The most ‘hunted’ woman - In life as well as in death

I was reading an online news paper today and came across this news report that said there’s a new movie coming up, a biopic, based on the life and tragic death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, the most photographed woman of her time, the person whose life was always the most chosen topic of discussion, in the media as well as among people around the world.

I still remember that fateful day, an August 31st, which took her away with it. As usual I was away for morning tuition classes and came back by almost 8 am when dad told me about the tragic news that was continuously getting flashed on BBC. It was hard to believe, but was true; Diana, one of the most beautiful, iconic, woman in the world, was no more!  It took some time for the reality to sink in properly, and I sat glued to the television, even without having breakfast, to know what actually happened to the most iconic woman in the world.  Slowly, the reporters started giving details on the car crash, and it was more than shocking. I couldn’t hear the graphic explanations more and switched off the television soon. Although the day went off as usual, I was sad, terribly sad about the death of someone that I had never seen in my life. Years passed by, and it’s about sixteen years since she left the world that hardly bothered to give her the privacy that every human would want.

Since her death, so much has been written, spoken and cinematized about Diana, the People’s Princess, with everyone claiming their works to be genuine and authentically written. I’ve read a few of them; books and articles, where people have left no stones unturned to write, speak, and discuss stories about her life – childhood, teenage, marriage, children, relationships, charity works, and may other things, only to meanly celebrate sufferings, rejections, heartbreaks and betrayals in their own way, only to create spicier versions of her life and make money out of them.

Some of them went a step further and celebrated even her death, that fatal car crash that abruptly took her away. Want to know why I said this? Just Google her name and you can see endless articles about her death; writings that are grounded with absolutely no authenticity, written only for the sake of fame and money. What’s more nauseating are some of the photoshopped images of her, claiming to have been taken right after the car crash. People are sick! Really sick! Lady Diana is not here to give justifications or proof of authenticity to whatever has been written and spoken about her over these years. She’s not here to ask for privacy or to beg to let her live her live, or  even to urge them to stop speculating about her and her life,  which I think is the biggest relief and happiness of all those writers, speakers, and movie makers out there who keep ‘fiercely’ stating their own views about her life and death.

People have always made her life and even her death a good business to make money, and yet ferociously keep saying about their love for the dead Princess; someone who was always chased by the media in the entire world, someone who badly looked for privacy to enjoy a normal and happy life like others, and sadly didn’t get it during her entire life, and even after death. All the books and movies based on her life minted a huge amount of money, making the writers, publishers, and movie makers rich and famous overnight. But I really wonder if anyone had actually tried understanding what she was and what she had been through, in all the thirty six years that she lived on this earth.

People still keep selling her story for vested interests and the world keenly reads it with excitement of watching another peppery Hollywood movie.  Books after books, biopics after biopcs, people keep portraying her in the way they want, writing and visualizing her life in the way they want, and not in the way she lived.

She’ll be back soon! Yes, Lady Diana Spencer, whom I adored the most, about whom I read a lot, is going to be back through another biopic that will be released sometime soon. So here arrives yet another version of her life and yet another breach of privacy!

Throughout her life, she kept running away from the scurrilous media, craving for privacy and a normal like everyone of us, paid for it with her own life, and still they are not ready to leave her, not ready to spare her even after death!

Rekindled my bond with books

I won’t call myself a voracious reader and writer, but I was an avid reader long back, during college days. I used to keep track of every new book that reaches the shelves in the English section, and always made sure to read them as soon as possible. My love for reading was one of the main reasons that prompted me choose English Literature for Post Graduate studies, and I was constantly ridiculed by everyone for taking this decision, which they all felt was foolish and childish.

Although I graduated in Chemistry, I had always felt that it was not my forte. I never loved Chemistry as much as I loved Literature and writing, and always carried in mind a little bit of regret for choosing Chemistry for my graduate studies. It was a kind of momentary decision that should not have made. I was told that Literature is a subject meant for the laziest and low scoring group of students who fail to get admission for the other ‘elite’ subjects. I was made to believe that Literature won’t help me get a successful career, and foolishly believed what I was told.  But I was wrong, and by the time I realized this, the damage had been done. Chemistry and Maths classes bored me to death during the entire three years, always making me feel that I was listening to Greek, Latin, or some other unknown language. I never had any genuine interest in the subject and mechanically mugged up pages and pages of notes and even those Maths problems, without even bothering to understand them all. The result: I performed disastrously in all three years and my scores were terribly low. There were a lot of people around me to keep blaming me, calling me a lazy idiot, but not even one of them bothered to know why I scored low.  Had anyone talked to me about the reason why I couldn’t do well, I would have at least tried telling how much I hate the subject and how badly I wanted to get out of the whole mess.  But it didn’t happen in all the three years and I just managed to ‘escape’ from the Chemistry debacle with average marks to make me eligible for P.G admission.

It was time for P.G admission and everyone chose Chemistry and its various branches, but I played safely this time and chose Literature. Again, I was surrounded by a hell of comments and suggestions from everyone, who kept ridiculing me saying Literature would ruin my career plans. One of my aunts teased me saying I would never get a job if I choose Literature. In spite of all these ridicules, I chose literature as I knew that it’s my forte, it’s in my genes!

I won’t say that I was superb in all the two years of post graduate studies, but did pretty well, and went on to do a P. Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication. The best part of post graduate studies was that I had the opportunity to read a lot of books, something that I had always wanted to do.

After spending a few years of my career as a teacher, now I have found my niche, and I am extremely happy with my career in Content Writing and SEO.

As I said, I used to be an avid reader in college, but kind of lost that passion once I left the college. Although I used to read a couple of books in between my hectic work, I was no more fervently in to reading, as I used to be. Call me lazy, and I may perhaps not disagree as I know I have become a bit lazy now.  Even after having a successful blog and pretty fine writing skills my reading hardly improved. So, I badly wanted to bring back the avid reader in me, and landed up in the public library close to my hostel yesterday. The decision was half self-made and half motivated by one of my dear colleagues. Even after being in the city for almost 5 years, living close to the library, I never bothered to visit the place even once, the reason why I was a bit ashamed and guilty as I climbed the steps. But as the saying goes, better late than never! So I went in and got myself a membership and a good book.

I am not sure if I would be able to bring back the ardent reader in me, but will definitely try best to do that.