A midnight drunken brawl, simulated sex with a wine bottle and a threatened suicide attempt.

It’s on such a cocktail of absurdity and stupidity that the Big Brother show has survived — and built a reputation. So the racist comments against Shilpa Shetty is only the latest ingredient. And yet, from anonymous e-mailers to Germaine Greer, from I&B Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to the Ministry of External Affairs, all worked themselves up into outrage.

Though it was “a matter between an individual actress and private TV channel’’ which “does not in any way involve the government’s accountability”, Dasmunsi said the government had to take note as the Mumbai film industry was rather concerned about Shetty’s welfare. He also urged the actor to “get in touch with the Indian High Commision and give them her side of the story” so that they could help “if need be”.

Not just that. Henceforth, Dasmunsi said, actors on foreign assignments “should inform the government” and also the Indian High Commissions/embassies on reaching foreign shores so that not only the “Bharatiya nari’s samman” is safe, the country is also saved from “unnecessary embarrassment.”

Shetty, herself, is unaware of this transnational agony.

Perched on the golden couch and with no contact with the outside world, she described her experience in the Big Brother house as “very, very difficult — a kind of roller-coaster ride”. She said she thought it would be a learning experience and a cultural give-and-take.

But it’s still not clear who’s doing the giving and the taking.

... contd.