At least Sunita’s is a real achievement. Six months in space makes her the first woman to have spent that long a time away from Earth. But, had she been just a beauty queen, we would have been as excited. Remember the hysterics when Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai became Miss Universe and Miss World in the same year? In a minute we forgot our qualms about our sanskriti being polluted by decadent western ways and behaved as if these two lovely ladies had won a Nobel prize. They made national headlines and were feted and fawned upon, but when Amitabh Bachchan tried to invite the organisers of the Miss World contest to India, we remembered that beauty contests went against Indian culture. The contest was driven out of India because offended Bharatiya womanhood took to the streets to show its rage.

Speaking of women achievers, please observe the headlines sweet Sania Mirza gets every time she wins a tennis match. She does not count among the world’s top players, but at home she is a heroine. She meets the president and Sonia Gandhi and endorses all kinds of products for vast sums of money. Well, it’s not her fault that we have exalted her, but what is worrying is that it shows us up yet again as a mediocre country that strives not for excellence but for the smallest recognition from the white man.

Instead of striving towards winning every gold medal at the Olympics, as China does, we are jubilant if one of our athletes brings home a copper or silver medal. This hankering for western approval transcends all boundaries. Bollywood, with its extraordinary contribution to cinema, chases after an Oscar or even just a handful of plaudits in Cannes. Why not in Mumbai or Chennai? Why not at the annual Screen awards that this newspaper gives? Would there be more excitement if Shekhar Gupta was white instead of brown?

... contd.