We introduced Toral to mutineers with a gentle reminder to her that “all glory is fleeting” and my oh my how true it was. On Thursday, October 13, her Apprentice star was extinguished in dramatic fashion after a run of just 4 episodes. While probably not an ideal role model, we can answer Desi media critics and say that this week at least 1 TV show was truly led by a desi characterThis week at least 1 TV show was truly led by a desi character.
The episode’s story arc traced Toral’s fall starting with her perilous escape from last week’s boardroom – something Trump pointed out was her high point in words almost fitting a Greek Oracle – “Enjoy the view, Toral“.
The subsequent verdict from the flock of Cassandras was immediate and fierce –
“Not bringing Toral into the boardroom isn’t loyalty, it’s stupidity”
And in Waiting to Exhale fashion, a caucus was called where her teammates admonished her to step up the plate and run like she hadn’t run before. The die was cast as her teammate’s demands were diametrically opposed to Toral’s master plan –
“…Toral is a friggin goober”“My strategy was really to take an extremely passive approach that would allow each person to implode because I just didn’t think these people would be able to perform in any manner… I’m not completely wrong about that”
But, as they say in war, no plan survives contact with the enemy. And ironically, her teammates employed precisely this strategy against her. Toral’s constant passivity and shirking of responsibility created the essential conflict and thus one of the more entertaining hours of TV in a long time –
“I’m happy to step up … I know you guys are expecting that from me… BUT… “
And so we see her problem stripped to it’s bare, naked, essential glory. With Toral, there’s always a BUT. Always an out. Always some wiggle room. She appears to live in that precious gap between “try” and “do”. At some level, we suppose she was willing to don the ridiculous mascot costume her team had adopted to complete their assigned task. BUT she was rather adamant that The Toral –
“can’t embarrass myself or my family or my employers”
Apparently The Toral has never seen a single episode of RealtyTV before. Or read the fine print on her contract. One of her teammates aptly summarized Toral’s attitude as only the MTV generation could –
“Toral is a friggin goober”
As fate would have it, the girls lost (again), Toral was a focus point for their anger (again), and their camaraderie (again), and she assumed that the real problem lay collectively with everyone else (again) –
“again, my judgement was 100% on target”“they’re so stupid, they have no intelligence, they have no backbone…. they’re going to get a fight”
Watching this delusion in practice vaguely reminded me of a famous quote from Star Trek: TNG — “If there’s nothing wrong with me, maybe there’s something wrong with the Universe”. Of course Trek is, uh, Science Fiction, while Toral presumably lives in NYC. As the space/time continuum continued to warp around itself, Toral played the Religion card –
“I said that I had a personal and spiritual belief about that stuff”
Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on Hinduism in any way (my family is Christian) BUT, a few min of Googling didn’t really turn anything up. Maybe it’s more like one of those family traditions rather than a sect 
. Most likely, it was a feeble attempt to introduce a third rail into the dialog.“…these are not people I’d even hire as my administrative assistant”
Nevertheless, the central issue in the boardroom became whether or not she’d really mentioned this concern to her team. The video record was clear that she hadn’t and the verbal sparing in the boardroom gave very little support to Toral’s version of events.
The Donald did a marvelous job of translating ToralSpeak into English –
Trump: Did you say religion [to your teammates]? Remember you have to tell the truth, we’re talking about religion.Toral: I believe I did
Trump: …’I *believe* i did’ means ‘I didn’t do it’
In possibly the harshest boardroom of the 4 seasons of the Apprentice, Trump bypassed getting the PM’s opinion, avoided frivolous formality and preserved precious commercial airtime by firing Toral directly –
You know why they wanted you to wear the costume? Because they didn’t want you to contribute. They felt you were the weakest person on the team.…I am so disappointed with you Toral, you have the great Wharton education, but you are totally ineffective, you’ve done a terrible job. And Toral, you’re fired.
Go. Out.
Of course, Toral couldn’t go into the night without her Parthian Shot in her taxicab monologue –
“Some people take their personal dignity very seriously. I’m a person of stature and respect. In every day life I don’t think I’d even speak to somebody like Christi or Felecia; these are not people I’d even hire as my administrative assistant.”
Perhaps. Although something tells me that the resumes and applicants aren’t exactly lining up at Toral’s door. On the other hand, maybe Toral will join other ex-Apprentice mates who have turned ignominy on the show into fame outside. As Manish pointed out, the modern world, particularly it’s Desi corner, celebrates those consumed by hubris almost as much as our victors.
I know people of stature and respect. People of stature and respect are good friends of mine. Ms Mehta, you are not a person of stature and respect.
“Some people take their personal dignity very seriously. I’m a person of stature and respect. In every day life I don’t think I’d even speak to somebody like Christi or Felecia; these are not people I’d even hire as my administrative assistant.”
yeah. how many posts are you going to have for this witch of the east?
lol.
I’m going to make an everlast punching bag with Toral’s face on it, just for Chickpea. Complete with boxing gloves, too!
As many as you posted 😉
i agree, enough toral already. let’s talk about m.i.a.!
j/k, j/k
Irritatingly, on other online venues, non-Desis are speculating that Toral’s attitude is caused by a presumed “high-caste” identity – it is also incorrectly assumed that caste correlates 100% with wealth, and generalizations are being made that most Indian professional women are as snobbish as Toral. Such generalizations are being taken as “useful tips in case I ever interview for a job with an Indian female boss.”
Well, link to ’em, let’s have it.
Ode to sweet Toral, perhaps the next time we meet will be around twirling dandiya sticks in Jersey City far from the gaze of all these second raters…with apologies to Auden
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Excised The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.
TWOP’s recaplet of Bye, Bye Toral is pretty snarktastic. I don’t even watch the show, and I was gleeful she got the boot.
yeah! I say we go over there en masse and flood the boards with various conflicting caste factoids.
Personally, I like to say I’m a Cinnamon Peeler when asked about my caste affiliation. Confusing Lankans, desis and Amrikans all in one fell swoop 😉
yeah. like I’d even want to work for a psycho shrew moron like Toral.
And Mr. ‘trix is the cinnamon peeler’s wife? 🙂
hehe manish, you are too funny yaar 😉
i want the punching bag..
better yet, give me a dartboard with her face in the bullseye.. hell i’d be aiming for it front and center…
oral toral.. pudding and pie praised her ass and said goodbye…
She was horrible. She didn’t do anything and she didn’t want to do anything. She was a big snob with very bad attitude. She is highly assuming and just bad manners all around. I am sure there are nice quality about her but those didn’t show up during the Apprentice.
I wouldn’t want to work with her or to have her as a friend. Definately not as administrative assistant, since the job is beneath her. She probably talks bad about everybody, either in front of them or behind them. She is truely bad character.
I couldn’t believe her words.
Also, Realestate is not a career path which i have high regards. It’s not just a cut throat but it’s usually very butt-kissing job, super-fake.
Are there exceptions, yes. In her case, she is the norm of the business.
Hunger strike. oz wants Toral-jee back. To get this done oz has a 9 point program all planned out.
This “sample of one” bullshit is so annoying. I once interviewed for a part-time college gig. My boss later confided that she was worried a 20-year-old Indian-American college kid wouldn’t accept a 45-year-old female manager. The irony of it all was that she was Asian-American and worked in an affirmative action-related area.
ha! I thought of linking to that actually, but went for a more prosiac description.
Mr.C is of hardy mountain stock…I believe they’re affiliated with goats.
I was waiting for the Caste thing. Finally. hallelujah !!! Now if we can get Cows into this.. (part of the Caste, Cows and Curry tri-facta)
I really only read one such forum, TWoP, but I thought it might not be kosher to name/link to other forums from here. But here you go, Manish and everyone. And here and here and here.
Found this: http://www.theapprenticerules.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2785&
Nothing scares AmeriKKKa more than a intelligent, beautiful, high-caste brown woman.
…and here.
If this kind of stuff is showing up on TWoP, which has a relatively intelligent population of posters, you can bet it’s showing up in other places.
SirChes, Toral does not seem to be particularly intelligent or of good character – but it angers me that speculations about why she is that way have to include “caste.” What’s next, “elephants?”
Deepa, I wasnt saying that u brought up that issue. I was just making a general comment(more like a rant)
I know, RC. 🙂 Speaking of curry…weren’t her teeth suspiciously white? Guess she had to get those curry stains bleached off before going on TV…
argh. here we go again. argus_nj, was there any need to post that link? didn’t A N N A just write a very eloquent post about using sex and sexuality to “eviscerate a woman.” raj (bhakta) probably never had to deal with this.
Sorry, didn’t mean to offend.
Deepa, the link about high-class attitude is dead on re: NYC women raised in India. In my experience, the ones who can afford to study and work in the U.S. are upper-middle-class or upper class, and they’re comfortable with having servants.
Where they go wrong is that it’s not usually accurate with 2nd genners like Mehta.
Shudder. Those caste-based speculations are ridiculous. It never came up here because we know better! They don’t even know what caste she is; nor do I; nor do I care.
If you’re a person of colour, people will always see anything you do or how you behave as having to do with your race.
I wouldn’t be too hard on the TWOP crowd. South Asian men and women often have a bad reputation. I know a few people who have told me they would never work for a desi man or woman. Too imperious, arrogant, and condescending. Too prone to treat employees like servants.
(And no caste issue, here — the perceived problem spans Hindus and Muslims)
So, SepiaStars, is there a ‘Desi-style’ of management? Do Desis have a cultural problem with being managers. Is it more a FOB problem? A MBA-Desi problem. Or is it all a part of the white man’s plan to keep the brown man down?
Sure, but generalizations based on economic class are sufficient, without bringing in caste, especially when the person speculating knows nothing about the caste system. It’s exotica again.
Secondly:
is absolutely correct, and the distinction (immigrant vs. 2nd gen) is not appreciated.
Help a white brotha out, my Indian compadres.
I thought I had made a big leap when I Googled that Toral’s last name is Mehta. From Zubin Mehta, I extrapolated that she was a Parsi, which led me to think she grew up rich, which led me to think this is why she’s such a condescending behotch.
But I’ve seen no one mention that she’s Parsi. Is Mehta not always a Parsi name?
Not all Mehtas are Parsi, and not all Parsis are rich.
It’s all FOB’s and The White Man. Ow! Ooo! Ow! I was just kidding!
Toral Mehta is probably a Gujarati. Toral, Tejal, Sejal are typical Gujarati names.
‘Twas a witticism, Deepa. A play on a MalcolmXism and 80s Afro-centric T-shirt about “Nothing scaring America more than a intelligent black man!” I’ve never even seen a episode!
Sorry, SirChes. Took it seriously because I like Malcolm X. 🙂
“Deepa, the link about high-class attitude is dead on re: NYC women raised in India. In my experience, the ones who can afford to study and work in the U.S. are upper-middle-class or upper class, and they’re comfortable with having servants.
Where they go wrong is that it’s not usually accurate with 2nd genners like Mehta.”
Manish: I find this sweeping generalization, that the “good” Indian women are the Americans, and the “bad stuck up bitches” the FOBs from back home, highly offensive to say the least. It seems like the sort of cartoonish view of the world that Sepia says it stands against.
Well, cows, duh. One of the comments mentions that she happily suited up to sell cow-derived products.
And so you’ve exhausted most people’s knowledge of India right there 😉
What I said is qualified (ok, agreed, not qualified enough), specific and based on personal experience. It’s not playing to stereotype if it’s about specific people and it’s true.
Where did the phrase ‘bad stuck up bitches’ come from?
FWIW, the first-gen desi women I know are also way more career-hardcore and impressive than second-genners. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’re not going to object to that ‘sweeping generalization’ 😉
As I just mentioned on another thread, South Asian culture — both back in India and amongst the dispora — can be very ego-driven indeed. Which is the reason why you often have arrogant behaviour to a greater degree (and greater frequency) than is the “norm” amongst many other communities.
This is just my own subjective opinion, but I think that excessive arrogance is the fundamental cause of so many social problems and behaviours within South Asian society worldwide. Egotism can wreck one’s good judgement — and make what should be comparatively simple and straightforward matters unnecessarily “political” — hence the prima donna behaviour apparently demonstrated by Toral and which I’m sure we’ve also all encountered in our lives within the South Asian community ourselves — amongst all generations, and “Western-born” as well as recent desi arrivals.
*dispora
Should say “diaspora” (I’m sure you all guessed that anyway)
D- her website had a big fat banner for Brite Smile. Something tells me she’s desi enough to negotiate some banner exposure in exchange for goods…
So why do so many bad boys and girls get ahead in this world? Ain’t there room for those of us who are nice, and don’t lie, cheat, or steal to get around?
Couldn’t one say this about all human beings?
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’re not going to object to that ‘sweeping generalization'”
Actually, given that I know several “stay-at-home-ers” as well as several who are gung-ho about their careers, I would disagree with that generalization too.
Contrary to your insinuation, I don’t object only to generalizations that are less-than-flattering; I object to generalizations about people’s characters/attributes because it’s the hallmark of lazy thinking.
I’m interested in Ikram’s question:
Any of you in the corporate world (or any world involving management) have an opinion about this?
love the euphemistic motif of “indian girls all bitches” in rendering a universal history of snobbery. I understand the world so much better now….
Matty,
Mehta is more likely to be Hindu last name. It is also found amongst Parsis.
In Hindus Mehta last name can be found from Punjab to Gujarat and also Maharashtra (I am not 100% sure about Maharashtra). From the name Toral, I am preety sure she is Hindu Gujarati. (That doesnt mean she didnt grow up rich.)
Yeah…get a job
Thanks, I’m all set. Toral, maybe you should wait to calm down before going online.