Why Sushmita Sen is a new age role model?

In a nation with a perennial inequality narrative, Sushmita Sen is indeed the Maharani in shining armour. No other Indian lady, in honourable public life certainly, has been able to put the egoistic South Asian man in his rightful place, time after time. 

For a moment, let's look at hard numbers, in a data sensitive universe. Her tally of superannuated partners surely touch double figures and we are certainly not talking about minnows, under any stretch of analysis. Also, most interestingly, the profile, while being delightfully heterogeneous in vocation, invariably crumbles to predictable homogeneity in action. Let's dig a little deeper to ascertain her mastery in relationship management, a benchmark even for evolved corporations. 

Every man she has dated is successful in the envisioned pursuit, yet just a notch short of being a stupendous celebrity, with the possible exception of a prolific allrounder. So, the lady, in private and public estimation, continued to be a peg above in the power equation, surely a logical strategy for securing bargaining power. Which partially explains, perhaps, the code of silence ( Omerta) practised by each and every ex partner. No resentment, no squealing, no dissonance and instead, a pleasingly stoic demeanor, deeply endorsing the unshakeable permanence of the happily temporary. 

What is most commendable, in this multi season storyline, is the integrity of the lady, in an impressively Western vein. The partners arrive with well defined expectations, from precedence most certainly, and seem to principally conform prior to enlistment. Yet they merge seamlessly with her family, in many cases adding wisdom to the development of her daughters, as publicly expressed over time. Also, there seems to be, usually, a definite time lag between termination and the next relationship, so the severance apparently has limited linkage to opportunity cost. This is so unlike Indian public figures, obsessed with public imagery above personal choices.

So, I sincerely believe that Sushmita Sen is worthy of being a genuine role model for urban ladies surely, with the clear potential to straddle down the population stratas. Instead of denigrating her as an opportunist, a typical third world emotion, we must celebrate her as a great equaliser, inspirational for women of this age. For in her initiatives linked to personal partnership, she manages to uphold the might of the lady, while keeping the stature of the man totally intact, and being a successful mother as well. Most importantly, she has achieved this with Bradmanesque consistency, unleashing the filters of sensitivity and fitment.

Whether she marries the IPL King or not is frankly irrelevant, because my hypothesis is well proven by her formidable track record. As Indians, we must learn to be comfortable with mainstream activism as well, as not every purveyor of women's rights needs to be a dour and dire personality. I do feel that men will understand this easier than women, and that is the change that must be engineered.

In the meantime, it is necessary to celebrate Sushmita Sen as an honest, spontaneous and courageous lady, who believes in living her mind and pursuing her emotions. Three decades into the journey, the Miss Universe crown suddenly seems to make so much sense.