7

The Rakshas Explains

 

Television does strange things to one. How you are seen at the other end of the box can be radically different to how you actually look. The first time I realised this was in London. It was 1983, I was a rookie reporter and I was at a friend’s wedding. Suddenly I noticed someone break out of the crowd of guests and head towards me.

“Are you Karan Thapar?” The man asked.

“Deny it.” My wife Nisha whispered. “Please deny it !”

The temptation was too great and the thrill of being recognised too new. I puffed up with pride. I smiled and, trying at the same time to be demure, I assented.

“How odd.” He commented. “On screen, you look tall and handsome but actually you’re short and ugly.”

Nisha always felt that I should remember this lesson for the future. But, alas, one forgets. The other day at the squash court after another one of my disastrous defeats, I found myself being consoled by my erstwhile partner. Except that it was an odd sort of sympathy he was indulging in.

“You know judging by your screen appearance, I thought you would be a tough opponent on the court. On television, you growl and quarrel with your guests. But here at the club, you give up without even trying. Yahan pe bhi honsle aur himmat ke saath ladda karo.”

Most people who only know me from the screen believe that I interrupt a lot, listen poorly and am full of my own opinions. So when the George Fernandes interview found favour with the Government and was screened till the audience virtually dropped I found that my “normal” behaviour was now being pitted against my so-called performance on this occasion.

It happened quite suddenly and without warning. I was at a dinner, chatting animatedly and no doubt full of my own views on the subject, whatever it was. I suspect the person I was talking to was fed up of listening. Perhaps she wanted to get in a word of her own.

“Can’t you be a bit more like you were with George Fernandes?” She ultimately asked, her exasperation written all over her face.

“Whatever do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, with George, you listened and you didn’t interrupt. He got to speak almost as much as you did. Can’t you treat me the same way tonight?”

In fact, the lady was both right and wrong. She was right about my not interrupting the Defence Minister and listening patiently but she was wrong to suggest that I interrupt others. I don’t. But the truth of the matter is that on television people re-create you in terms of how you first appear to them. So whether they like you or dislike you depends on that first impression. Thereafter, once it’s stuck, it’s impossible to change. So I’ll always be thought of as ladaka, aggressive and constantly interrupting even though I am polite and listen attentively.

Of course, I don’t really mind. More often than not, I benefit from the mistaken impression. After all, who wants to be thought of as a wimp? But I’m not the rakshas most people think I am.