Monica Dogra 'I've Learnt to Play the Game'

She will dance with the devil and she doesn’t need your approval.

- Nirmika Singh

Monica Dogra has just gotten up from a nap when she opens the door of her apartment for me. I only faintly see her shape as she ushers me in and quickly disappears into an inside room, calling out her apology from there and requesting five minutes. She returns in a short while dressed in home clothes (a pair of weathered boyfriend jeans and gray tank top), her face looking like a dream without a trace of make up on it. She woke up like this. Singer, actor, television personality and an overall poster child of everything indie, Dogra appears candid enough during our hour-long chat but her responses are carefully considered. She takes her time while replying to probing questions and sometimes when she has nothing say, she says so. It troubles me no end that she doesn’t make much eye contact and chooses instead to fix her gaze on the objects in the room or look down at the cup of herbal tea she is nursing, sitting curled up on the sofa. Every few minutes, she flips her hair from one side parting to the other. When she is not looking at me, I steal a glance at her gorgeously slender body, especially her long arms and the ring she is wearing on her left index finger, fashionably wrapped between the joint and base. While talking, she isn’t evasive but cautious. Her famously free-spirited nature has brought her vitriolic press in the past and she’s definitely not taking chances. She admits she is even wary of meeting journalists. “I have learnt the hard way. I mean the “Shiver” hate article took stuff off my personal Facebook page and put it into public platforms and that wasn’t for public consumption,” she says as she saves her tea from a tea bag that seems to be coming apart. I can’t take my eyes off her perfectly round silver nose ring.