The She(i)tty Times of India

Okay, Shilpa Shetty at the Big Brother show in UK has been causing quite a stir over the supposedly racist comments by her co-participants. But is it the only thing that happened this week? I read only the Times of India, and sadly think so.

The Sunday Times center page is replete with articles by eminent journalists on matters of varying interests. The TOI, has however been more notorious for being a 'Masala' Times because of the unproportionate weightage it gives to the reel life.

So, today's center page has six articles. The first one is from the very eminent Shobha De. She talks about hypocritical Indians who are so quick to claim that whites are racist when each one of them themselves is no better.All this in light of the Shilpa Shetty issue. Yep, true.

The second article is from CP Surendran, who asks readers not to give in to the sensitive Shilpa Shetty issue, since it is a publicity stunt. Yep, true.

The third one is from Bachi Karkaria and she asks the same question that Shobha De had already posed. And you know my reply to that.

The next one from Chidananad Rajghatta who, in the light of the racism controversy of the Big Brother show guesstimates how long it will be before racism stops. Hmmm, even I wonder till when.

Only Jug Suraiya talks on real estates, and Swaminathan Aiyar on Inflation. Swaminathan, the poor chap must not have found one angle how he could link the Shilpa Shetty issue to the Indian economy. So, he thought, 'Ok, let me write about this inflation thing that came in that small box in TOI yesterday...'. Oh yes, I understand that.

So., with four out of six articles on Shilpa Shetty, and couple of more about the same issue on the front page as well as somewhere in the middle, India is definitely worried about what's going to happen next at the Cebrity Big Brother.

Bachi Karkaria makes a punch statement with her article title which reads, "Is there life after Celebrity Big Brother". Sadly for you madam, it is for your own newspaper to realize that. The rest of us know it is since ever.