Sania Mirza and Koneru Humpy-achievers yet poles apart

Like Sania Mirza, Koneru Humpy is a ‘first’ for an Indian woman. Born on March 31, 1987, she is a chess grandmaster. Her April 2004 FIDE ELO rating is 2513, placing her as No. 3 in the world for women. Humpy was originally named Hampi by her parents but her father later changed it to Humpy, a more Russian sounding name. Koneru Humpy has setup a new World Record of becoming the Youngest-Ever Woman to achieve the Men’s GM Title. Humpy has achieved the Men’s GM Title at the age of 15 years , 1 month, and 27 Days beating Judith Polgar's record of 15 years, 4 months and 27 days.

Fellow-Hyderabadi Sania Mirza is only a year older. Since her debut at the US Open, in which she made it to Round 4, before losing to top-seed Maria Sharapova, Sania is ranked No.42 in the WTA rankings. Sania is an icon in India, is grabbing endorsements left, right and centre and has suddenly become the poster-girl of international sports. Where does that leave Koneru Humpy? Literally-nowhere. She’s had her moments on national TV and a page or two in national news magazines, but then its zippo. Nada.

There is a not-so-subtle difference between the two, you see. Sania is the streaked, midriff-baring , PYT with loads of attitude, huge earrings and a nosepin to match. Humpy Koneru, in contrast, is the bespectacled, shy, youngster-certainly not one who looks like she can keep pace with Gen X. Is it not enough to be an achiever anymore? Has the age of superficial behaviour reached such mammoth levels that achievers must also be spin-doctored to look and act a certain way? What if Sania resembled Humpy and didn’t attend post-match media interactions in T-shirts which say ‘I am cute? No s***.?

We have heard how Sania’s favourite colours are red and black, how she likes Ocean’s 11 and Brad Pitt and Hugh Grant. Likes listening to hip hop including Eminem, ... also likes playing cricket and swimming ... most admires Gandhi ... also admires tennis play of Steffi Graf.

And we want to hear more. The country and several parts of the world are in the grip of a Sania Mania and no one is denying it, or wanting to anyway. Research and researchers tell us that in society, attractive people tend to be more intelligent, better adjusted, and more popular. This is described as the halo effect - due to the perfection associated with angels. Research shows attractive people also have more occupational success and more dating experience than their unattractive counterparts. One theory behind this halo effect is that it is accurate -attractive people are indeed more successful.

According to an article by Charles Feng of Stanford University, ‘Looking Good: The Psychology and Biology of Beauty’, research shows attractive people have more occupational success and more dating experience than their unattractive counterparts. An alternative explanation for attractive people achieving more in life is that we automatically categorize others before having an opportunity to evaluate their personalities, based on cultural stereotypes which say attractive people must be intrinsically good, and ugly people must be inherently bad.

But Elliot Aronson, a social psychologist at Stanford University, believes self-fulfilling prophecies in which a person’s confident self-perception, further perpetuated by healthy feedback from others - may play a role in success as well. Aronson suggests, based on the self-fulfilling prophecy that people who feel they are attractive - though not necessarily rated as such - are just as successful as their counterparts who are judged to be good-looking.

Feng writes that whatever the reason, the notion that attractiveness correlates with success still rings true. Yet beauty is not always advantageous, for beautiful people, particularly attractive women, tend to be perceived as more materialistic, snobbish, and vain.

Haven’t we started hearing rumblings of the endorsements bagged by Sania and cynics wondering if this would just mean that Sania is headed the way of the famous men-in-blue. For better or worse, the bottom line is that research shows beauty matters; it pervades society and affects how we choose loved ones. The poignant part would be if beauty takes away from achievement and becomes the new benchmark for choosing icons.