The Asian News Blog

I’ve been having a very nice ralaxing week. The husband was away visiting friends in London. I made use of every spare god given minute. Most of it was spent resting up, oh hownice it was to have the bed to myself!
Anyway he got back yesterday, I went to pick him at Piccadilly, but he seemed to be in a different world. I didn’t want to ask what had happened and we drove back in silence.
He was quick to notice how clean the house was. The husband hardly ever cleans up after himself, he doesn’t even bother to open the bedroom curtains or do the bed, so while he was away I got into a bit of early spring cleaning.
Anyway after dinner he starts to tell me about his cousin. The cousin married six months after us and guess what – his wife was already pregnant!
I told him to offer his cousin my congratulations and went about cleaning the dishes when he started to be all nice, helps me dry the dishes and even asks how my week was, how my parents were. When I told him that I hardly saw them this week, he told me I must go down more often!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew he was after somethign straight away. I knew it had somethign to do with his cousin’s pregnanby but it was a subject all of a sudden that I wanted to avoid.
I went to sit down to watch last night’s Eastender’s when the husband drops it on me – he wants us to have a baby – I found the idea so ridicolous, I ignored him completely and carried on watching Eastenders – Pauline’s will reading was much more important to me than discussing having a baby.
I’m only 23 years old. In a good career. I want to travel, even party a little, i definitely want to be earning more money and buy myself a bigger house before I can even think of having a baby.
But he kept on pestering me about it for an hour. No matter how hard he tried I just could not imagine myself with a baby let alone his baby!
I told him straght – NO.
But he wasn’t having it. It seemed to me the husband was more bothered about his younger cousin havinbg a baby before him than actually wanting to have a baby because of the right reasons.
When I pointed that out, the husband disgreed, he said he thought it was time. I asked him how he expected us to even afford to have a baby? He for one wasn’t looking after me financially and most of his spare change ended up going to his family in Bangladesh. The husband promised he’ll change.
I told him I wasn’t ready, to give it another year or two. But deep down I know I am not ready to have a baby with him. It dawned on me this whole week, no matter how hard I try to make this marriage work it just wasn’t going to happen. I have many plans for myself for the future, but none of them include him!
As a teenager I always imagined how my partner would be, you know caring, considerate funny, good looking of course. When I’m still thinking about Mr Perfect whilst being married, means that i’m still searching for true love and happiness.
If I really loved the husband and wanted to spend the rest oif my life with him I would have at least thought about having a baby. But the thought of having his baby almost makes me feel physically sick!
I carried on telling him NO last night. He went to bed in a miserable mood. I stayed down stairs watching a bit of MTV base and B4U and wishing that I can escape and just be happy.
Though I realise the husband is not the one for me, I do feel guilty about feeling this way. I married whillst I was still on the rebound, which was unfair on the husband really cos I never gave him the chance to marry some who was ready to settle down and was marrying for all the right reasons. He could’ve found himself a wife more on his level.
I do feel very guilty that I never gave him that chance for my own selfish reasons, but beleive me when I say that I have absolutely been trying my best to make this work, but nothing I do is ever right and I feel more and more miserable everyday.
The husband can be a complete wankert 90 per cent of the time, and that is something I cannot live with. I have been filling my mum in with the goings on in our relationship. My dad thinks things will change, mum told me whatveer Ii do, do not get pregnant.
However, the family as a whole advised that I should tell him that I will not support his papers to become forever legal in the UK until he sorts out his act. A peice of advice I told them was the most stupidest thing I ever heard. If he ever changed I would have wanted him to because he was doing it for this relationship, not because I was his ticket to a British passport!
But I have told my mum that if this kind of behaviour carries on I wasn’t willing to put up with it and will kick him out.
The next thing I was told was that if I was to leave him I had to make it look like he was leaving of his own accord not mine. That I told em would be difficult to do, cos the husband didn’t really care and would stay in this marriage forever even if we were both miserable, well that was the impression I got.
And why wouldn’t he, if Ii let him stay he didn’t have to pay the bills, he did as he pleased, he had complete freedom. Telling him that I will not pay the bills and that he would have to take responsibility would just be ignored as all the bills were on my name and I did not want to get bad credit and will therefore carry on paying.
I’m not sure what my next move is, but its sure as hell not gonna be getting preganant. I’m not about to destroy my life because the husband has complexes and doesn’;t feel like man because he doesn’t have children.

DIRECTOR Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s highly acclaimed ‘Rang De Basanti’ may have missed out for an Oscar nomination, but all is not lost.
The film, starring Amir Khan and Alice Patten, has been nominated in the best foreign picture category at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards which are the European equivalent to the Oscars.
Producer of the film, Ronnie Screwvala told IANS: “We are all very pleased with this new achievement. The success of the film with the Indian youth worldwide was our best award, and now this.”
The film tells the story of an English filmmaker who travels to the sub-continent to make a documentary about the freedom fighters mentioned in her grandfather’s memoirs.
An entertaining mix of romance, history and social commentary, this quality production takes Hindi cinema in a fresh direction.
Other films nominated in this category are Mexican filmmaker Del Toro’s ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, Mel Gibson’s ‘Apocalypto’, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Volver’ and Netherlands-based filmmaker Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Black Book’.
The awards will be announced on Feb 11 at a ceremony at London’s Royal Opera House.

I recently watched director Nikhil Advani’s “Salaam-E-Ishq”, which is a big budget romantic film. It features six couples and traces their lives.
The star cast includes Salman Khan opposite Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kapoor with Juhi Chawla, John Abraham with Vidya Balan, Akshaye Khanna opposite Ayesha Takia, Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar and last but not the least our own Govinda, romancing foreigner Shannon Esrechowitz.
‘Salaam-E-Ishq’ was very entertaining and the comdedy betwen some of the couples worked well in the first half of the film before it got very serious in the second part.
Priyanka Chopra plays a wannabe actress desperate to get a role in a Karan Johar film. To be taken seriously she pretends that she is engaged to her “childhood sweetheart,” played by Salman khan. The charade takes a turn when she really does start to fall for him.
Anil Kapoor is married Juhi Chawla, but he is going through a mid-life crisis, until he meets a dancer half his age and wants a little bit more excitement in his life.
John Abraham is a Hindu married to a Muslim girl. They are very much in love, but tragedy strikes when she has an accident and loses her memory. Will she ever remember who her husband is?
Akshay Khanne is engaged to Ayesha Takia but he is having second thoughts about getting married and is looking for an excuse to get out.
Govinda plays a charming taxi driver determined to get Shannon to her Indian boyfriend who is in India about to marry someone else, but along the way Govinda falls for her too.
Sohail and Isha play a very small part. They are newly married and just can’t get any alone time together!
The different storylines in the film make it interesting and has viewers captivated as each couple has very different problems to the next. Though not all of them are that realistic, there are hints of reali lives in each plot. The toe tapping music was also good. I definitely recommend this movie. It was enjoyable to watch and made you laugh and cry all at the same time.
Other flicks to watch out for this year include Yash Raj Films’ (YRF) “Tara Rum Pum” starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee and directed by Siddharth Anand of “Salaam Namaste” fame.
In fact YRF are hoping to release at least seven films this year including “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abishek and Bobby Deol, “Chak De India” which will star Shah Rukh Khan playing the hockey coach of a girls team and “Chudiyan” which will star Jaya Bachchan, son Abishek and Rani Mukherjee.
Eighties star Madhuri Dixit is also hoping to make a comeback movie this year and i’m sure famns can’t wait.
Director Ahmed Khan has been working on “Fool N Final” that stars Sunny Deol, Shahid Kapur, Suniel Shetty and Jackie Shroff.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra will return with a magnum opus “Eklavya – The Royal Guard”. The promos of the film have been running in theatre halls for a while now and has everyone excited. It will star Amitabh, Sanjay Dutt, Jackie, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya, Sharmila Tagore, Boman Irani, Jimmy Shergill and Raima Sen.
Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa shetty will be featured in director Anurag Basu’s “Life In A Metro.”
A small budget but eagerly awaited film will be director Vishal Bharadwaj’s “Blue Umbrella” with Pankaj Kapur and Shreya Sharma in the lead roles. The film’s promos are already out and gathering interest.
Politically charged director Anurag Kashyap’s “Black Friday” which has been banned in India, but had its UK premiere last year in Bradford in 2005, may also finally see the light of the day in the year ahead.
Among the other biggies will be Sanjay Leela Bhansalis’s “Saawariya.” This is a launch pad for Rishi Kapoor’s son Ranbir and Anil Kapoor’s daughter Sonam.
Sanjay Dutta will also return to the silver screen in “Mr. Fraud” next year, which is directed by Abbas and Mustan Burmawall. The film also stars Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, Tanushree Datta, Anuj Sawhney and Satish Shah.
There seems to be a number of biggies coming out this year, with better production and more entertaining storylines, we’ll just have to wait and see which flicks do well in the box office and which ones turn out to be turkeys!

Since the husband’s arrival, in the last two months I have put on nearly a stone. Soon after he settled in I have attended more than 14 dinner parties, two thrown by my family and the rest by his huge clan. Though apart from the weight I’m not complaining, i’ve notched up 14 new saris through these parties, not that I’ll get a chance to wear all of them but my mum thought it would be great to put them away as presents for other people!
The food has also been great, I am no shy eater and when there’s food laid in front of me I eat………I found that by keeping myself busy eating at these dinner parties meant that I didn’t have to waste my time going into meaningless conversations with his relatives.
The questions that were fired to me by his clan were all the same at each household.
It started off with:
1/ What do you do?
2/ How much do you earn?
3/ How much did you buy the house for?
4/ Is it solely in your name?
5/ Do you give any money to your parents?
6/ So what do you do with your spare money?
7/ Are you up for a promotion?
Basically all that his relatives were interested in was my financial situation.
For each question they asked I repeated it back to them until they got the message that I wasn’t giving away any financial information about myself. And I for sure wasn’t about to hand over all my money to the husband either (a suggestion his aunt made once).
After all I thought in our religion (Islam) women were able to keep their money and the husbands provided for them.
Well I didn’t really care about spending the husband’s money. I had my own and was using that to support myself and pay ALL the bills. His only contribution was buying the milk every morning for the tea and cereal he was going to eat.
So when the in-laws were on the phone every other day with the miserable and always weeping mother-in-law telling me she really wanted a fridge freezer and a microwave. I told them that if such things were necessary then they should ask their son and whilst telling their son I reminded them to tell him that now and then it will be nice if he can help me out with the bills as well!
Soon after I had my say the father-in-law, who talked way too much and though he knew everything, will get on the line and tell me to ignore the MIL’s request for the fridge and microwave but then go on to tell me that so and so’s daughter-in-law has bought her in-laws a car and is financing the two storey extension to their house in Bangladesh.
Lucky them I thought but I told them I wasn’t that generous and would rather be helping my parents out in Manchester than give my money away to them when I knew they lived quite comfortable lives in Bangladesh.
We had the same conversation every time and in the end I just stopped talking to them and if a call came from abroad and there was no-one to answer I would let it ring and ring until they got the message that either nobody wanted to answer the call or that no-one was in.
The husband managed to get a job within two weeks of arriving much to my displeasure. We had discussed that he will enrol at college and learn proper English and then go and do a full time course. There were many free courses taking place all over Greater Manchester. I even suggested that he do some work experience in the local Bangladeshi community association where he can learn office based skills. The aim was that he will eventually get enough experience to apply for a full time office based 9-5 job.
But his uncle came along one day and said he must start working straight away – IN A FRIGGING RESTAURANT. I was adamant that I did not want him working in the restaurant. Even in Bangladesh, I told him and his family before we married that I wanted someone who was willing to strive for success and not end up in a restaurant. They promised that would not happen. BUT in Manchester, the husband thought it was a great idea and promised that he will do college and any other necessary training in the daytime. He apparently had some debt in Bangladesh and wanted to pay it off. I knew for sure as soon as he entered the restaurant he would end up working alongside other freshies or mangoes (you know fresh off the boat like mangoes from Asia) and will end up in a rut like the rest of them.
His only ambition in life after that will be to open up his own takeaway or once he learnt English progress from working in the back as a kitchen porter to either becoming a chef or working in the front line as a waiter which carried a bit more social status in the restaurant business.
In general there’s nothing wrong with working in a restaurant, but when I married I was told, actually I was promised by the husband and his family that he would not work in a restaurant and educate himself so he can get a professional job. As a professional myself, I wanted a partner who was on my level. I did not want to be seen as wearing the pants in the family (forgive the cliche) as I wanted an equal relationship and I know of many freshies who worked in a restaurant but were often very jealous of their more successful and professional British born wives. Well I didn;t want to take that risk. But the husband would not listen to my concerns and went ahead and got a job as a kitchen porter.
He spent the first night back from work crying like a baby. I’m not sure whether I suppose to feel sorry for him and tell him everything was OK? In the end didn’t. After all he wanted the job and who said any job would be easy. Be a man and grow up I told him. He then confided that he had never worked so hard in his life – again I did not feel sorry for him, everyone works hard in their life, I have worked two jobs in the past, and once I even took up a cleaning job when I put myself through university. I hated it but I didn’t cry over it!
So he started working in a restaurant, he didn’t even bother to join college until my dad came down on him and told him he was taking the Husband personally to college to get him joined up.
But even after that, the Husband pretended to go to college but instead was found lingering around in town like some high school kid and then coming home pretending he had been in class. The charade lasted two weeks and we then enrolled him into an English course at the Bangladeshi association. But there he was joined by other mangoes from near his village in Bangladesh. It was like a reunion party every week. The receptionist at the association later told me that all they did was have a laugh and take the piss out of the tutor in Bangla. She also told me that they made crude comments at her as well, but since she did not speak or understand the language, was oblivious to it all. In the end he gave this up too and I gave up on him and its only been two months so far.
But that was not all.
The restaurant he worked at was full of jerks……….who seemed not to like me. Whereas many of his colleagues ‘ wives were full time housewives, the husband was the only one with a working missus and I think it caused some jealousy amongst his so-called friends. Whereas I took him out to restaurants and cinemas and to many events, their free time was usually spent in their miserable homes probably making their wives miserable as well.
Whereas I had many friends I could socialise with, I could wear what I wanted (modestly of course) but whatever I did was the centre of gossip in the kitchen of this restaurant.
His friends were like MI5. If they saw my car driving down any road, the husband will be the first to hear about it. If I stepped into a shop, the husband will be the first to hear about it. If they thought I had put on weight, the husband will be the first to hear about it. Basically i couldn’t move around in Manchester without someone spotting me. It’s not that I was ever doing anything wrong, but the thought of someone always spying on me made me paranoid. The only way to enjoy myself and feel like a free agent was to be out of town.
But though I wasn’t doing anything wrong, the husband will come home every night and tell me that so and so saw me. At first it use to wind me up and I would want to know who it was that saw me and thought it will be fun to go back to the restaurant and talk about me. But it has now got a to a point where I just tell the husband to go and tell his friends “good for them”. I had more important things to worry about. He also got into the habit of gossiping about other people, especially girls. He was the first to know which girl was “disgracing” her family by dating someone, once he even came home and told me that so and so’s daughter had had an abortion, he will then ring his friends up and they will talk and laugh about it. This was a trait I very much disliked. I never knew how much of the gossip was true or even if it was true at all, but you just didn’t do things like that – I was very embarrassed about and we argued many times over it! I even bought a book about backbiting and how our Prophet said he dislikes people who backbited. He told me his imam in bangladesh knew more than the book and more than me and the book has not been touched!
When he wasn’t gossiping, his favourite thing to do was come home from work at 2am and try his best to wake me up. You see his friends he told me, always came home to a wife who was still waiting up for them them.they would go onto feed them and they will retire for the night. I on the other hand was working full time and could not and will not stay away till 2am so that I can watch him eat. If other women chose to wait on the husband till 2am then that was their choice. The husband just didn’t get the fact that I needed a good nights sleep to wake up early for work! So instead he would make little noises, go up and down the stairs, put the TV on or the music and he’ll talk on his phone for hours. When I politely ask him to go downstairs and talk or even better wait till the morning, my complaints will fall on death’s doors and he will carry on the same. So every night we argued until I sorted the problem out with some ear buds, not the best devices in the world but it helps me to get a few hours sleep at least!

SHILPA Shetty won yesterday in what is seen as a triumphant victory over the bullying antics of Jade, Jo and Danielle.
The Indian actress, who is set to make at least £10 million over the next three-years, shamed her tormentors by forgiving them live on air and asked the rest fot thenation to do the same.
Many people would have come out of the house feeling resentful after such an ordeal, but Shilpoa kept her dignity by refusing to condemn the ongoing onslought.
And she was right, as she said people do make mistakes but they need to move on, and she maintained her poise by defusing the race row by telling the world that Jade was not racist.
Shilpa has brought great credit to her nation by carrying herself like a lady at all times so it’s no wonder the British public fell in love with the Bollywood beauty and made her the winner of CBB.
This has definitely been one of the most exciting and controversial BB series to date, but it has also been a wake up call to the UK after exposing such ignorant behaviour from the three-so-called celebrities who have shown that racism still simmers in society.
There are now calls for better education of other cultures so that racism in this form does not rear its ugly head again.
Shilpa is wise enough and forgiving enough to realise that the bullies are not a reflection of all Brits and I wish her well in what is to come.
She is a real lady who has mucy respect for her culture and country and I am sure she will not forget her roots no matter how far she goes in her career.
Well done Shilpa!

A TEARFUL Jade has been apologising to the British public over the weekend for her “disgusting” behaviour on Big Brother.
Over and over again, she has repeated to everybody that she did not realise what she was saying could be percieved to be racist and that she realises it was well out of order.
Unfortunately for Jade, no amount of grovelling is going to win her back the support from her fans and the rest of society. The damage has been done and it’s affected her career hugely and it will only go downhill from now on.
Her ‘Shhh’ perfume brand has been taken off the shelves, the Indian factory that manufactures the bottles have put a halt to it, a Living TV contract for a show has been pulled and Jade’s rags to riches story will hopefully be a reminder to the rest of us that it’s the fans that can make a star and break a star!
I personally think Jade has learnt a huge lesson from all this, whether she is genuionely sorry for what she has done or just sorry that she got caught out, I don’t think she will ever make such a huge mistake again!
Now do we forgive her for it all? Well it’s up to you. I am still in two minds about the genuineness of her apologies – suppose there wasn’t such a huge outcry over her antics in the house – there would have been a good chance she would have walked out of the house not even caring about it all. But there was a huge controversy and she has no choice but to apologise!
As for Shilpa, she seems a lot more relaxed in the house, her bubbly personality is shining through and she is beginning to enjoy her experince and is having a laugh with the rest of the household. It’s Dirk who I feel sorry for now – why can’t Cleo just leave him alone.
Dirk still obiously fancies Shilpa – who says she doesn’t still find him attractive – then why tease the guy Shilpa i.e. asking him whether she can smell him after he had a shower is an invitation to flirt!
Jo and Danielle seem to be getting along with Shilpa a lot better – but I don’t think it’s genuine at all. They have a good idea why there was no crowd when Jade was evicted and realise that their own comments could also have been interpreted as racist and are now on their best behavuiioir. I just hope when Danielle is evicted we don’t forget about the awful things she did say to Shilpa. Why should Jade be the only one to carry the blame when Jo and especially Danielle where part and parcel of it!

THE nightly racist abuse of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty must be a shocking lesson to all fair minded people.
The bawling, obscene, insults hurled at the serene star is an abrupt reminder of just how far some areas of British society must go before they can be described as tolerant.
The nature of the racism from the Goody-Tweedy-Lloyd axis of hate is, I think, extremely revealing.
It is not of the overt “Paki bitch”/” black bastard” kind but the low hum of cultural and historic prejudice that continually suggests that foreigners, in this case, ‘the Indian’, are somehow dirty, uncivilised, cook revolting food and are in all ways inferior to white Britons.
This dark seam of ignorance, fear and misplaced superiority still runs deep in sections of the British public. I have encountered it all my life at school, on the streets and, yes, I have to say, sometimes at work.
Obvious racism of the “no Asians/blacks wanted” kind has been largely driven out of the public arena by anti-racist education and legislation that has made overt racist hate an offence, but this low-level prejudice is still there in the pubs, clubs, at sport events and many areas of British life.
These attitudes baffle and upset Shilpa who took several days to realise that the nastiness directed towards her was is fact rooted in racism, with an ugly bit of jealousy and class prejudice thrown into the poisonous brew.
On one level the Goodies of this world are just laughable examples of inadequate people.
Jade’s delusional attempt to suggest that she is somehow better than five-language speaking, college educated, genuinely beautiful and talented Ms Shetty is jaw gaping comic. But do not laugh too much, there are millions of Goodies still out there.
To end on an upbeat note. It warms my heart and sends my hopes soaring to see that so many white people have stood up to be counted on this issue.
The newspaper I work for has received more message on Shilpa’s ordeal thant any other topic in its history.
Ninety nine per cent express disgust at her treatment and most are from non-Asians expressing shame over this spectacle.
We will eventually win the battle against prejudice and ignorance.

The Big Brother racism controversy is still stirring with nearly 14,500 complaints from viewers.
Public reaction has been so overwhelming that MP Keith Vaz raised the issue in Parliament calling for the housemates to be reminded that racist behaviour is unacceptable.
One person has complained to the police, who are also investigating emails, that have been received by the Big Brother studios, making threats against a number of the housemates.
Sponsors of the show, Carphone Warehouse is reviewing its sponsorship and in a statement said they were against racism.
The incidents in the house have also reached the ears of Bollywood big shots in India. Director Mahesh Bhatt has criticised the show. He told reuters in India that the situation in the house is reflecting a wider problem in Western society. He said: “This is the real, discriminating face of the West you can see on the streets of London or New York.”
The Indian government will also be raising the issue with the UK government, which will put more pressure on Channel 4 bosses to intervene. India’s junior minister for external affairs, Anand Sharma, said in New Delhi: “We are awaiting a report about the show. The government will take appropriate measures once it gets to know the full details. Racism has no place in civilised society.”
With all this controversy still simmering, it must be noted though, that it has been nice to see the Asian, white and black community come out against the bullying Shilpa has been enduring in the house. All the emails and comments that have been pouring in are from the wider community. Not one person I have spoken to belives what is happening is OK! Many white people have cringed watching Jade and her bitches gang up on the actress.
They hope their behaviour does not reflect badly on the white community. I don’t think it does at all. The Asian community knows that not everybody is the same!
Now back to the goings on in the house. Vile bitch Jade just does not know when to stop.
Monday morning she told Shilpa she had a dream that Shilpa and her family were in the Big Brother house and that they had all kicked off and Jade beat up Shilpa. Laughing and joking about it, Shilpa looked at her and did not comment, Jermaine was shocked to say anything, but the look that pssed through Jermain and Shilpa showed that they were not impressed with the dream and Jade why tell everybody about it, it doesn’t make you look funny or nice.
Last night Jade spent another hour with her posse discussing how much she disliked Shilpa and was going to stop talking to her. Jade told Jo and Danielle that she would love to heabutt Shilpa and wipe “that smug look off her face”.
Jade and Jo then went on to say that they fought Shilpa was a fake celebrity and Jack told them that they should lift Shilpa out of her bed, place her in the garden and then lock the doors for a laugh.
Come on guys, this is too much to take in. Wait till they leave the Big Brother house and realise just how much of a super star Shilpa really is and just how much the British public are loathing them at the moment.
Ironically Jade is a campaigner of an anti-bullying campaign, but her true colours are now out – lets hope when she does leave the house, she won’t be able to capitalise on her so-called fame anymore! Oh and by the way the charity has now dropped Jade from their campaign appalled at her behaviour.
In the meantime Danielle has today been feeling a little guilty – in the bathroom as Shilpa helped Danielle do up her hair, the busty model told Shilpa that she did not like arguing with her and invited Shilpa to join them whenever she felt like it. Though I really don’t think Danielle is actually feeling guilty aboiut what she has done – if anything she is now beginning to ponder about the kind of publicity she is getting in the outside world and is now trying hard to mend things with Shilpa – though Jade does not know yet!
In the meantime it seems that Chennel 4 is loving all the publiciity with an extra 1 million viewers tuning tnto watch Big Brother last night. The controversy has made the show even more popular with viewers! I now wonder who the bigger bullies are – Jade or Channel 4 bosses for letting it carry on?

THE number of complaints about alleged racist abuse on Celebrity Big Brother has continued to grow today, hitting 4,500.
Media watchdog Ofcom has received around 3,500 complaints about alleged racism towards Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in the house whilst Channel 4 received a further 1,000 complaints about the show, reports Media Guardian.
It is believed that a number of websites are urging people to contact Ofcom and Channel 4 about the issue. “They are coming in in their droves. I believe that a lot of them have come in by email,” an Ofcom spokesperson said.
But while Channel 4 said it will not tolerate any racist abuse on Celebrity Big Brother, the broadcaster defended its decision not to intervene in the group dynamics despite the unpleasantness, saying it had to portray events “accurately”.
A spokesperson said: “Big Brother is closely monitoring all the housemates and will take appropriate measures to reprimand such behaviour where necessary.”
Ofcom confirmed yesterday that it had received more than 200 complaints from viewers over what they saw as racism towards Shilpa by fellow housemates Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara.
Jade Goody’s mother, Jackiey Budden, also repeatedly referred to Shilpa as “the Indian” while she was on the show and refused to pronounce her name.
Over the weekend, former beauty queen Danielle and ex-S Club 7 star Jo poked fun at Shilpa’s accent.
The incidents have provoked Big Brother fans to debate the racism question on websites.

BOLLYWOOD’S blue eyed beauty Aishwarya Rai is about to break the hearts of her male fans as she announced her engagement to fellow actor Abhishek Bachchan.
According to PA, The former Miss World and leading Bollywood actress exchanged engagement rings with the son of superstar Amitabh Bachchan at a small, intimate ceremony on Sunday evening.
Her manager Hari Singh said: “Yes, it is true. Abhishek and Aishwarya are engaged…
“The wedding will definitely take place this year.”
Aishwarya, 33, and Abhishek, 31, have worked together in several Bollywood movies. The most recent was flop ‘Umraon Jaan.’
News of the engagement ends months of speculation about the couple’s relationship in India, where they are huge stars.
Rumours about the couple ignited when the pair visited a Hindu temple together back in November 2006.