Doomed models on killer cocktails

It has been a slow week for news. Fifa (Fédération Internationale de Footbalol Association) leaves India cold (if we aren’t playing, why bother?). And the political khabar from Delhi has been pretty thanda. That left a lot of front-page space waiting to be filled. Along came a masala story which had the hungry media vultures scampering —

an ageing model’s tragic suicide. Hardly headline news. But there it was, on every channel and newspaper. Poor Viveka Babajee hadn’t received even half this level of coverage during her lifetime as she struggled to keep up appearances, keep body and soul together, in the big, bad and coked out world of Mumbai modelling. She was considered over the hill and “finished” within the glam fraternity — that in itself is a killer judgment. Combine her downgraded professional status with personal traumas and you have a tragedy waiting to happen. For newshounds, this is another sensational tabloid scandal involving a pretty woman, a rich boyfriend (or many) and a lifestyle that shocks those outside the charmed circle. What most press reports aren’t saying is that what really killed Viveka was not a thwarted love affair but corrosive insecurity and despair.
It is a common story. Some girls can handle it better than others. Some manage to escape. Some don’t. Viveka didn’t. But look around you and you’ll find several walking wounded models struggling to stay afloat… stay alive. The route taken is familiar — get discovered, get to Mumbai, get assignments. The first two or three years are generally heady and brilliant. The money rolls in, wealthy admirers pile up, lifestyle options multiply… and with luck, Bollywood beckons. All this before the girls reach their sell-by date (25 at the outside). Once your shelf-life is over, the assignments dry up and even those panting middle-aged married men move on to younger chicks working the circuit. The first sign of desperation is when such a sought after girl finds herself in the social wilderness and starts looking for lolly from other sources. She has bills to pay, loans to service and an image to protect. Creditors start breathing down her neck… and with the heat getting a bit too hot to handle, the girl panics. Most of the times, she is miles away from home, living by herself in a suburban flat without support systems of any kind. She makes alcohol her best friend. In order to keep meeting her new “best friend”, she lets it be known she’s open to attending parties thrown by strangers — for a fee, of course. There are shady “party agents” who round-up hard up models and small-time actresses for clients (mainly prosperous traders from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi) but at least the booze is in plenty even if the money is pathetic. Then come the shadier proposals to spend a weekend in Goa or Dubai — the money is not big, but it covers shopping kharcha. What the hell, a girl’s got to have the latest cellphone and “It” bag.
From this stage to full-time hooking takes no time at all. The stakes are further lowered — but what is on offer is far more addictive — coke. Party girls in sexy frocks are always welcome at power evenings that need a strong glamour quotient — that is exactly the pattern followed by organisers of mega sporting events worldwide. But there is a catch — the cocktails that keep these evenings in high gear do not flow out of glasses. The powerful hosts behind these parties know there is but one hook to get these girls to hang on — cocaine — lots and lots of the white stuff. Champagne and coke become the preferred mix. Throw in sex with strangers and what starts off as a “fun” thing soon turns into the blackest nightmare ever with no escape. Dirty weekends grow into four- and five-day orgies. The protagonists are usually society’s top-drawer men — industrialists, movie stars, ex-sports people, TV producers. And, of course, the fashion crowd from Delhi or Bengaluru. This is where girls like Viveka descend into a private hell from which there is no “out”. They are literally and metaphorically at a dead end. Strapped for money, strapped for love, strapped for security on any level — they turn the searchlight inwards in search of salvation. Some find it, most don’t.
Viveka’s suicide is being compared to Nafisa’s. And, no doubt there are unmistakable parallels. The main thread involves their respective backgrounds. It was hard to believe Viveka’s family is originally from Satara — a small, obscure town in Maharashtra (and incidentally, my birthplace!). That makes Viveka a Maharastrian-Mauritian! What was a girl like that doing in a biz like this? Perhaps she was lured into it with promises of big time success. Ditto for Nafisa, who was also a misfit in the murky world of modelling. Both girls were above average in looks and intelligence. Yet, both got mixed up with men who gave them grief and treated them badly. Both chose a violent exit after giving up on life and themselves. Their contemporaries are made of sterner stuff — some have married (and divorced) foreigners, others have switched to choreography and event management. Photographs of Viveka’s friends at her funeral, tell their own story. Shockingly enough, some of the girls who showed up to pay their respects clad in pristine designer white, posed for the cameras like they were at a fashion week showing. What should have been a sombre occasion was converted into a celeb circus. But like I pointed out earlier, this has been a lean and mean week for hard news. Viveka’s funeral provided some much-needed eye candy and a few photo-ops to the starved media. So much for the current crop of ramp scorchers. There are still others who fled India and left their old world behind. I was surprised to run into the lovely Shyla Lopez who now lives in Moscow with her Russian husband and a young son. Did she look happy?? Ummmm… I’m not sure.
But at least she is alive.

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