The graceful me?

No thanks! I would remain disgraceful if it requires me ‘do’ a Rekha, Hema Malini, Aishwarya Rai or Shilpa Shetty etc. Rekha for her bewitching beauty, Hema and Shilpa for breaking their beaus’ previous marriages. In general, it’s like a dwarf trying to touch the moon or me trying to ‘do’ a celeb - same thing!

I would rather ‘do’ a Sushmita, Bipasha or Nandita – again, not their beauties. May be a bit of Sushmita’s class, Bipasha’s confidence and Nandita’s intelligence.

There must be a politics behind one’s ‘grace’… a politics of cynicism? I keep referring to my J-school in almost all my postings, because that was also a place where I lived life to a fullest… for; its royale treatment once you stepped out of the class, not having to see any relative, meeting sweetest friends (and bitter ones who taught lesson for a life-time) and of course for ‘missing-and-catching-that-call’. But that was also a place where I had experienced the cynicism of those believed in an ‘uneven society’ – a strange unevenness that only acknowledged either fair skin or those with a defence background. (It’s a strong statement and I don’t want to lose my dearest friend, you know what I mean.). The cynicism grew, to a level that I had lost my interest in journalism… I had almost packed my bags. Later, the passion withstood cynicism.

I’d spent my early Delhi days as a compulsive-repulsive and last few days in Bangalore as a racist. In my 2nd innings in Delhi, I am also accused of practising communalism under the façade of rational secularism. But I have substantiated all my avatars with facts, reality and my own experiences. On the Dashera Day, I requested my colleagues to maintain Ravana as Ravana and not as Ravan… like Ram Setu gets an ‘H’ added on when I am on shift, to maintain the dignity of their places of origin.

Genealogy makes a difference? I can’t examine, I am no expert… But I strongly maintain my view on caste defining one's characteristics. I wonder why Sarah Palin’s case is different - a woman who could advocate to bear rapists’ child and yet being Princess Diana’s distant cousin. Beauty certainly, brains? Perhaps too much of hockey makes blueblood turn into black!

There are other differences. I have known people who turned down even a god for its North Indian looks. I have known people who defined ‘grace of a woman from her place of birth’. I have known people who restricted ‘ayurveda’ to a specific region.

I have not known anyone who didn't celebrate Booker winning Chennai born writer's ‘The White Tiger’ – the book that portrayed a dark side of North India; does corruption exist only in North India? As much as we celebrated the beauty of a down south Indian state, Kerala in "God of the small thing".