What’s with India and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan?

These days, all I seem to be reading on the internet are reports about Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan’s weight gain post pregnancy and delivery, and about how she is not being a good celebrity by hiring a trainer and losing all that excess flab? There are videos of Aishwarya flaunting all her flab and asking ‘Why is she not doing anything about it?’ One of the news reports that I read led me to a YouTube video with pictures of Aishwarya post her weight gain, with elephant sounds playing in the background!

I am not a huge fan of the Bachchan bahu, neither have I been following gossip about her avidly, but still, this is what meets my eye almost everywhere I go on the internet. And I find it extremely disgusting. It is so shameful to attack a post-partum woman about her weight, just because she is a celebrity. Come on, she is a human being too, and she says she is no hurry to lose her excess weight as she is enjoying her time with baby Aaradhya. Why do people have to be so mean and stinging in their comments? It really gets on my nerves.

I agree that being a celebrity puts you in the public eye 24/7, but that doesn’t make you a robot. There is a limit to which someone can pry into a celebrity’s personal life, and most of the reports I have read so far seem to have crossed all such limits.

And why are we, Indians, so obsessed with Aishwarya anyway? First it was ‘How is Abhishek and Aishwarya’s married life going?’, then it was ‘Is Aishwarya going to act after her marriage or will she just make use of the Bachchan brandname?’, then it was ‘When are Abhishek and Aishwarya going to have a baby?’. After Amitabh announced her pregnancy, it was ‘When is Aishwarya going to deliver?’, and after the delivery, it was ‘Is this really Abhishek’s baby? If so, why so much delay in getting pregnant?’. After she delivered, it was ‘When are Abhishek and Aishwarya going to name their child?’ and ‘What are they going to name her?’ Now, there has been another sleazy blow on her – ‘Why is Aishwarya not losing her post-partum flab?’ People!

All I am trying to say is that being a celebrity does not give people the right to say anything and everything about a person. I would like to see the day when we learn to respect the fact that celebrities have a life too, and that they are entitled to it as much as any other ordinary person is.