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Naughty girl next door Leslie Love Tripathy
Leslie Love Ann Tripathy is nothing like as gifted as Judy Garland, nowhere near as sexy as Marilyn Monroe, but like those equally doomed young women, she has the power to touch us--that is to say, if one examines the response dispassionately, to make us feel sorry for her. She is a terribly mixed-up kid. We have always felt close to her (when we were not infuriated by her) because she represents in herself so many of the worries our own children are likely to foist upon us--disappointing school grades, anorexia and bulimia, becoming the obsession of unsuitable men and young men,unable to decide as to how tohandle all the numerous suitors,a tendency to show off, a preoccupation with clothes and publicity.
Sometimes she went too far, as children do, and we were fed up with her. Sometimes we felt that she was deceiving us. She doth protest too much, we occasionally thought, when she complained about the attentions of the paparazzi. When, after so many years of burning extravagant candles at both ends, became a the inevitable obsession of a criminal living on drugs,how many times was she asked to stay away from showbiz,but she revolted and courted danger when a fan became a stalker threatened to kidnap and kill his dream girl if she didnt agree to marry him and even went to lengths of killing and kidnapping people and whoever posed as a threat in his path of possessing this lovely,perky Angel Queen. some of us for a moment thought, as the Friar thought about Romeo and Juliet, "These violent delights have violent ends..."
But she has touched us--that's the thing. As the Friar went on to remark, "So light a foot will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint." She is so lovely to look at. She appears to be so shy. Like all our children, she seems to float above the drab and everlasting flintiness of our ordinary lives. Time and again we found ourselves ready to forgive her, just as in the end we always give in and send our wayward offspring another check to pay the telephone bill; and we did it as always with a shrug of the shoulders that is part affection, part exasperation, part amusement, part forgiveness--and part pity. Even a doubter like me, when the news arrived that the former coach of the wonder kid Buddhia Singh,judo coach Biranchi Das had been shot dead because he was protecting Leslie from the evil gangster,and the devil took him as a thorn in his path ofwinning his Dream girl that Monday morning, felt the tears come to my eyes,wondering how safe was the girl when she unfortunately had become a goal in somebody's life,here we arent referring to a normal man who when rejected or ignored takes the cue and leaves his dream girl for good with a bruised ego but here we are referring to a psycho gets violent with rejection,once he wants something he pursues it crazily and even can go to lengths of harming or destroying the girl if he finally understands he cant possess her.
But then we saw in her too some larger allegory. She mirrors our personal anxieties, and the perennial anxieties of the young its hard to believe there's so much hoi-polloi over this lovely girl,something we have seen in the movies moreover specifically 'Helen of Troy' . Much of the angst of this troubled fin de siecle has been indexed in her young life. Wars and poverty, sickness and prejudice, uncertainty and despair--this daughter of a professor of english literature, this gold medallist in english literature is paradoxically familiar with them all finding her life to be 'the stuff dreams,fiction,films are made of'
How sad! What a pathetic life, after all, enlarged for us all by unrelenting advertisement, blown up like a fictional drama so that it is already entering, before our eyes, the realm of myth--an apotheosis that in previous ages took centuries to happen. In the world at large, she is already on the way to join Elvis,Diana,Helen and Marilyn on a flying saucer somewhere: in BIndia everybody is concerned,living with fear what will happen next will there be justice around with a hysterical intensity that seems pathological.
Of course, this is partly a tabloid gossip, just as Leslie herself has become a tabloid star--almost a fictional star. We have been deluded into thinking we actually know her by the tireless machines of the media, and we have cried and prayed for her as for one of our own children.
With the slandering and sabotaging done to this lovely if maddening princess for standing up and fighting her battle,voicing and speaking her mind hasnt been taken well by the orthodoxical masses of Orissa though she's being hailed as Hero all over India and abroad,yet she's being crucified in Orissa for being the beacon of light empowering women in a man's world. Something, as the old song said, had to give, and perhaps this fantastic display of public grief though behind curtains as nobody wants to be in the hitlist of that psycho, so vulgar in many ways, so unconvincing in others, has to it some spiritual element after all. Perhaps in their hearts--or so I hope--the Indian people see Leslie as a fellow victim of degraded times, and have instinctively seized upon her misery,suffering as the moment for a fresh start.
Then again it is doubtless partly mass hysteria--groupies genuinely mean it too, when they swoon in the presence of their idols, one scream leading to another, one pair of panties thrown onstage soon leading to a storm of votive lingerie. It is partly resentment against the orthodox system.Lesliey has always had a disregard for rules,though naive and passive she has a streak for adventure,exploring the road not taken,may be Thoreau has inspired her to unleash her inner Columbus.Thats why even when everybody backed out from being part of that fateful Prisoner's Reform Programme when she was invited along other celebrities,she was fearless and bravely agreed to meet and try her best to reform the lives of prisoners living in Baripada jail.Its the Ulysses within her that wanted to explore,learn and see what sort of life prisoners led,'TO STRIVE ,TO SEEK AND NOT TO YIELD'Its because she has no idea of the affect she has on people,she doesnt know everybody who comes across her is enchanted by her innocent lovely face,good manners and compassion that overflows from every fibre of her petite frame. Despite late damage limitation from the Odisha State Govt, many Indians see the hypocritical,coward Oriya acting industry and many people who were supported by Leslie in their various causes previously never turned up to support the damsel when she was in distress,obviously they have been seen as villains in this soap opera, stuffy and reactionary guardians of an old order into which Leslie came as a lovely catalyst, only to be spurned as young heroines so often are.
Leslie Love Ann Tripathy is nothing like as gifted as Judy Garland, nowhere near as sexy as Marilyn Monroe, but like those equally doomed young women, she has the power to touch us--that is to say, if one examines the response dispassionately, to make us feel sorry for her. She is a terribly mixed-up kid. We have always felt close to her (when we were not infuriated by her) because she represents in herself so many of the worries our own children are likely to foist upon us--disappointing school grades, anorexia and bulimia, becoming the obsession of unsuitable men and young men,unable to decide as to how tohandle all the numerous suitors,a tendency to show off, a preoccupation with clothes and publicity.
Sometimes she went too far, as children do, and we were fed up with her. Sometimes we felt that she was deceiving us. She doth protest too much, we occasionally thought, when she complained about the attentions of the paparazzi. When, after so many years of burning extravagant candles at both ends, became a the inevitable obsession of a criminal living on drugs,how many times was she asked to stay away from showbiz,but she revolted and courted danger when a fan became a stalker threatened to kidnap and kill his dream girl if she didnt agree to marry him and even went to lengths of killing and kidnapping people and whoever posed as a threat in his path of possessing this lovely,perky Angel Queen. some of us for a moment thought, as the Friar thought about Romeo and Juliet, "These violent delights have violent ends..."
But she has touched us--that's the thing. As the Friar went on to remark, "So light a foot will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint." She is so lovely to look at. She appears to be so shy. Like all our children, she seems to float above the drab and everlasting flintiness of our ordinary lives. Time and again we found ourselves ready to forgive her, just as in the end we always give in and send our wayward offspring another check to pay the telephone bill; and we did it as always with a shrug of the shoulders that is part affection, part exasperation, part amusement, part forgiveness--and part pity. Even a doubter like me, when the news arrived that the former coach of the wonder kid Buddhia Singh,judo coach Biranchi Das had been shot dead because he was protecting Leslie from the evil gangster,and the devil took him as a thorn in his path ofwinning his Dream girl that Monday morning, felt the tears come to my eyes,wondering how safe was the girl when she unfortunately had become a goal in somebody's life,here we arent referring to a normal man who when rejected or ignored takes the cue and leaves his dream girl for good with a bruised ego but here we are referring to a psycho gets violent with rejection,once he wants something he pursues it crazily and even can go to lengths of harming or destroying the girl if he finally understands he cant possess her.
But then we saw in her too some larger allegory. She mirrors our personal anxieties, and the perennial anxieties of the young its hard to believe there's so much hoi-polloi over this lovely girl,something we have seen in the movies moreover specifically 'Helen of Troy' . Much of the angst of this troubled fin de siecle has been indexed in her young life. Wars and poverty, sickness and prejudice, uncertainty and despair--this daughter of a professor of english literature, this gold medallist in english literature is paradoxically familiar with them all finding her life to be 'the stuff dreams,fiction,films are made of'
How sad! What a pathetic life, after all, enlarged for us all by unrelenting advertisement, blown up like a fictional drama so that it is already entering, before our eyes, the realm of myth--an apotheosis that in previous ages took centuries to happen. In the world at large, she is already on the way to join Elvis,Diana,Helen and Marilyn on a flying saucer somewhere: in BIndia everybody is concerned,living with fear what will happen next will there be justice around with a hysterical intensity that seems pathological.
Of course, this is partly a tabloid gossip, just as Leslie herself has become a tabloid star--almost a fictional star. We have been deluded into thinking we actually know her by the tireless machines of the media, and we have cried and prayed for her as for one of our own children.
With the slandering and sabotaging done to this lovely if maddening princess for standing up and fighting her battle,voicing and speaking her mind hasnt been taken well by the orthodoxical masses of Orissa though she's being hailed as Hero all over India and abroad,yet she's being crucified in Orissa for being the beacon of light empowering women in a man's world. Something, as the old song said, had to give, and perhaps this fantastic display of public grief though behind curtains as nobody wants to be in the hitlist of that psycho, so vulgar in many ways, so unconvincing in others, has to it some spiritual element after all. Perhaps in their hearts--or so I hope--the Indian people see Leslie as a fellow victim of degraded times, and have instinctively seized upon her misery,suffering as the moment for a fresh start.
Then again it is doubtless partly mass hysteria--groupies genuinely mean it too, when they swoon in the presence of their idols, one scream leading to another, one pair of panties thrown onstage soon leading to a storm of votive lingerie. It is partly resentment against the orthodox system.Lesliey has always had a disregard for rules,though naive and passive she has a streak for adventure,exploring the road not taken,may be Thoreau has inspired her to unleash her inner Columbus.Thats why even when everybody backed out from being part of that fateful Prisoner's Reform Programme when she was invited along other celebrities,she was fearless and bravely agreed to meet and try her best to reform the lives of prisoners living in Baripada jail.Its the Ulysses within her that wanted to explore,learn and see what sort of life prisoners led,'TO STRIVE ,TO SEEK AND NOT TO YIELD'Its because she has no idea of the affect she has on people,she doesnt know everybody who comes across her is enchanted by her innocent lovely face,good manners and compassion that overflows from every fibre of her petite frame. Despite late damage limitation from the Odisha State Govt, many Indians see the hypocritical,coward Oriya acting industry and many people who were supported by Leslie in their various causes previously never turned up to support the damsel when she was in distress,obviously they have been seen as villains in this soap opera, stuffy and reactionary guardians of an old order into which Leslie came as a lovely catalyst, only to be spurned as young heroines so often are.
Salil Tripathi
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