CELEBS FACTORY

A pregnant Mandira Bedi has done a photo shoot exclusively for the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine which hits stands today. The anchor-actress talks about the most beautiful phase in her life and how she and hubby Raj Kaushal are preparing to welcome their bundle of joy which is due next month. Extracts from the interview...

ON HAVING A BABY 12 YEARS AFTER MARRIAGE: “I have worked for most part of my married life and I kept delaying it. No one really pressurised us, not his family or mine, to have a baby.”

ON COPING WITH PREGNANCY: “You have lots of ugly days and suddenly your wardrobe is limited to literally 14 things that I’m pulling off hangers.”

ON MOTHERHOOD: “It’s a beautiful phase. Motherhood is something that everyone should experience and I didn’t want to be left behind.”

ON WHAT KIND OF PARENTS SHE AND RAJ WOULD MAKE: “I reckon Raj will be the disciplinarian. I’m a bit of a softie.”

It’s the season of dropping tops, it appears. First Bipasha Basu posed topless for a magazine cover in January. Now, Mallika Sherawat has got many eyes popped out with her sizzling image on the cover of FHM.

We’re not even considering the likes of Mandira Bedi and Vidya Balan who have posed boldly for photoshoots in the last few months. But Bipasha baring her shapely back on the cover of the January issue of Maxim did win its share of accolades.

Now, as if to rival that, Mallika has taken her top off and scorched the cover of the April issue of FHM.

The cover, with Mallika’s assets barely hidden behind a voluminous necklace, leaves little to imagination.

So we decided to ask you, who looks hotter as the covergirl?

Women and cricket is the hot debate, so who’s winning and who’s whining?

Mandira Bedi’s noodle-straps are now part of official cricketing folklore, but also for reasons unconnected (no pun intended) to the accompanying controversy. I remember sitting with a group of friends when the wardrobe malfunction happened on live TV and it turned out to be a case of wardrobe male-function. It appeared that none of the males present had even heard of noodle-straps and their use, or misuse. Sure, we had all seen them (barely) on fashionistas and social fireflies but like a lot of garments and accessories worn by women these days, it is prudent to let their nomenclature and usage remain an unfathomable mystery. Mandira’s sartorial choice was, in that context, a revelation for us men who till then had only equated noodles with Chinese takeaway.

It was actually more than that. Cricketing purists and pundits are still grinding their teeth, but it was a transformational even historic moment in the gentleman’s game; mainly because gentlemen were no longer its sole custodians. Here, for the first time, women had breached what was a cozy, exclusive male club and cricket and the commentary box would never be the same. From the 2003 World Cup where Ms Bedi made her contentious debut, to its 2011 version, we’ve come a long way, baby. Make that baby bulge. Not only is she back, all aglow in the first flush of pregnancy, but so are the host of other women, from TV studios to the media centre and spectators, who have literally added an extra innings to the sport.