SOCIAL MEDIA FALLOUT

Daisy Shah says she learnt a lesson in compassion as people lashed out at her for a recent post

There is no shame in apologising,” says actor Daisy Shah in her recent Instagram story. Her thoughts come after an uproar on social media over a picture that shows her reading Khaled

Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, and laughing while reading it. Her smile didn’t go down well with trolls who have questioned how is she so amused reading a “grim” book.

“I admit the book ain’t an easy read. A very disturbing 1, few chapters in and now I understand. The picture was not to hurt any1.. (sic),” the actor further adds in her Insta story.

Shah confesses she didn’t anticipate this reaction. “I was just at the beginning... I had hardly read three-four pages. By then, you’re trying to understand the characters. You don’t really get into the story from the first page itself,” says the 36-year-old, adding, “Even if you are reading a dark story, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a lighthearted conversation with someone at the very same time.”

The Jai Ho (2014) and Race 3 (2018), actor acknowledges that this episode, and the trolling thereafter has come with its share of learning. “We’re in difficult times. There’s already so much trauma in the world... If only people were compassionate towards each other.”

Shah hopes people “uplift each other” instead of “stooping down to this level [of trolling]”. She opines, “Jitna pyaar ek book ko dikha sakte ho, utna pyar ek human ko kyun nahin dikha sakte ho?”

And what compelled her to apologise after this incident?. “I didn’t apologise because people felt bad, but because I read the book. Loss is something I have experienced. I connected with this book,” she concludes.

I was just atthe beginning. By then, you’re trying to understand the character really gets. You don’t into the story from the first page itself. DAISY SHAH, Actor