Does anyone remember Shenaz Treasurywala?
Think…think harder…Okay stop trying. Let me sum her up for you. She was one of those attractive faces in Bollywood who came, who saw and who vanished. Last year she wrote a heart wrenching letter to Narendra Modi (and Shah Rukh and Salman <and I don’t know why?>). She asked them graciously to stop rapes in India. Although No Modi (and Shah Rukh and Salman) can rid us of a social evil just like that but at least her intentions were good. No, they weren’t. She was of those unscrupulous actors who was using a social evil to promote a movie. Yes, some director was magnanimous enough to give her a movie and she was trying her best to give the movie a push by sticking to a social issue. Many people applauded her, obstinate realists like ourselves ripped her phoney sentiments right-left and center.
Open Letters have been the Brahmastra of many 2 bit (Do kaudi ke) celebs to shoot to limelight. The latest open letter to hit the main stream media is the open letter by Shruti Seth. Shruti Seth is best known for her role in Rajneeti (Sitapur waala ticket dilwa dijiye naa sir, khoob mehnat karengey). She has also stared in a couple of forgettable daily soaps. In all, Shruti Seth has had a flop career. Hence she keeps taking digs at prominent politicians. A not so strange coincidence is that all of them happen to be from the saffron camp. She doesn’t like the PM and is quite vocal about it. One fine day she decided to turn offensive. She tweeted against the PM. She used her FoE in the best possible way and ended up hurting a lot of people. So people retaliated in the choicest of language and the poor lady was hurt. People used their FoE creatively too.
So the end result is that she came up with the baap of all open letters which she concludes like this:
Dear Sir, if you truly wish to empower women I urge you to condemn this kind of hatred being spread in your name. Regretfully, I deleted my initial tweet because of the backlash. But I stand by what I said and I’ll reiterate it here: “Selfies don’t bring about change, reform does. So please try and be bigger than a photograph. Come on!” And as for my initial reservation about the initiative being nothing more than eyewash, I am deeply saddened to see that, in the end, I was proved right.
Let us dig it sentence by sentence:
Dear Sir – Dear was not the part of her initial tweet. Good that it’s there finally.
I urge you to condemn this kind of hatred being spread in your name – No hatred was being spread in the PM’s name, people got furious over her juvenile tweets and pointless accusations
Regretfully, I deleted my initial tweet because of the backlash – She deleted her tweet because her hypocrisy stood exposed
Selfies don’t bring about change, reform does – Yes because Shruti Seth knows that no ‘real’ work is going on, she has a blueprint of all government schemes, policies that are being drafted and the ones that are still being thought over. All ministries copy her in their letters.
So please try and be bigger than a photograph – True. Because it was Modi’s photograph that started the Jan Dhan Yojana. Modi’s photo started the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Abhiyaan. Modi’s Photo was the reason why Mudra bank and BRICS bank were founded. Modi’s photo gave a freehand to Indian Army in the Myanmar operations. It was Modi’s photo that made Yoga Day a possibility. Modi’s photo made a speech at the UN. Modi’s photo travelled to USA, Japan, China, Mongolia, Canada etc.
And as for my initial reservation about the initiative being nothing more than eyewash – Yeah! Because Kiss of love is a solid change. Ranting about Army atrocities in Kashmir is solid-er and Praying for Ghaza is the Solid-est. All these daughter-shauter can wait re…
But we have to give it to Shruti Seth. She has managed to attract a lot of eyeballs. I hope some director gives her a ticket to Sitapur this time. The lady has worked really hard and she deserves some recognition. When is the next Big Boss season by the way?