What if....

Now that the Indian elections are over, I wonder……

What if Sonia Gandhi had been a blonde Italian? I don’t think she would have found the level of acceptance she has found in the country, even if she chose to wear simple, cotton sarees. She would have done an Evita act and, very possibly, been hounded out.

Speaking of Sonia’s simple cotton sarees, so like her late mother-in-law’s, I like Michelle O, even though she tries so hard to be Jackie O. Those bodycon, simply-cut dresses, those pearls, the coiffed hair, the stand-by-your-man stance…the reason why she deserves respect is not just because her man deserves that kind of stance but because she seems remarkably heartsound herself. Her interviews, like Marilyn Manson's, are so articulate and clever they give you a delicious shiver up the spine. It's rare, you see, to find clarity of thought out there.