When inverted snobbery was catching up with the audience, Natasha Arora( Kalki Koechlin) was standing snobbish lying tall,  daring to crash Kabir Dewan’s (Abhay Deol) bachelor. The iconic movie with a self-righteous angle shaped the audience’s perception towards stuck-up Kalki, standing in contrast to breezy Laila (Katrina Kaif) -the guy-friend, the ideal- whom every guy wanted to fall in love with. 

After Imtiaz Ali, it’s Zoya Akhtar who has my heart in shelving phenomenal characters.  Left to my discretion, I delved deeper into ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ as I was enjoying winter break at my parent’s home. When the movie ended, I felt conflicted. My ‘now’ self liked Natasha more than my ‘ previous’ self that had rooted for Laila. What has changed? It’s not that I don’t like Laila. I do. But given a choice, I would shape my life after Natasha if not completely and I am sure, I don’t wish to be Laila. What has changed? 

Quality though desirable scares people. If imposed, it is stressful and pressurising, it not only burns a hole in your pocket but sets you off on a rat race. For an easy-going Joe and plain Jane, quality is not a well-rounded desire but hierarchical. Wellness and safety leaves little room for leisure. Pragmatic and utilitarian, it’s sensible to wait for Black Friday rather than catching up with the latest. And it’s also sensible to bunk than book a room. On the other hand, moving through motels, crashing in a rented car, old Nokia, local transport and eateries can be a brief assignment in your life or maybe somebody’s way of life. It’s one’s choice. If it doesn’t align with you disassociate rather than looking up to impress or looking down in derision. Chasing quality is an ambition, a class which is mutable unlike the immutable caste divisions you are branded with at birth. Inadvertently, this chase has given birth to snobberies and their disputants to inverted snobberies.

Virginia Woolf and Thackeray in their essays reflected on snobbery and its shifting nature while Aldous Huxley listed out varied snobberies. Lastly, why did I like Natasha? Natasha didn’t pretend to be something she is not. She didn’t fake to impress. Unlike Kabir,  she was honest from the beginning. Poised, she didn’t crack up on Arjun’s foolhardy. Oh! The way she brandished Bagwati! Only she could have carried it guiltlessly and effortlessly. She was the India that’s not usually floated across social, print and electronic media. 

Heavily dosed on Gandhism and the nationalist agenda of ‘ simple living and higher thinking’ during the Indian National Movement, why is it a crime to like nicer things in life or live better? You don’t get it for free, do you? Behind every chase is humility and hard work. So, I am a snob. More so, a thought snob because my intellectual pursuit kind of demands it, not pedantry or pretension.