What makes sexy?

The other day the very opinionated Shobha Dey wrote an interesting article on Mamta Banerjee where she described the CM in-waiting as not being sexy. In Shobha Dey's perceived notion, which has been shaped in the world of elitist Mumbai glamour and brazen display, surely the very frugal Miss Banerjee might seem unsexy. Mamta is not a stilettoed, wine-sipping dolled-up uber society-chick trying to make sense of the latest fashion trends, and neither does she belong to the traditional and sophisticated political class of foreign-educated people. Mamta is, what her party symbolises as pure grass-roots -- a woman who has risen from a very modest background. She has often been erratic, belligerent and disruptive in the past -- but she is talented, knowledgable, and a thinker in the true sense of the term. Her methods might have been illogical in the past, her mannerisms devoid of any sophistication and her English full of grammatic errors, yet she had depth, she could discern and she could speak, albeit in the language of the masses. So what makes sexy then -- an outward air of refinement and sophistication? -- Surely Not! Sexy is independence of spirit, sexy is the indomitable mind, sexy is the ability to stick on and make your point of view known, and sexy is humility. If Mamta is all this, then she is sexy...even with those hackneyed flip-flops and the humble begali-cotton saree!