Goody Two Shoes

Well.. after a fairly short and not-so-protracted battle against cervical cancer, Jade Goody, aka racist foul-mouth white-trash wench, has finally kicked the bucket at the ripe age of 27, and leaves behind two little sons. Sad part that..
Jade's cruel twist of fate, and Shilpa Shetty's rising stars are so in the opposite worlds that any one who believes in astrology cannot but wonder how two totally different people from separate continents, have such reversals of fortune, that its sickening.
Of course both are camera-grabbing, sound-byte giving, over-the-top acting attention whores, and their apparent lack of talents are overshadowed by the fact that people are willing to give in to any sloppy fight between two grown women on the telly.
Jade's wedding a month before her death, serves us to remind that gold diggers reside on both side of the gender fence. She made over a million pounds in selling the rights to her wedding, and the rights from all her interviews, her two books [two books by age 27? I can't even write a single chapter!] had made her rich.. And a newly wedded grieving widower who is most likely going to hit the dating circuit in the coming days. Watch out english women! Here come the husband of the english patient..
God knows what is Jade's gift to this planet - she lead a life in below average surroundings, held mediocre jobs, and the Big Brother riff gave her the status of a rockstar. Even suburban middle class Indian men know "Jade Gooooody", if only her claim to fame were a supposed "racist rant" against "poppadum Shetty" - who the fu$# uses the work "Poppadum" anyway - I always thought it was "Lijjat Paapad" or the more tamil-ized "Appalaam" mmmm tasty.
Jade didn't die soon enough - her fight laster almost 6 days more than what was expected. That gave TV channels 6 more days of banal reporting. Bye-bye Miss Not-so-Goody Two Shoes.. RIP..

Womens' Day

Another western concept tries to find its niche here in India. First it was hallmark's Valentine's day, then it was what - Father's day, Mother's day - ever wonder why the American's don't have children's day or teacher's day celebrated - it is because of the American value system which places selfishness above knowledge, which is in line with the Judeo Christian philosophy of "save they souls or go to hell" dogma. This has very little to do with the hooliganism unleashed by the Sri Ram Sene, because irrespective of their professed religious ideology, I simply treat their behavior as a law and order problem, and little or nothing to do with scoring political brownie points and should be deal with as such. Child-brides, dowry deaths, human trafficking, no access to health-care might be problems their urban sisters are blithely unaware of while they hit the pubs, and party the night away.
What ever happened to women helping women? That is utterly and sorely missing. The greatest impediment to the success of women is not just their male counterparts - but women themselves. Men by very nature are competitive and will attempt to out do each other, while it is in the nature of women to be more co-operative. The discrimination against the gender filters through all class barriers, as indicated by the sex ratio in the state of Chandigarh/Punjab stands to be among the lowest.
Women don't need pink chaddis and pub bharo andolans - you can drink to it once you are done emancipating your sisters. Cheap gimmickry gets you media attention and more molestors, not the respect of your uncouth opponents.