Sunday, July 21, 2002		Books

MEET THE AUTHOR
"Every city has its voyeurs"

JOURNALIST Kanika Gahlaut has been in news recently for authoring Among the Chatterati, a book on the lives of page three celebrities. Humra Quraishi talks to her about her book and the reactions to it. Excerpts from the interview:

This is not a new question. Hacks on the beat are always asked why the chatterati is given so much importance when, as the character Aby in Among the Chatterati is told, 'So many people are dying in this country.' It is this dichotomy—nobody seems to think the chatterati is important, everybody claims that they don’t read 'that page', and yet newspapers are giving it reams and reams of space and everybody wants to see their mug in it—that makes this beat interesting.

This book is not an expose of Delhi society. If it were, the use or concealment of names would be important. This book is only meant to tell the untold story behind page three—which type of person wants to be on it, who could be a hack's sources, how newspapers are pushing themselves to expand page three coverage, why the party animal has become so important. It portrays the type of people who appear on page three, the narcissism and vanities that they come with. They could be anywhere and anyone—they are types, not individuals. The controversy and hype has been created by reviewers and page three people themselves, not by me.

Many of those mentioned in your book have reacted sharply to your portrayal of them and have come up with rather personal comments, almost as if it is a tit for tat. How have you reacted to this?

The tit-for-tat business is being created by people who haven't read the book. My book attacks no one personally. As I have said before, these are types, not individuals.

Are Indian men as obsessed with cleavages as portrayed in your book? Does that mean they are frustrated or is a mere dekho enough to satiate them?

Men everywhere seem to give cleavages a great deal of attention, and women everywhere seem to spend a large amount of money on clothes that reveal more than they conceal. As far as page three is concerned, the picture of a man taking a dekho at a consciously revealed cleavage always ensures prominent display in the newspaper. I don't know if I can comment on what that says about the Indian male's psyche, perhaps we can ask Sudhir Kakkar!

Society journalism is new to this country—it has not even come into its own. Neither are the so-called 'celebs' evolved enough as subjects, nor are hacks and newspapers aggressive enough. Nobody hounds a celebrity the way, say, they did Diana in Britain. Why page three becomes important is because it is a move in the direction of celebrity journalism, a genre that is highly developed elsewhere. The chatterati will change, hopefully, for hacks on the beat. It will become more entertaining, more ridiculous, more decadent. The paparazzi feed off excess.

There's this general criticism that you have used your beat to the fullest advantage. What’s your comment?

I have tried to create an atmosphere and give a feel of a set of people who suddenly became a part of our psyche and culture. Writers, as far as I know, generally write on subjects they are somewhat informed about.

There's another criticism— that your book has as little depth like the people you've portrayed.

I can hardly review my own book!

Page three flourishes everywhere and every city has its voyeurs. People in every city will recognise these types because they are everywhere.

It isn't as if I had a list of 10 people I hate most, with whom I wanted to settle scores. It's the diary of a society columnist who sees this world from a certain perspective, and records what she finds interesting. Like I said before, my objective was to capture certain types.

After the release of this book, are you contemplating going about with a bodyguard or is the chatterati rather harmless with no vengeful tendencies?

It's a light-hearted book. Why is everybody getting so serious? I don't need a bodyguard!