Beautician and the Beasts...

Sorry..... forgot all about attaching the column in the earlier post. Here it is....



Beautician and the Beasts – ‘Su’ has a nose for trouble!

You are warned – this is going to get personal. Sorry Sunanda, but it is our business. Whenever there is an attractive, single woman at the centre of a controversy, it always gets personal. Besides the time to get down and dirty is now! After ‘Sho-nia’, who? The answer’s obvious ‘Su-shi’. This ‘Su-shi’ platter doesn’t even need a dash of wasabi to spice it up – our nostrils are on fire already. Of course, the media is going to chase the juiciest scandal after the Sania-Shoaib chakkar. Of course mediawallas will go overboard with every new dirty detail that emerges from the latest IPL lafda. Deal with it guys .Especially since at the epicenter of this delicious, salacious cracker of a story is a luscious woman. Someone who has emerged on the national scene out of nowhere and is likely to stick around, if she becomes our dishy ministerji’s third shrimatiji. Strange how readers and viewers have clearly indicated their insatiable appetite for more juicy details on Sunanda Push(y)-kar - and to hell with everything else. Lalit Modi’s very dodgy crime record ( according to press reports in the U.S. he was arrested in 1985 on charges of ‘conspiracy to traffic cocaine, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill’ . Phew!). Let’s put that down to, misguided, youthful follies as a student in America. His many misadventures thereafter are being duly reported on a daily basis, since the IPL war has heated up and the protagonists are all well matched, seasoned players. But, it is Sunanada who steals the show each time she tosses her bottle blond bob around, or readjusts her designer shades. A rather cruel tabloid report rubbed the lady’s nose in the ground after it managed to unearth some telling ten year old ‘before-and-after’ photographs of the former beautician.Apparently ,expert rhinoplasty fixed her old, extra long nose to produce the current pert one. The surgeon who was given a Padma Shri in 2009 for his contribution to the field of plastic surgery ( was it a belated ‘thank you’?), went on to reveal some more graphic details about other surgeries undertaken by the Kashmir Ki Kali, before she launched herself on the international scene as a player not to be messed with.
As things stand, she has given her gentleman friend ( Tweet King Tharoor) several charming character certificates. We now know he is a “kind, great, principled and honest guy”, who is her good friend. Tharoor has generously returned the compliments by assuring everybody that Sunanda is not just his good friend, but his very, very good friend, who is being hounded by the media because us unsophisticated folks in India do not know how to respect attractive, woman professionals ( Chanda Kochhar, Naina Kidwai, Zia Mody – protest forthwith!!!). Excuse me, but when someone has the audacity to pass such a sweeping judgement on successful female careerists in India ( considering Tharoor’s boss, Sonia Gandhi herself falls into this category), I’d say he and his lady love are asking for trouble. Today, more than ever, India is celebrating the incredible contribution of women in the work force. Women who have had to battle enormous resistance and prejudice to make their way in life. Sunanda Pushkar’s story does not fall into this category. Going by her own family’s accounts, Sunanda comes across as an adventurous woman who didn’t always play by conventional rules ( a source in her plastic surgeon’s clinic says she was not charged for the 3 or 4 lakh nose job since she had come with a ‘recommendation’). Her IPL supporters claim she was given a nearly 70-crore gift ( come on, let’s not confuse everybody with technicalities – call it sweat equity if you want. Gift, it is), for services she was going to render. Services such as marketing, event management and endorsement deals …. in the future. She herself said all this was in lieu of a salary. Sorry…. this doesn’t sound like an ace professional talking.
When women like Sunanda Pushkar hit the headlines, it sends out the most terrible message about women in the workplace. Let’s face it, Sunanda is as much of a hot potato as she is a hottie. Every possible stereotype is being dragged out of closets and paraded with a sneer and a predictable putdown that goes – “ See – what did I tell you? Women are like that, only!” No sir. No ma’am. For every Sunanda out there, there are thousands of exceedingly hard working, extraordinarily committed women merely doing their job. And yes. Many of them are stunningly attractive,too.
So????
When Tharoor tried to make India go on a guilt trip about his future wife, it was a low blow. Love can make even the world’s sharpest, smoothest Casanovas behave in an irrational, gooey ‘lattoo’ way.While we fully understand the Minister’s heart condition and wish him well with his latest bride-to-be, this is one coup de coeur that goes beyond his personal life. Today, the IPL story has brought disrepute to not just the game of cricket but several prominent personalities. It has also focused attention on the rot and corruption that lie behind the glamour and glitz of this multi-crore tournament. Charges of rampant drug abuse, underworld involvement, hawala transactions, prostitution, bribery and worse are doing the rounds. With so much sleaze and muck to deal with, the game itself has become incidental.And the man who set the ball rolling – Lalit Modi – will find it near impossible to crawl out of this pit unscathed. I have no sympathy for these big boys. They know how to take care of themselves. I have no sympathy for the lovebirds, ‘Su-shi’ either. By the time their big day arrives, there will be enough people to dance at the baraat ( as it happened during the ‘Sho-nia’ shaadi). We are great ones for celebrating ‘weddings-sheddings’…. that’s us. Sentimental fools, all. In this case, the bride has a lot to blush about. And so does the groom. But at least one thing is guaranteed after the garlands are exchanged – no more bad hair days for Shashi. Jai ho!