Lessons from Bigg Boss

The tricky delusion of believing that you have a good side

The reality show Bigg Boss is obviously manipulated at a number of levels, but, if you can keep your expectations of honesty in abeyance, it is still an insight into human nature. The immediate question it throws up is why would anyone want to participate in a show which is clearly out to screw you? Contestants do get paid and since most of them are performers, they are comfortable with the exposure. But it doesn’t take too much self-awareness to know that most human beings have an ugly core which is kept well hidden most of the time. When there are cameras on you all the time, they are in effect performing to show that they are not performing and that can be difficult.

Take the odd case of what happened to Navjot Singh Sidhu recently inside the House. He decided he didn’t want to nominate two people for eviction that week because it was a matter of not just principle, but faith. No voice was forthcoming from the heart, his conscience had zipped his extremely voluble mouth and he wouldn’t do anything that went against his ‘dharm’. As punishment, everyone was therefore nominated for eviction. Naturally, a few objected, and then Sidhu’s conscience woke up the next day. His conscience answered, and he took a couple of  names—of those people who had objected to him.

There are two ways to look at it. It could be a silly pre-planned stunt. The show needs some excitement and if no one went crazy it would be bad for TV ratings. But even if you give him benefit of doubt, he comes across as much worse. Earlier he was just slightly nuts, now he’s slightly nuts and vindictive.

All in all, the plan of revealing your beatific nature to the rest of India does not work. Sidhu perhaps cracked a little early. Human beings are deeply flawed and to constantly project a false image takes impossible energy. It is why after three months of marriage, a man who was thought to be decent and tested by years of dating, starts coming home and bashing his wife.

The only trick to a successful deception is to not project a good image but instead concentrate on hiding your real self. And so open your mouth as little as possible. Those are the people—Rahul Roy, Ashutosh, Juhi Parmar—who also win Bigg Boss.