08.13.07
The Tale of Three Monicas
Whenever I read or hear the name MONICA, this evergreen song resonates in my mind. It goes like this:
”A little bit of Monica in my life
A little bit of Erica by my side
A little bit of Rita is all I need
A little bit of Tina is what I see
A little bit of Sandra in the sun
A little bit of Mary all night long
A little bit of Jessica here I am
A little bit of you makes me your man”
“Monica” the name is so utterly romantic and sweet that I associate it with someone beautiful, comely and homely, may be a trifle lonely.
Till Monica Seles came along that is.
She was beautiful but not at all comely as she butchered all the Steffi Grafs and the Gabriela Sabatinis that faced her on the tennis court.
This great tennis player with some real chubby cheeks put me off with her big service game accompanied by noisy grunting sounds, at the receiving end of which was my tennis heart throb Steffi Graff. I didn’t like this Monica at all but turned her supporter when her career was temporarily halted by a stabbing incident that changed my feelings towards her. From being someone whom I didn’t want to win, she became an object of sympathy. This sympathy was later transformed into admiration for the incredible guts that she displayed to tide over the most difficult time in her career.
Then came the infamous Monica, the Monica Lewinsky who seduced the easy prey in the person of Bill Clinton. Not only did this Monica get into a sexual (or is it oral?) relationship with her boss- a married man with a roving eye, she also neatly preserved all the pieces that could be later used as evidences that Bill actually was working very hard in the dark rooms of the White House.
And finally there is Monica Bedi. She came to the mother earth in 1973, two year after the other two Monicas arrived. A small-time heroine who got involved with the underworld and finally landed in the jail is another remarkable story.
Monica Seles was stabbed by an obsessed Steffi Graf fan. Monica Lewinsky stabbed a former lover-cum-boss at his back and now the utterances of Monica Bedi that she was kind of stabbed at the back by Abu Salem. So back stabbing and Monica are synonymous with one another.
Another thing that is common amongst the three Monicas is their link with the Number “One”.Monica Seles was the undisputed number One in the women’s tennis when a crazy attacker ended her glorious run at the top.
When Monica Lewinsky spilled the beans about the Bill Clinton’s not so official relationship with her, it nearly put an end to the career of the Number One man in the world and when Monica Bedi used her beau, Abu Salem to get all the insignificant roles for her in the absurd Bollywood films, she was seducing the Number One man of the underworld to fulfill her ambition of becoming a number One heroine in the tinsel world.
Monica Bedi was unsuccessful in her attempts to become even a number Twenty heroine of Bollywood. Fortune favours the one who has lots of grit, abundance of determination and dollops of talent. It doesn’t favour someone who is just good-looking but is able to use her proximity with an underworld Don to bag roles. Even today the mafia is not so powerful that it can force the public to go to the theatres to prop up the career of a non-actor. Thank God for this!
Monica Bedi is now free and is pleading that she didn’t know any thing about Abu until she was too deeply involved with him. The realization came a bit too late, she wants us to believe. For a girl born in the land of wisdom that is Punjab, brought up in cold climes of Norway, trained in England and who struggled her way up in Bombay it seems unbelievable that she could be so naïve.
If you look at her photographs you see innocence writ all over her face. The eyes are sad, the coyness of the yore replaced by the serenity that comes after a longish spell is the jai. She wants to re-launch herself, may be an actress again. Her interviews suggest that she may opt for a political career. She may even sign up with some publisher for bringing out her memoirs aptly titled, “Indian Monica-an untold story.”
May be God will give her yet another chance. But Monica must tell the truth. She must not try to capitalize on her past which has all the shades of grey.
She should take a leaf out of the book of Monica Seles who was stabbed at the back when she was at the top and yet came back to win a Grand slam tournament, the Australian Open, 3 year after the attack.
Monica Bedi is now held in the same esteem that is befitting for someone who used her connections to arm-twist the hapless (or may be not so hapless really!) producers into signing her up as the leading lady of the number One or number Two man in a film.
Hope she doesn’t go the Lewinsky way and fights back like Seles did. She has a lot at stake. She is just 32 and is a Monica too!
Sudhir Bisht is a freelance writer. Reach him at sudhir_bisht@rediffmail.com
Sanjay T said,
August 14, 2007 at 11:44 am
Very entertaining stuff.
But Bedi will never go the Seles way. She will follow lewinsky
sb said,
August 14, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Interesting Corealtion. Not every Monica is Seles. I agree with Mr.Venkatesh’s comments. Lets look at bigger and better issues on the eve of 60th Independence Day of our country and not dwell on such a trivial issue .
Altaf B said,
August 15, 2007 at 7:28 am
Good job Sudhir bhai. Nice article.
D B Reddy said,
August 16, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Very good article on Monica. You have good sense of humour with commonsence. Hope you have spent lot of time in studying the incidnets.
At again, very good one.
A. Venkatesh said,
August 19, 2007 at 4:23 am
Dear Sudhir,
A good article and a good comparison. All the three Monicas had to work hard. Seles to be no.1 in tennis, Lewinsky to try and be no. 1 (God knows where) and Bedi to be no. 1 in Bollywood.
Seles showed her determination after the attack. Lewinsky went into the oblivion after Bill stopped footing her bill and we need to see the path that Bedi takes, which can determine whether she has the guts to struggle and make a comeback or go into oblivion.