I don’t know if history can credit the birth of the descriptive phrase ‘Five Star’ to someone. A word that led to the creation of a cult called–a Five Star hotel. Perhaps an old, stubby British journalist exited quite satiated after a visit, and on-return to his desk drummed his fingers in style and winked for added flavor as he exhaled to his newspaper editor- “Ah! The place! I tell you–five stars!” Knowing that newspaper editors have an uncanny ability for catching catchy phrases like this one, this casual usage could have become the bed for a cult classification. Or perhaps there is a duller story.
The Indian middle class has a curiously tenacious relationship with the Five Star hotels. ‘They are the Five Star types’ is enough description to describe a whole family. It serves most purposes, be it trailing chatter or swift matrimonial enquiry.
It isn’t about affluence alone. The five stars represent the paradox of pleasure. The idea of success and professional achievement is linked to these marbled spaces, albeit with suspicion. Entering them announces your upward mobility and superior status from the rest in the middle. You are not a real Indian if you haven’t bellowed about your first free FIVE Star conference– describing the plush environs, the buffet service and the musical elevators with ceaseless pride.
