The whole Shilpa Shetty incident is hilarious, to put it mildly. Of course, it's a disgrace to the nation, and my sympathies to her and all of that, but still, the way the media and two governments are treating this topic is just amazing! My, what patriotic fervour! I sincerely believed our government had slightly higher priority issues to discuss and comment on.
And Shilpa Shetty herself is surprisingly quiet in all of this. She has not come out to the media, never let herself be seen talking on this issue. The whole thing looks a bit dubious to me. Firstly, that she was there on that program to show-case 'Indian Culture' sounds incredulous to me. Now, we all know how excellent a forum to show-case your culture, a reality TV show is. A reality show, in reality is a cheap, trashy program that pays money to cheap, trashy has-been-in-the-limelight C-grade celebrities and wannabes of questionable talent and achievement (Note: I am not commenting on the character of the persons) to reveal how truly bitchy, dirty and foul-mouthed they are to a voyeuristic population that apparently laps up any shit that's thrown to them in the name of entertainment. Come on, we've seen this filth ourselves in our reality shows like 'Roadies' and the like. If Shilpa's secret ambition was to gain media attention and re-start her flagging celebrity lifestyle, she got more than her due share of it. There's nothing in India that sells like a plea for sympathy, and if you can make yourself look weak, subjugated and burdened while at it, you instantly become the perfect Bharatiya Naari in the eyes of the people. The blogosphere, the entire newspaper community, debaters, my grandmother's friends, the neighborhood dogs, every living being with a vocal cord suddenly has strong views on this topic.
Of course we cannot and will not tolerate racism or abuse, but somehow the credibility of the whole issue is shaky when the victim of the abuse has
a. chosen to be present in such an 'abusive' environment out of her own choice. (Nobody would have prevented her from walking off the sets at the first instance of abuse. She's not under house arrest for God's sake!)
b. been paid / is being paid / been promised a lot of money for appearing on the show.
c. has chosen to hide from the media and on no occasion, spoken to the press directly on this issue.
These trivial points are however of no significance to our media watchdogs and self appointed placard-weilding, effigy-burning Indian-Dignity-protecting brigade of 16 year old girls and boys who consider it their social responsibility to organize rallies and scream themselves hoarse. But what disappoints me is that, a government too has considered it necessary to react in much the same way.
And Shilpa Shetty herself is surprisingly quiet in all of this. She has not come out to the media, never let herself be seen talking on this issue. The whole thing looks a bit dubious to me. Firstly, that she was there on that program to show-case 'Indian Culture' sounds incredulous to me. Now, we all know how excellent a forum to show-case your culture, a reality TV show is. A reality show, in reality is a cheap, trashy program that pays money to cheap, trashy has-been-in-the-limelight C-grade celebrities and wannabes of questionable talent and achievement (Note: I am not commenting on the character of the persons) to reveal how truly bitchy, dirty and foul-mouthed they are to a voyeuristic population that apparently laps up any shit that's thrown to them in the name of entertainment. Come on, we've seen this filth ourselves in our reality shows like 'Roadies' and the like. If Shilpa's secret ambition was to gain media attention and re-start her flagging celebrity lifestyle, she got more than her due share of it. There's nothing in India that sells like a plea for sympathy, and if you can make yourself look weak, subjugated and burdened while at it, you instantly become the perfect Bharatiya Naari in the eyes of the people. The blogosphere, the entire newspaper community, debaters, my grandmother's friends, the neighborhood dogs, every living being with a vocal cord suddenly has strong views on this topic.
Of course we cannot and will not tolerate racism or abuse, but somehow the credibility of the whole issue is shaky when the victim of the abuse has
a. chosen to be present in such an 'abusive' environment out of her own choice. (Nobody would have prevented her from walking off the sets at the first instance of abuse. She's not under house arrest for God's sake!)
b. been paid / is being paid / been promised a lot of money for appearing on the show.
c. has chosen to hide from the media and on no occasion, spoken to the press directly on this issue.
These trivial points are however of no significance to our media watchdogs and self appointed placard-weilding, effigy-burning Indian-Dignity-protecting brigade of 16 year old girls and boys who consider it their social responsibility to organize rallies and scream themselves hoarse. But what disappoints me is that, a government too has considered it necessary to react in much the same way.
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