Get real

They're called "reality" shows. Though what they have to do with reality, apart from being called that, beats me. They select people to star whose qualifications, essentially, are being stars. They show you what it is like when several of these stars live together in the full knowledge that one gets tossed every week, that the tossing happens via a vote, and that the one left standing at the end will take home a tidy packet.

In short, this is a format deliberately designed to bring out the worst in its participants. Which, if you go by ratings wherever in the world these stultifying shows pop up, is clearly what viewers want to see.

So why the great outrage -- from radio jockeys all the way up to stratospheric government heights -- over what happened to Shilpa Shetty in one of these shows? After all, we've seen and heard plenty such in our own version of the show -- remember one Anupama Varma's recent acrimonious exit from "Bigggg ("Kyon G?") Bossss" and all she said about her co-stars? After all, and again, insinuation and insults are why we tune in to begin with, am I wrong? Besides, surely racism qualifies as reality anyway. So why should we expect that small-time stars intent on getting ahead would politely steer clear of one strain of insult?

But above all, there's this reality: if Shilpa Shetty plays her cards right from here on out, she should be on the fast track to winning the big prize. And if she manages that ... more than government interventions, more than any amount of fulminations on FM, that will show small-minded nuts where they can stick their small-minded remarks.

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Postscript (January 20): Sure enough, the woman responsible for the remarks about Shilpa Shetty is off the show.