO’
“DEMONS OF THE PUNJAB”
One of the first of those million about to die was Prem, gunned down by one of the Indian fanatics following Prem’s own brother Manish. Manish was also responsible for murdering Bakhti, the holy man. I know the Doctor would never approve, but I like to think that among those million people who were about to die, Manish would be one of them.
Now as the heading for this post indicated, this is a “Fanficcers’ Friend” post. You might think you know where I’m heading with this. But you’d be wrong.
I’m not going to come up with conjectures about how Manish might have died during Partition. I’m not interested in what happened to him when he died. I want to use my wish-craft on what happened to him after he died!
From Wikipedia:
Reincarnation is the philosophical or religious concept that an aspect of a living being starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death. It is also called rebirth or transmigration, and is a part of the Saṃsāra doctrine of cyclic existence. It is a central tenet of all major Indian religions, namely Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. The idea of reincarnation is found in many ancient cultures.
The body dies, assert the Hindu traditions, but not the soul, which they assume to be the eternal reality, indestructible and bliss. Everything and all existence is believed to be connected and cyclical in Hinduism, all living beings composed of two things, the soul and the body or matter. Atman does not change and cannot change by its innate nature in the Hindu belief. In contrast, the body and personality, can change, constantly changes, is born and dies. Current Karma impacts the future circumstances in this life, as well as the future forms and realms of lives. Good intent and actions lead to good future, bad intent and actions lead to bad future, impacting how one reincarnates, in the Hindu view of existence.
Hindus believe the self or soul (atman) repeatedly takes on a physical body, until moksha.
There is no permanent heaven or hell in Hinduism. In the afterlife, based on one's karma, the soul is reborn as another being in heaven, hell, or a living being on earth (human, animal.)
In Toobworld, the concept is stated in much simpler terms. And it rhymes!
“Everybody knows in a second life
we come back sooner or later
as anything from a pussycatTo a man eating alligator.”
To betray his brother Prem like that…. Well, according to another religion, that’s the oldest crime in the Book! They say Karma is a bitch? Only if you deserve what she hands out, and Manish should still be suffering through his karmic cycle of Saṃsāra.
I’m more than happy to help plot out his journey through such a hell by having him be reincarnated as various animals who all met their doom, many in bizarre ways.
These are all conjectural, of course…. Nudge Nudge Wink Wink
We’ll kick off these examples about five years after Manish should have died during Partition.
M*A*S*H
"Images"
CIRCA 1952
A stray mongrel hanging around the M*A*S*H unit 4077 becomes a favorite of Margaret Houlihan’s, softening her hardened persona. But then the dog got hit by a jeep and died, leaving the nurse overwhelmed with grief.
CIRCA 1953
“B.J. Papa-San”
Blitzen was a bee who belonged to Radar O’Reilly. But it got loose and stung a general. Of course, a bee loses its stinger as it gets ripped out of its body upon use and so Radar’s pet bee died.
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER
February 1959
Beaver Cleaver had two pet pigeons, Miss Canfield and Miss Landers. But because of his irresponsible friend Larry Mondello, they both were killed. Manish could have been either one of them, and I like that he was reincarnated as a female. He would have hated that.
INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY
CIRCA 1968
"Breathe in the Air"
A doctor's dog is killed as part of a harassment campaign that ultimately drives her to suicide
THE ODD COUPLE
December 1970
One episode dealt with the death of Felix's parrot. But I don’t know how old that parrot was; if it’s older than two years, I’d have to exclude it from consideration.
CANNON
"To Kill a Guinea Pig",
February, 1972
Mobsters attempting to strong arm a medical researcher into including a particular prisoner in her trials (so he can be killed) kill her pet monkey and hang it from a tree outside her house.
THE SECRETS OF ISIS
“Lucky”
October, 1975
A boy’s dog died and he couldn’t understand why Isis couldn’t reanimate him.
WKRP IN CINCINATTI
November, 1978
The Thanksgiving episode – one of those turkeys tossed out of the helicopter could have been Manish reincarnated. And his soul had a quick turn-around.
DIFF’RENT STROKES
“The Trial”
December 1978
Arnold Jackson Drummond had a goldfish named Abraham. Arnold was accused of putting him in a hot tub.
BARNEY MILLER
“The Bird”
November, 1979
Wojo's bird died in the squad room.
LOU GRANT
“Dogs”
March, 1980
Rossi looked into the disappearance of Mrs. Pynchon’s dog Barney and that led to him finding out about an underground dog-fighting ring. Probably the most gruesome dispatch of Manish’s incarnations.
WKRP IN CINCINATTI
“Frog Story”
January, 1981
Herb accidentally spray painted his daughter's pet frog Greenpeace which killed it.
THE JEFFERSONS
January, 1982
George Jefferson was babysitting a Doberman named Poopsie. He threw a ball which went over his apartment balcony and Poopsie went after it.
THE COSBY SHOW
“Goodbye Mr. Fish”
September, 1984
Manish may have come back as another goldfish, this time belonging to Rudy Huxtable.
December, 1988
Eight years later, Rudy the Reaper was taking care of a friend’s hamster which died. Her plan to replace it in hopes the friend wouldn’t notice didn’t work.
OPEN HOUSE
Bye, Bye Boris
1/7/90
Margo goes off the deep end after she's convinced her cat's died with an unresolved argument between them. (This is another case in which I would need to know how old the cat was to fit the timeline.)
THE GOLDEN GIRLS
“Feelings”
October, 1990
Because Dorothy refused to pass a failing football star so that he could win a big game, somebody sent her a fish wrapped in a newspaper.
THE X-FILES
“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” to “Quagmire”
1990 - 1996
Scully's “inherited” her dog Queequeg after the death of Mr. Bruckman in 1995, but the dog was probably a few years old by then. So I’m arbitrarily claiming that the Pomeranian was born after October of 1990. Sadly, Queequeg was eaten by a Florida alligator.
FULL HOUSE
“A Fish Called Martin”
FEBRUARY 1991
Manish’s soul has no luck in Piscean form….
CHEERS
“Rat Girl”
April 1991
Lilith’s rat Whitey dies and grief-stricken Lilith can’t stop carrying his body in her purse. Ha! The soul of Manish would get stuck in another female.
NEWSRADIO
“Rat Funeral”
October 1995
Manish – now known as Mike the Rat, the office mascot – gets killed in a trap.
GILMORE GIRLS
“Cinnamon’s Wake”
November 2000
The town of Star’s Hollow mourns the passing of Babette and Morey’s cat. If they knew the truth about Manish, maybe Cinnamon might not have been given such a send-off.
THE SOPRANOS
November, 2002
Christopher killed his girlfriend's dog Cosette… by sitting on her.
VERONICA MARS
October, 2005
Keith investigates the wreckage of a school bus to find a dead rat taped under one of the seats. Keith and Veronica initially conclude that the rat was a message to someone who was planning to rat out someone else. But later, Keith figures that the purpose of the rat was the stench forcing certain students off the bus to protect them. No matter how the rat got there, I’m saying it was Manish and he got snuffed yet again.
MIDSOMER MURDERS"The Axeman Cometh"
February, 2007
A campaign of harassment against Gary Cooper sees a dead sheep dumped on his tennis court, a gutted pig placed in his trout stream, and a skinned rabbit strung up in his garage.
Let’s give Manish a break for once – let him choose which of these three animals he’d want to be. But he would have to choose one.
BURN NOTICE
“Fight or Flight”
July 2007
A cocktail waitress named Cara is the only conscious witness to a drug cartel member beating a pizza delivery boy senseless for rear-ending him. The cartel starts intimidating her, including nailing a dead rat to her front door. And it’s the start of a string of rat lives extinguished for Manish’s soul.
LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT
"Purgatory”
June, 2008
After coming back from his suspension and going undercover to bust some fellow dirty cops, Det. Goren opens up his drawer to find a dead rat inside of it.
CSI; NY
“Dead Inside”
November, 2008
Stella receives a dead rat in the mail: a warning to her that the murder of the 'rat fisherman' should remained an unsolved case.
GRIMM
“Chupacabra”
December 12, 2014
After Monroe (a Blutbad) and Rosalee (a Fuchsbau) get married, a Wesen hate group protests their union by nailing the corpse of a fox (the animal Fuchsbau are based on) to her apothecary shop. Well, Manish gets nailed to another door, but at least it’s a step up from being a rat.
LIVE WITH KELLY & RYAN
June 14, 2017
Ryan Seacrest swatted a fly on their desk.
BYE BYE, MANISH!
13 REASONS WHY
2018
Montgomery De la Cruz left a dead rat in Zach's gym bag. Back to a rat host again….
Who knows where/when the soul of Manish might be reincarnated again and as who/what? But it would serve him right if he came back as a baby girl in a Muslim family.
My thanks to the following Facebook friends who had suggestions for the list of Manish’s incarnations.
- Richard Gordon
- Tavie Philips
- Thomas Holbrook
- Hugh Davis
- Julie Price
- Andrew Leal
- Bill Wilson
- Rob Sherwood
- Brad Filippone
- Jim Bradley
- David Hofstede
- Michael Gaschnitz
Yeah…. The Doctor is never going to accept me as a Companion…..
तुम्हें देखकर
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