CELEBRITY OBSESSION

What is this obsession that we commoners have with celebrities? I have been wondering about this for some time.


There are more pictures of Shilpa Shetty's wedding than about 26/11 in the last few days. Btw, can anyone name her last movie? There are more pics / articles of Rakhi Sawant, AB, SRK compared to everyone else combined.


This time, I had a hands-on experience of this manic behavior.


S and I are in LA and SFO for the Thanksgiving week and are visiting the various tourist spots in the vicinity. When at Alcatraz, I could see visitors sit on the toilet of the cell occupied by Robert "Birdman of Alcatraz" Stroud and click pictures. I could see others enter the cells of this jail and act as if they are prisoners of this cell and get some pictures clicked. This is probably the only time (i sincerely hope) that ppl pay to go to jail.


Then we were in Hollywood - BelAir - Beverly Hills and taking a guided tour of the area when the tour guide was pointing to different houses and identifying the celebrity who currently stays (or previously stayed) in those mansions. Not even 5-10% of those house could be seen due to the huge screening trees around the homes. But still, tourists were clicking their way to glory. Even worse, they even were clicking pictures of some parks where some celebs were caught breaking the law. There was no proof that these celebs actually stayed there or the crimes were actually broken there. But, the obsession towards celebs and their star studded lives made these ppl believe anything and everything narrated by the tour guide.


This reminds me of one funny incident that my uncle went through in Mumbai many years ago. For someone who came from a very small town and was visiting Mumbai for a month, he took the Mumbai Darshan bus. The biggest attraction of this bus ride was to see bollywood star's homes.


The guide showed a bungalow as AB's home. Next week, his wife and kids came to Mumbai and my uncle took them in the same bus with the same tour guide. This time, the guide showed an entirely different house as AB's home. My uncle immediately caught him red-handed and questioned him in front of the entire tourist group -- Hey, last week you showed me a different home as AB's home. This week you are showing me something new. Whats going on? The guide was smart -- ShaaNa, as they are called in Mumbai. He coolly replied -- AB moved over the weekend.

So, whats different in this one?

Yesterday, the marriage clock chimed 4 am. Its been 4 fabulous years full of fun and bliss. The near and dear ones called to wish and it was a day exactly as we would have wanted it to be. Morever, this was our first anniversary to fall on a weekend. All our prior anniversaries including the wedding day were weekdays.

So, to mark the occasion, I did what only insane or very rich or unmarried men dare to do. I took my girl on a shopping day out, to a place where there are 150+ factory outlets of any brand that you can name. We will do the math of the damage some other day.

But what surprised me was not her appetite to shop but the reasons to choose a dress. "The collar is different on this one.". "I do not have anything in this print". "The sleeves on this one is nice". "The color is different". -- Rather, if there is any reason to buy the dress, the lady decides to buy it.

On the other hand -- whenever I liked a shirt or a tee or jeans or jacket, I used to remember some garment which I already have which has something in similar to the new garment and would not proceed with the purchase. If there is any reason why I should not buy it, the man decides not to buy it.

Made me wonder -- is this an inherent difference between men and women? Are all the Martians like this and are all the Venetians like this?

Views most welcome.