HIGH LIFE- Walk of shame
Pehchan Kaun
Now this brings me back to my dilemma. A successful and famous industrialist known for his weakness for Bollywood actresses was caught red handed with a married item girl in Delhi recently. If I drop names they put me on a guilt trip about what their kids will go through. But why didn’t you think of the kids before frolicking with your lover? I bumped into Nari Hira at a party the other day. He told me about a concerned mom (but naughty wife) putting him through the same about a similar issue. I just asked him one thing. Do you think poor Salman Khan or at that SRK and Aishwarya Rai can get away with such pleas? The press would just go ahead and ask them questions anyway. Also the man involved here has his wife maintaining a dignified silence and giving strength to her kids. Even their dad is in the eye of the storm. But she is a picture of grace. By the way much of this gyan I got from Nari Hira who was my first boss. Very few celebs deserve their privacy. Ratan Tata is one of them. He never seeks publicity . He doesn’t care about magazine covers and party columns. Now if he decides to keep his personal front private, sure I would respect that. A famous shoe designer married her girlfriend who was going through a sex change. They sent out invites to the press so when I found out that the ‘groom’ was actually a woman, I had no qualms writing about it.
Test drive
Kishin Mulchandani was the star of Friday evening because everyone asked him about his drunken driving arrest. He took it in his stride. Not once he said don’t write about me. But yes he did ask me why do they want to write about him. Well, that you get written about is your choice, but what we write is clearly our prerogative. He smiled and inspired many to take private cabs back home. Fame, darlings, is not a one way street. So if you devour public attention, then watch your actions. The walk of fame can sometimes even become the walk of shame.
(Simi Chandoke, Editor-in-Chief, Lifestyle and Society, Zoom)