Ekta Kapoor: Social Pioneer Extraordinaire

Ekta Kapoor and her ilk, like all other natural calamities, are great social levellers.

Today I witnessed the maid, the cook and my mother having a deep and rather animated discussion for an hour on the events of "Baalika Vadhu", a new upstart with a twist in the Saas-Bahu World.

They then proceeded to watch the serial with such emotion that one could be forgiven for assuming events in their own lives were transpiring on-screen. The jarring sound-effects of the serial were punctuated with comments like, "Oi paaji budi're gola tipey debo!" ("I will strangle that wicked old woman by her neck!"), only to be answered with a spontaneous chorus of blood-thirsty agreement.

Meanwhile, the aloo-dum was slowly getting burnt in the kitchen, the dust lay accumulated on the floor and mistress of the house lay prone in bed.