MUMBAI: With relationships, divorce, an upcoming model and an established film star; author Shobhaa De engraved her image on the upper stratum of South Bombay. These are her favourite topics to compose a fiction. It is precisely why her statement, on Twitter, about Olympians not doing enough for a medal, raised eyebrows.

Born and raised in Girgaon, a few minutes away from Marine Drive, her comment reeked of elitism and snobbery. It is one of the rationales which shows why cricket is still the dominant sport and why athletes, most of them from not so deep pockets, are snubbed.

De’s act, to an extent, revealed her nihilistic side but she believed in real existences. She was pristine to point out how an earring caused pain to a woman (one of her characters) when a man was on top of her.

The 68-year-old started as a model with celebrated yesteryear actress Zeenat Aman; startlingly, De never picked up the class or vocabulary.

One of her quotes, that went viral once, is a symptom to her ringside view.

"God had the males of the world neatly divided: The can-dos and the no-can-dos. To that he’d added a third category: ‘the gandus’. Very few men would make it to the can-do category.”

In her novels and the subsequent appearances – in colleges or television interviews – De fascinated her consumers about ‘how to give a f****’ to obstacles. But she never taught that its application could vary; not all human beings follow the same technique to express emotions.

“It’s just the way (the ‘f’ word) I express myself. Sometimes, there is really no substitute to the ‘f’ word. It is the best word to express a lot of stuff which is non-sexual,” she once blatantly said in an interview.

But is it feasible to show your middle-finger towards athletes who sweated day in and out for the Rio magnum opus?

She didn’t literally do that but the so-called socialite chose the right words to steal the thunder. It could have raised the sales of her book, introduced her to the Netflix generation, a master stroke to announce her second coming.

Teenagers today restrict the books to shelves to hunch on their tabloid to catch the latest episode of ‘Game of Thrones’.

When she sold like hot pancakes, using the “f” word became a fashion, the extreme to which one may feel scared about uttering that in front of parents but still whisper it.

The Rio Olympians who were busy following their dreams missed her novels.

Dipa Karmakar had flat feet in childhood, she had to hone her gymnastic skills further; Abhinav Bindra ran around Doon School corridors sharpening his sight mapping every peak in the hills.

How would they believe that a man and a woman actually don’t play carom?

“When he is on top of her and crushing her face, she wanted to get rid of the discomfort of the earring and she wants to get rid of him,” is a truthful statement about sex and society wasn’t ready to accept it.

Nonetheless, the same woman who could be realistic, mocked the industrious athletes and the event where India face the toughest test.

“Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity,” read the infamous tweet.

Marksman Bindra did not fire, with a calm demeanour, he pointed on the fact that Olympics is the hardest nut to crack for an Indian. Sadly, the multi-sports event doesn’t encourage cricket and isn’t as popular.

“@DeShobhaa that's a tad unfair. You should be proud of your athletes pursuing human excellence against the whole world,” he retaliated.

When most of the athletes made their dream into reality, De – from being a model – became the editor of magazines from the world of brands and charms.

If Karmakar continued her regular drill, Bindra never failed to hold the rifle in his Patiala residence; Jitu Rai, despite the farming background, stuck to his spirit to prolong the finger on the trigger.

One may refer to her as an all-rounder considering she is beauty with brains, the blue-eyed girl of entertainment journalism and more. But did she master all her trades?

Former India hockey player Viren Rasquinha, now a backbone for Indian Olympians through the Olympic Gold Quest, perhaps got it right.

“Ms. De, kindly run on the hockey pitch for 60 mins & hold a rifle like Abhinav and Gagan. Bit tougher than u think,” said his Twitter handle.

(Cover photo Yahoo News)

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