BY DILIP BOBB

Idle Worship

The good, as Shakespeare should have said, lives after them. And so it has been with two modern icons whose passing has caused such great sorrow. There is, as the Queenji did say, some lesson for all of us in this. Maybe we should start to acknowledge our icons much in advance, rather than belatedly setting up trust funds to acknowledge contributions. Here are some deserving candidates:

Rabri Devi: A classic case of a woman who has kept everyone in the dark about her tireless efforts to promote the cause of poor housewives and teach their husbands not to cell them short. Like most humanitarians, she is a woman of few words and many children, whose deeds (to land, houses, etc) are her legacy. Now that she has been given official blessings by the President and the prime minister, she is ready to be called a rubber Devi.

Arundhati Roy: In keeping with the title of her book, she has consistently downplayed her achievement, even though everyone is getting a little tired of her public displays of low self-esteem and literary bulimia. However, her ability to wear her celebrity as casually as she does her T-shirts, provides a new meaning to the phrase ego-eccentric. Deserving candidate for the title of saint of small things.

Mamata Banerjee: Though an iconoclast herself, as in her refusal to join the rest of her party in anointing Sitaram Kesri as a "saviour", she is largely a self-appointed icon. Most of her speeches are peppered with the phrase "I con do this, I con do that." However, her crusade to fumigate the party offices has earned her the title of Bandicoot Queen and the eternal gratitude of thousands, mainly belonging to non-Congress parties.

Shobha De: Her social work is well documented, mainly in her ubiquitous columns, and in those same social circles she is often referred to as Princess De. Though porn to privilege, her humble attitude and attempts to educate Indians in the mysteries and misconceptions about sex has earned her the undying gratitude of readers and publishers alike. There is now every likelihood that she will be de-ified.

Mayawati: Her penchant for setting up statues on every street corner is a moving, albeit expensive, monument to her commitment to the cause of the downtrodden, which is what the bjp is claiming she is doing to them. Has made a major contribution to the empowerment of women, as most Speakers will testify. 

Write to us | Subscriptions

© Living Media India Ltd