MTv Roadies 5.0 has 5 girls left : Shambavi, Anmol, Ankita, Sonel and Prabhjot. Ankita (Simran) has been voted. However, before she got voted out, in one of the earlier episodes, there was a scene where Shambavi, Simran and Anmol are plotting to vote out Sonam, because as Shambavi puts it, she’s too fat – she’s got fat oozing from her clothes and she wants her show to be a “good” show.

MTV Roadies 4.0 had Sonam, et.al. who were set to vote Bani out, because she didn’t meet their standards of a “good girl”. Bani as you might recall was a “free spirit”, and sort of did as she liked. I did not however see her do “impure” stuff; in fact she seemed like the sane one out of the lot. Sonam on the other hand seemed vicious, and quick to judge. So her boyfriend could stray (remember her audition?) and that was OK – she was actually crying on the audition because Raghu and Co. insulted him, but Bani ahould be voted out because she was “cheap”.

This season, you have the moral brigade against “fat-ness”, judging Sonel. Where, oh where does this judgmental attitude towards women come from ? Oooh, wild guesses : claustrophobic society, home, Mom, Dad, the socialization of women to pander to the male gaze. Woman not “good” enough ? Girl too fat ? A cheap girl ? I’m going to apply my limited pop psychology skills here, and come up with, er . . . nothing (I’m no Raghu).

Are these women insane to judge each other so ? Or is this the face of the new desi youth (oh despair !) ? Quite fascinating to see this generation’s young women grow up with ideas on “looking good”, fatness, purity and lopsided morality, but little common-sense. From here to feminism seems a far leap indeed.