Lady Gaga

Being eccentric is usually associated with genius and we have plenty of famous people who are considered to be above average and who also have displayed the strangest of habits. Albert Einstein collected discarded cigarette butts off the street as he was forbidden by his doctor to smoke his pipe and would give his eight year-old nephew lectures on the Newtonian properties of soap bubbles. Thomas Eddison hired research assistants by observing how they ate their soup: anyone adding salt or pepper before tasting the soup was immediately rejected. Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American engineer and inventor, was repulsed by pearls, earrings in particular, human hair as well as overweight women and most likely women in general. He loved everything that was divisible by three, never married (no wonder!) and was in love with his pigeon. Oscar Wilde is rumoured to have taken his lobster for walks, perhaps to make sure it got enough exercise!

More often than not people who have an excess of money will display eccentric behaviour because they are bored or just want to let everyone know that they have lots of cash to fritter away. Francis Henry Egerton, eighth earl of Bridgewater during the 16th century, inherited a huge fortune. He lived in Paris and what could be more natural than being influenced by its fashion. He threw lavish parties – for dogs who had to be dressed in haute couture, including fancy shoes. Egerton (like many individuals, especially women) had a thing for shoes and would wear a new pair everyday, putting them away to mark the passing of each day. Imelda would have been proud.

In Bangladesh we have had our own self-acclaimed 'prince' sporting gold-embroidered katan jackets and yes, diamiond-studded shoes. We also know about a famous businessman –turned pir- who dreamt that he was being 'told' by the Higher Power to build a mosque-like structure with several minarets. He had the money and the audacity, building this unique-looking medieval structure on the banks of Dhanmondi Lake. Apparently no building or land codes were violated and the 'castle on the lake' has become a curiosity and tourist spot for visitors from home and abroad.

Like genius and eccentricity, fashion and eccentricity are also best buddies. Just take a look at the catwalks of Milan or Paris (sometimes even Dhaka). You may balk at the sight of cheetah-prints in shocking pink and bird's nest hairdos with blotches of flaming orange and neon blues – but this is high fashion; perhaps not the best look to wear at lunch with your in-laws but something that screams 'innovation', 'sexiness' and of course 'eccentric'.

Hence the outrageous outfits of Lady Gaga who is Eccentricity personified. She is a musical genius no doubt and has taken fashion to unfathomable levels – dresses made of meat, fire-shooting bodices and an outfit made of soap bubbles! She's also pretty rich, thus fulfilling the third criterion that allows for eccentricity. She spent $4,000 on ghost hunting equipment to drive away 'bad energy' from London's O2 stadium before a performance.

In a society like ours which reveres conformity and convention, being eccentric is somewhat risky. People who take the unconventional path are thought to have little cracks in their heads – thus the term mathai chhit which literally means that – to have a crack in the head. In the villages this may be seen as a possession of a bad djinn and hence will invite a series of traumatic exorcism sessions involving stinging lashes from a broom. In the city, being eccentric may ensure that you are completely ostracised by colleagues, acquaintances, even passersby if say, you are wearing your trousers the other way around and your hair brushed in front of you so it looks like you are actually walking backwards. In such a scenario the only way you can get away with it is if you are a popular poet/writer/singer/actor, a mysterious mystic with a reasonable following or a certified genius with loads and loads of money. Otherwise you're just a crazy fool.