The Page 3 people ,the so-called glitterati more often then not are creation of media. It is a very obnoxious percept. These are the people who get a larger then life image courtesy media , which breed proximity to people in Power and enable them to break the law at will, unlike other more sane , more responsible person , who could be and are frequently charged and punished for much lesser offences.
Some one talked about the Page 3 SOCIETY ostracizing the people with criminal record. I remember reading an article by another prominent Page 3 personality Shobha De in a respectable magazine OUTLOOK . She not only absolved Bina Ramani for her misdeeds but even eulogized her. I met a Page 3 character who did not find anything reprehensible in the sordid act of Nanda (BMW Case).He remarked that only because the car was BMW and the accused happened to belong to a high profile family the poor kid had to suffer a lot. Had it been say an Ambassador car and the accused from not so upper strata of society , the case would had been settled with much lesser retribution. The police people had no business to be standing in the middle of the road at that hour, the fault was all theirs.Could someone give a better example of putrefied death of sensiblities.Yes the Page 3 people reek of it.
In a recent issue of India Today a list of 50 most powerful people was published. Most of them belong to the Page 3 Genre Powerful and pigmies intellectually. In the age of Nehru the PM’s friends were of the class of Mr. Prakash, Minoo Masani etc., . In the age of Rajeev Gandhi they got replaced by illiterates of Page 3 kind. The decadence of culture started there.
The funeral of a renowned poet Shri H R Bachchan too became a Page 3 affair. People commented on him, that he was the best litterateur of the century, grading him above Tagore inadvertently. Most of these people have not read anything including Bachchanji’s literature. It was a Funeral procession of Amitabh’s father ( he too does figure in the 50 most powerful people’s list of India Today) and not of a Hindi poet.
Some one commented that its Delhi alone that has a readership of Page 3. How true. It echoes Nirad C Chowdhury’s sentiments very aptly, " Punjabis have only one culture and that is agriculture". It is the cultureless breed of Delhi, that perceives Money as the only prime mover and that law is for the birds and weak people, which thrives on Page 3. The so called gala parties have drugs in their menu. The arrest of the drug peddler Ali ( if I remember the name correctly) has ripped off the mask from the faces of most of the so called celebrities, I wish only that the case should had been followed up more closely, that would had showed these people in their true colours.I am sure it was the might of the Page 3 people that was able to get the case hushed up.
Another marginal comment ,their was an Advertisement on Opel Corsa in the mid break of the program , where the Punch line was that I would had been just another man if I was not driving an Opel Corsa.Another Ad. I remember reading somewhere that " There are only two types of people , Who’s who and Who’s He" Such ad’s are contemptuous and breed the aspirations of the middle class to ape and read about the so called Celebrities, howsoever hollow their claim to fame may be. The politicians in this country have an average mental age of a 14 year old person( statement by either Swami Chinmayannad or J D Krishnamurty). They are either awed by these Page 3 people and/or take money and use their influence to obtain favours for them. This country functions on who knows who and not as per the rule book.
A statement of Bill Clinton in one of his speeches " The highest seat of Power in a democracy is that of an ordinary citizen " rings so hollow in todays India.
If the media including the electronic media starts avoiding these meaning less Page 3 events, do not put the so called designers ( who cater to the Ego of say fifty families in India) and such irrelevant people on the dias, the cult would die a natural death. A lady remarked that people enjoyed reading it so it has to be there. Is it not the responsiblity of the Fourth estate to be a beacon rather then a meek follower of the trend..
