Tumour ka rumour, writes Sajid Khan

Let me tell you a small tale, make that fable, make that a story, make that a kissa. Ki farak painda hai? You will believe it. Why? Because it’s in print. Here it goes: Mary had a little lamb… little lamb…. Uh oh! Well this kissa is not about that Mary. Our Mary is quite scary. I remember in school, our head girl Mary D’Cruz was very unpopular. Kyun? She would tell on us every time we bunked, cheated or forgot our homework. The only people whose good books she was getting in were the teachers. During weekends and vacations, all students used to get together, but purposely not invite Mary. And this began to affect her. She did possess the power, but not the popularity. All the students hated her. It was that simple. Till one day, when someone told us that she had a cancerous tumour in her body which would eventually kill her. Good lord! We all felt so bad! From that day onwards, everyone was nice to Mary. Not only was she powerful now as a head girl, but also extremely popular with everyone. It was only during our 10th standard farewell party did we come to know the truth. Mary had spread the rumour about her tumour. We were had! She had successfully manipulated our feelings and perceptions in her favour. Only for her benefit. Woh kehte hain na. By hook or by crook. Toh bhaiya samjhe? Samjhata hoon.

Samjhata hoon.

Ask yourself honestly. And I mean really honestly. If you enter a courtroom, in the middle of the proceedings of a divorce case, automatically what’s your mindset going to be? It’s his fault. The husband is wrong. He is guilty.

Arre baba, at least hear what the case is all about. At least find out the truth before judging. Nope, you are not interested. Aurat hai toh sahi hai, mard hai toh galat hai. Well, in most cases, that is true. I genuinely feel that the world will be a far superior place if women were running it. Unfortunately, it’s a man’s world. But all men are not the same. Some of them are actually not guilty. Some of them fall prey to your perception. Let’s talk about a few recent perceptions. 

A famous cricketer performs badly and everyone blames his girlfriend for his poor form. Huh? Yeh kaisa perception hua? Then when the cricketer starts playing well, another perception is formed. “Dekha breakup hua na? No wonder he is playing well”. Huh? Yeh kaisa perception? Of late, one has been reading everywhere about an actress’s legal tussle with a superstar involving emails and hacking. Initially, the superstar’s silence worked against him in creating a perception that he was at fault. Till we finally got to hear his side of the story and make a fair judgment. But, forming a new perception over an already existing perception is rather difficult at times, but that is life. Dikhaye pe mat jaao, apni akal lagao? Remember, Mary ke tumour ka rumour? Got it?

Don’t misunderstand me. I am not a misogynist nor am I anti-feminist. Arre, how can I be one ? My sister Farah Khan is an achiever and I am extremely proud of her. But then, you have to understand that just like men, women, too, go wrong at times. There are certain women who misuse the power of feminism to create perceptions that are far from reality for personal and professional gains.  Har choti muchchi waala Hitler nahi hota, just like every cigar smoker isn’t Churchill.