Opinion/ V C Bhaskaran

The death of an ordinary woman

Last Sunday, within hours of princess Diana's death, 19 people died in two separate road accidents to the south of the Vindhyas. Thirteen of them belonging to a marriage party were killed when a matador collided head-on with a luxury coach near Bangalore. Six others died when a bus ran through a few shops in Kannur, north Kerala.

But the screamers were all for Diana, princess of Wales. Naturally. Diana is beautiful, wealthy, young, vivacious... And the others? Well, they are unknowns, lowlies of the world. So, naturally...

So naturally, what? Does that make their deaths less sorrowful? Or, rather, does the fact that Diana was rich and famous and beautiful make her death more painful to bear? Not in my book, no. To me, Diana's death is as sorrowful as that of those others.

World leaders have expressed shock at her tragic end. But really, who -- or what -- was she? An adventuress who never tired of wealthy males. The royal lady's wayward behaviour is traced to her broken home. Pray, how many homes are there in the West which are not broken? Diana's is just the rule, not the exception.

Diana, if we care to think of things unpleasant, began her forays with young, wealthy and famous males after her husband Prince Charles resumed his liason with Camellia Parker-Bowles. She immediately went and had an affair with her riding instructor -- and, while the prince stuck to his other lady, followed it up with rides into fresh fields and pastures new, always taking care to be with 'men of worth.'

And then came the public confessions. While the prince's declaration brought the heavens down on him, Diana walked away pretty as a picture. Such was the infatuation she commanded. People speak of Diana's simplicity and concern for the poor. The contour-huggers she wore and the company of wealthy men she kept are forgotten -- only the moments she spent with AIDS patients and the children of Calcutta now remain in the public mind!

The British have an undying admiration for the royalty. Do we Indians have to follow suit? Two hundred years of British rule have made some of us shun our own traditions. Let us not forget that our national anthem Jana Gana mana was initially meant to welcome the British monarch. In our craze to perpetuate our mental capitulation for the British, we forestalled our original freedom song, the Vande Mataram. The Indian media going berserk over Diana's death is symptomatic of that capitulation.

Now, the British tabloids might send reporters on the trail of the secret service. Is this a handiwork of the MI? The Muslim fundamentalists, for their part, might see red in the 'murder' of an Egyptian Muslim who might have ended the stepfather of the future king of England... There is plenty of fodder for speculation.

But what Diana's tragedy really amounts to is this: That we are fools enough to blow the death of an ordinary women out of all proportions.

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