Shirley Temple- Condolences

“Shirley Temple was the rage then with her golden ringlets and her toothy smile. All the little girls copied her. Our school hung her picture on the wall behind the piano. We had in our class another Shirley. A Scot with pink cheeks and yellow ringlets. When the dignitaries arrived, it was always Shirley who carried up the bouquet.

Once she was asked to read a poem that I had composed and when the visitor asked who wrote it, our principal said, Shirley of course, she is a combination of beauty and brains, and then there was from the Governor’s wife a special kiss. What a bright little moppet, she said.” (From My Story, Kamala Das).

It may be because through Kamala’s use of Shirley’s name to talk about racial discrimination in the school that somehow I developed a negative kind of attitude regarding Shirley Temple, though she didn’t mean any harm in associating the Scot Shirley with the celebrity….

However, when I came to know about the celebrity Shirley Temple, I instantly admired her. Condolences!


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