Obscenities and Moral Policing

I am against both moral policing and the obscenities in public. But when I try to analyze it, I myself stand confused. Let me do a self introspection and writing always helps.

What motivated me to write this article is the latest post by Rashmi Bansal. She writes about MTV roadies and channel V hotties. What she wrote and what videos I saw when I did a bit of background check was shocking. They are so narrow-minded; they have just concentrated on the college kids and the fresh out of college generation. I myself don’t swear in common day to day dialogues, but I know it’s pretty natural and I do accept it from others. But it is entirely different if these come on national telecast and that too without beeps. I just saw a video about behind the scenes roadies and the profane obscenities totally shook me. Asking people to roam around in undergarments in a 7 pm show is not really acceptable.

Another thing I dislike more is swear words in public. I know it’s close to reality, but there should be some scale. I didn’t like “Departed” in spite of it being a nice movie is just because though I tried hard, I could not justify the F word in every 10 seconds. In the Indian context, obscenities strike me even more. I can accept if these kinds of shows (Hotties / Roadies) are reserved for after 11, or some other channel. Or even if parents just take care that the child is not watching these. But I myself has once seen that a small kid and his father both watching “Kaanta lagaa” and enjoying it.

Am I being Shiv Senaish? May be. But I still don’t support Sushma Swaraj’s act to ban Fashion TV. Banning is not a solution. But definitely, the parents should be responsible. But who will do that?

And doesn’t this contradict with the fact that I like Bipasha Basu? I definitely wouldn’t have liked Jism to be a movie where whenever John and Bipasha come, they show two flowers.

I guess it is just the beginning phases of a developing nation. In a developed nation, all things are available. But because the people are educated, they themselves can differentiate between right and wrong and take care of their children. On the other hand, in India, the content has come but people are not smart enough to take it wisely. I guess, with time things will settle. Let’s just pass this trend as momentary.

Side Note: Off late, I realize that most of my posts end up in a solution where people have to be more knowledgable and wise? Is this a practical solution? And is it achievable, If so, how?

Immigrants

It all starts by reading these two articles. The Bachi Karkaria one and the Greatbong one. I think I can comment on this new hot topic of immigrants as well. I have been an immigrant all my life. But still I can’t fight FOR the immigrants. There are two reasons for that. First one is, I feel, commenting on immigration problem as an immigrant is like the extremely dirty proverb “Kandhe Pe Chadhao to Kaan mein Mutta hai” ( Take him in your shoulder and he will piss in your ears.) Yuck. I can’t believe I can write this on my blog, but please give me a more apt and decent one. The other day my manager (American) was discussing how he hates the quotas for H1B and how they should be removed. I felt I don’t have the right to speak on that topic.

The second thing is I have seen two of my favorite places ruined because of the influx of immigrants. First one is Bangalore. Undue advantage has been taken on the generally quiet and well mannered Kannada people. Firstly by the Tamils and now by the North Indians. The costs have risen sky high and the traffic jams. Plus this tendency of Indians in general to impose their culture on others. Unlike them becoming like the rest of the Kannadigas, everybody wants their own kind of living. And with the predominantly young software crowd, things are out of hands.

The second case is that of Puri. Did you know it belonged to Orissa? Even if you did, just go there once, you won’t feel it that way. Its Bengalis all around. Even the shopkeepers say only one sentence in Oriya- ‘Dhai Kiri Kiri’ (hurry up, fast fast or something similar) and this too just because for some strange reason Bengalis find it funny. Makes me cry though.

Coming to the recent Marathi Manoos chaos. Technically I can comment because I have been born and brought up in Maharashtra. It’s Maharashtra’s and Nagpur’s generosity/fault that I didn’t learn Marathi because I could survive well without it. Anyway, I think Mumbai is an exception. I have never been to Mumbai but I have been to New york. And if Mumbai is even a bit like it, it’s a city of immigrants. The city thrives on immigrants. And New York was the first place ever I liked the immigrants. I think Mumbai is also the same.

Let Pune be the city of Marathi manoos. And that does not mean immigrants not allowed, but immigrants acting as “In Rome, Do as the Romans Do”. Same has to apply with Bangalore now as it is in irreparable state. Let Mysore be the Pune of Karnataka. As for Kolkata and Chennai, they are different league. Whatever you try to do, they will never change. Kolkata will always be bongy and Chennai be Tamily.

Ok, so as the conclusion was ‘In Rome Do as the Romans do’, a bit of appendage is necessary: ‘To the extent you don’t loom foolish’ and this appendage applies to all those fake American accent putters. J