Last week, I was offered an article on Lata Mangeshkar by a freelance writer. The interview was not newsy and the writer a self-confessed devotee had been gushy in the entire piece. Much as I admire the legend, when I pointed out to the writer that he'd lost his objectivity and drooled like a fan, he didn't like it. Later that night, he sent me a text message saying, "It' so sad that people go through their lives without having any icons." He implied that I didn't have any idols.

He was right, in a way. I don't. At least not in the film industry. Sure, I admire some people in the business Hrithik Roshan, for overcoming his stammering disability; Sushmita Sen, a Hindi-medium school student, who taught herself to speak in English, and is the most articulate actress in B-Town; Kajol, for rewriting the rules by getting married and choosing to have a baby at the peak of her career or the late Gulshan Kumar, who changed the face of the Indian music industry forever.