Smarting at the comments of columnist Shobhaa De in her recent column as well as in a magazine interview, Celina Jaitly addresses De the following, in her own words:

"As a military attaché’s grand daughter and the daughter of an army colonel, I have been brought up to not react to the insults made by my elders. I've had the sort of upbringing which makes me reserve my comments against jibes made by someone my grandmother's age.

Having been a Ms India, a Ms. Universe runner up, a social activist, a writer, tourism ambassador to Egypt and an actor who speaks five languages and has travelled the whole of India and the world, I pride myself on my achievements in the last twenty-six years of my life how ever big or small they might be because they were achieved not out of fluttering around as a social butterfly or writing sexually provocative stories.

I am the living example of a modern day middle class girl who has done well for herself and stood up for what is right to the entire world and not some diplomatic typical world peace-related issues.

I feel, after reading Shobha aunty's last column that she is taking a neutral stand (against the decision to make homosexuality legal in the county) to keep both sides happy, until the supreme court decision comes through... and then she will swing to whichever side of the grass is greener.

Sad, I expected much more from her. I guess Ms De lives to put down the film industry no matter what our contribution is. She should know we actors are people of the masses and classes, we see no race and no religion. All we see is how human we can be. No matter what their sexual orientation."