Jaya Jaya hey!

” I have been propelled by fate into two high profile careers, both not of my choosing”

J.Jayalalithaa

After watching a movie made on the life of the legendary Jaya amma, (Actress and six times chief minister of Tamil Nadu) I was intrigued. 

So I came back home and started doing the most obvious thing any gen Z child would do, I binge-watched all the videos I could with her in them.

And two interviews stood out the most to me:

The Hardtalk India – Karan Thapar interview.

She is brutally blunt and isn’t ashamed a bit.

Sitting opposite to the ‘encounter cop’ Karan Thapar who has made men like Mr.Narendra Modi walk out of his show within the first few minutes isn’t easy.

Being questioned ‘why’ about every decision she has made in her life from why she contested on a certain day to why she added an extra ‘a’ to her name isn’t easy.

It is close to impossible to stay to stand one’s ground when the devil’s advocate is trying out every possible thing that he can to provoke you, despite you being the chief minister of a state.

But she did, she stood firm, so well that it almost felt unreal.

On the other hand, the Simmi Garewal interview was a smooth sailing one but it left me with more questions than answers.

Jayalalitha has always been an Icon, an icon who broke barriers and said women especially women with no background rightfully have their place in politics.

One of the major reasons I say she is my biggest inspiration is because both her professions are highly unconventional, especially in that generation.

So she felt like one of the very few women who actually chased their dreams and achieved them.

However, only after watching this interview, I realized that none of what she did was ever her dream. 

After doing about a hundred and forty films she said ‘I never wanted to get into films’

The interview was conducted after she contested the three elections (won two) and yet she said “I don’t like politics even today.”

The ideal life that she would have loved to live was to spend time in her farmhouse and not having to answer a single call or meet a single person.

Generally, when we are stressed, we say things like “ah I wish I could go live in another country’’ or “oh I wanna go just quit my job” when we say things like these we say them out of frustration at that moment, because honestly how long can a person live like that? But when Jayalalithaa said she wanted to live on a farm and not pick a call, it did not sound like it was out of frustration.

It sounded as if that was what she actually wanted to do.

She said she lived the first part of her life for her mother, the second part for MGR, and said ‘I want to live this third part of my life for myself but did she?

After watching hours of her interviews I realized that she is probably one of the most competitive people I know of. Say a word underestimating her and she will take it as a challenge to prove you wrong.

A woman as strong as her, a woman who proved everyone wrong,  a woman who fought every battle that came her way, why couldn’t she live the life she wanted? Why didn’t she pursue her interests after making her family financially secure?

Did she continue to pursue acting only to prove that she could be on top?

Did she take to politics only to prove that women like her, are capable of ruling?

And in the process of proving herself to the world, did she lose herself?