Op-Ed: Leave Sridevi’s Family Alone To Mourn Her Death

Grief has yielded place to vicarious curiosity. Just when everyone thought the customary round of mourning, breast-beating and obituaries had been done with comes the startling revelation that Sridevi, the Bollywood heartthrob of the 1980s and 90s, died of ‘accidental drowning’ and not cardiac arrest as initially believed. For good measure, the forensic report added […]

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Grief has yielded place to vicarious curiosity. Just when everyone thought the customary round of mourning, breast-beating and obituaries had been done with comes the startling revelation that Sridevi, the Bollywood heartthrob of the 1980s and 90s, died of ‘accidental drowning’ and not cardiac arrest as initially believed. For good measure, the forensic report added that traces of alcohol were found in her system, adding an altogether new dimension to the case. Just when everyone thought the story of her death had run its course in the media and it was time to move on to other stories, the fresh revelation about the ‘drowning’ bit has ensured that it is not going to fade away anytime soon.

As was only to be expected, the conspiracy theorists are out with a vengeance weaving their weird spin on the actress’ death. In fact, some have already started drawing parallels with the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s wife, in a Delhi hotel room in January, 2014. “When was the last time anyone heard about someone dying of ‘drowning’ in a bath tub?” ask some while others have raised their eyebrows over the ‘cardiac arrest’ theory floated in the immediate aftermath of Sridevi’s death in her hotel room at the Jumeira Emirates Towers in Dubai on Saturday. Amar Singh, the resident know-wall about everything that has to do with Bollywood, chipped in with the revelation that Sridevi never drank hard liquor though she did consume wine on special occasions, like most people do.