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Salute to the Queens of Outrageousness......

The past week has been an eventful one for outrageous news items andso I thought it was a good time to pen down some thoughts. History has been unkind to men. It remembers all the outrageous menthat walked this planet. Could be the various Asuras we know from theyore to Atilla the Hun to Mohammed Ghaznis to modern day dictatorslike Franco, Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler. The saga continues to thisday with the ever growing list of the infamous - Zia ul Haq, SaddamHussain, Prabhakaran of LTTE, Osama bin Laden and more recentlyIranian President Ahmadinejad. Sports has also thrown up its own kingsof the Outrageous like tennis aces Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Connors, JohnMcEnroe, Andre Agassi in their heydeys. Even the Gentlemen's game hasthrown up its share of outrageous men of the likes of Douglas Jardine,Intekhab Alam, Javed Miandad, Harbhajan Singh, and the ever (in)famous Sreesanth. There is also this anecdote about the suave General Manekshaw remarking to Mrs. Gandhi the then PM in a high-level meeting, " I amalways ready, Sweety" to a question about readiness of our forces toinvade Dacca in 1971. Men are accused of being evil geniuses, known to "outrage the modesty"of women, and by rule outrageous in their thoughts, actions and ethos.This is one reputation men would have to live down and we better accept it as our God given legacy. But look across the aisle and you will find that women are no angels but consistently draw good press and are well versed in positive PR and I daresay, maybe even spin doctoring. And so this write-up is a dedication to the many Queens of the Outrageous (Q of O). Let us embark on a little fact-finding sojourn........ The first one that quickly comes to mind is Marie Antoinette for herinfamous remark about people eat cake!! We certainly find in fiction a whole host of Qs of O - Shakespeare'sKatherina, Princess Nefertiri's outrageous utterances about anyone whocame between her and her love, Moses, the protagonist Scarlett O' Haraof Gone with the Wind. And as we continue into modern era and look for the Queens of O, thefirst name that jumps at you is of Lorena Bobbitt who gave the World in 1993 the word "Bobbittised" for her unique ways of getting even with her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt. Moving on, we have the ever youthful Shobaa De's or Kamla Das'writings that set the standards for outrageousness. Even among religious activists we have Sadhvi Rithambara, who matched Mr. Modi word for word on causing public and media outrage. The field ofpolitics, unsurprisingly, throws up a lot of Queens indeed. SarahPalin with her views on everything was certainly an uncrowned Queen of O. Staying with politics, we do have several stars like Ms.Jayalalithaa, Ms. Uma Bharti, our own beloved Mamta Di and the"iconic" Mayawati with her great penchant for image building andtirades on manuwad. Then there is the "foot in the mouth"outrageousness of Rita Bahuguna Joshi a few months back when speakingon the compensations given to victims of rape. Sports isn't far behind. Mandira Bedi with her comments on cricket andthe dresses that matched them would certainly qualify for the Q of Oposition. But the past week has to take the cake. What was so brutalto see was the lovable Serena Williams forfeiting her Semi-final matchwith her outrageous verbal outpouring on a very puny-looking linejudge at the US open - "why don't I shove this ball ...........".However what took the crown was the 107-year old Malaysian lady wanting to take husband No. 23. Any suitors? Where are those guys who lost out on the "Rakhi ka swayamwar" show? Reminds me of a statement a lady friend of mine made when I was reading her palm some time ago. Thefirst thing she said naughtily as I started to read her palm was, "let me know how many husbands I am likely to have?" Needless to say, Idropped her left hand in a hurry....... and haven't read many palms since.... :-)

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