Once upon a time I had an animal crush on Sheetal Mafatlal.

Those were her pre-marriage days, when I was in college and she was still Sheetal Bhagat, the page 3 socialite with a dazzling smile and really lovely legs. Her photograph would regularly be splashed across the society pages of the newspaper I used to read those days - attending some high socialite evening or giving her views on the latest Prada launch, or saying how much she loved the new Manish Malhotra ensemble that she was wearing, or some other equally intellectual item like that. And my teenage mind was smitten by her charms. Then came the news of her wedding plans with Atulya Mafatlal - the initial rumours, the are-they-aren't-they phase, the "we're just good friends" routine, and finally the grand wedding.

And I still had an animal crush on Sheetal Mafatlal.

Atulya was a new name to me - Atulya, one for whom there is no equal. It sounded like a name that I would want to choose for my son. Page 3 photos where Sheetal Mafatlal stood with her shapely legs now had the added company of Atulya Mafatlal.

Know thy enemy is a good rule to go with, so I started reading up on the Mafatlal group, the family history, family fortunes, news tidbits, and what not. What I read didn't impress me much those days. Perhaps Atulya wasn't so atulya after all?

But who was I to judge? Those were the testosterone filled days. Atulya was secondary, Sheetal Mafatlal was all that mattered. Oh, I still had an animal crush on Sheetal Mafatlal.

And then I landed my first job. Responsibilities, long days, short nights, accountability & answerability, and a host of other things that I picked up along the way. Sheetal Mafatlal lingered somewhere in the back of the mind, there were more pressing matters to be dealt with first. Especially when there was a very mean boss to report to who had no control over decibel levels or blood pressure. Not to mention some big time insecurity matched with an unbelievable egomania.

Then came some more news. All was not well at the Mafatlal House perhaps? Where there was a will, there was a way - a way that led to some big time conflicts and bad-blood, especially when the will in question did not divide the family wealth in a manner that was agreeable with all parties. News of ill treatment of the matriarch by Sheetal & Atulya Mafatlal, police cases, counter police cases, interviews, strong words, and juicy news reports of big time conflicts within the family, all became staple items in the newspaper. I even remember Atulya's brother's sexuality being questioned - was he a man or a woman or something else? What kind of organ change operation was it that he had done? After much tom-tomming on that particular topic, news reports suddenly went enigmatically vague.

I was getting out of my Sheetal Mafatlal phase, but boy - she still had lovely legs.

Things died down for a while. And Sheetal Mafatlal slowly crept away from page 3. Oh, she had a real beautiful younger sister called Poonam Bhagat whose parties were apparently super great as well, but hey, life moves on beyond page 3 girls and parties, doesn't it?

And just last month, I randomly caught a news item - further trouble at the Mafatlal house, the matriarch herself has asked for police protection. Apparently the Mafatlal home has been invisibly cordoned into separate areas for each warring faction of the family, and these boundaries were fiercely protected by each faction - any attempts to cross these invisible lines (even by the matriarch) was met with physical force. More dirty linen in the public. Sound bytes from each side blaming the other of foul play. Sheetal & Atulya harass the mom, says the brother. The brother threatened them and their children, say Sheetal & Atulya. Why drag the children into this when they are not even here and are studying in the States, says the brother. Photographs of the Mafatlal home, an old photograph of the brother (I guess all those journalists who had questions on his sexuality have now been answered satisfactorily, because they don't seem to talk about that in the papers any more), and of course, a smiling photograph of Sheetal Mafatlal.

Now I look at her photograph and unknowingly think to myself - once I had an animal crush on this woman? Whoa.

(Also has me thinking - the quality of journalism we have these days...)

“Come gather round people wherever you roam

And admit that the waters around you have grown

And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth saving

Then you'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone

For the times, they are a changing…”

 - “The times, they are a-changing”

Bob Dylan