Alone in a crowd 

Shilpa has a bad day in the Big Brother house. After Jackie told the others she thought she was a fake, the issue has snowballed into the female housemates talking about Shilpa behind her back. Jo, Jade and Danielle called Shilpa too controlling and manipulative.

"I find her a bit irritating at times, she seems a bit fake to me," said Jade.

"She's too fake," agreed Jo.

"She's so controlling and bossy, I don't like that," continued Danielle. "I feel she'd talk about me when I left the room."

Carole, with no knowledge of this conversation, moments later spoke to Danielle about the vibes she was getting from the girls to Danielle, unaware that Danielle was also party to the backbiting session.

"I think some people are starting to pick on Shilpa, they need someone to moan about, it's quite sad really because she's done nothing wrong," said Carole.

"I think some people find her a bit controlling," responded Danielle.

As the day went on things got better as others reasserted their support for her. When talking about the conflict with Jackie, Jermaine told Shilpa:

"You probably intimidate her (Jackie) because of your confidence and secureness. I don't want you to repeat this, but you have a lot of support in here, because other people know why she's doing it."

In a conversation with Carole later, Shilpa admitted: "I'm feeling low and then she says something to me and I think, 'why are you talking to me'," Shilpa says. "What would you do?" she asked Carole.

"I'd have a go," Carole responded. "You've been elegant and diginified. That works where you come from, it doesn't work here. You have to have a go back."

This fundamentally is the problem between Shilpa and the other housemates. She is so genuine and has an inherent kindness in her upbringing and culture that this is being misconstrued as being done 'for effect'. When she got up from the dinner table at the banquet to hug Jade's grandparents, it was because she felt happy to be reminded of family. These same values made her refer to Ken as 'Uncle' as he is her elder.

Some housemates seem to think she's doing this for brownie points or for the camera. The culture clash is seeping through and Shilpa is doing great being herself but this is coming across as motivated. I guess in one way that's a huge compliment that you can't find someone as genuine as Shilpa everywhere in the world and so some find it unbelievable. Hang in there Shilpa, you're doing us all proud so it doesn't matter what others say!