PDA and other things

The first thing I must do is apologise. One of my readers , lets call her Ms. SS wrote back saying that I had let down the tone of my articles by writing about "Maharashtrian Gods" and a person who writes interesting articles like I do should know better that there are no Maharashtrian gods just a pantheon of Hindu gods. It was not right of me to create partitions where none exist.

I read up on it and she's right. There are no Maharashtrian gods per se. Only Maharashtrian saints, I perhaps got confused since we are so in the habit of treating our saints as gods.

I explained to her and am explaining to my readers that the thought which I was trying to express, was that we have to stop the excesses of the ilk of Shiv Sena and Togadia's of this world forcing their cockamamie views on us or the next thing we know, we will be goose stepping down the local MG road wearing brown shirts.

The first image that popped into my mind to portray this was the image of a college girl or a high society woman in Mumbai being forced to wear a typical Maharashtrian garment i.e. the nine yard saree just to comply with a far out edict. The gods remarks could perhaps have been framed better and needs my apology on the same.
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Changing Times
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I really feel old. The shock of how things are changing around me so fast hit me yesterday when the DJ on the radio said "here comes an old classic". He put on "Nikita" by Elton John. It seems like yesterday that I was in London and the song was launched, I video cassette recorded it, (CD writers were not that popular as yet) and people loved it when I came back to India.

Then the second shoe fell when I realised that it was 1980's when I did that and today is 2007 almost 20 years or more. A whole generations worth, no wonder he called it a classic.

Then I switched stations and was really hit by it. There was a song from "Shootout from Lokhandwala" playing. The words were perhaps written by someone who thought rap was a series of words mashed together in a pau bhaji of music.

It went on to talk about how " we are the bhai". The image that popped into my mind was Haji Mastan or Vardharajan or even big D and under no circumstances could I see them stooping to this kind of cheap tomfoolery. Maya Dolas must be cursing them from the heavens.

I was appalled that the stanzas of words in the mis mash were interspaced with the words "Shake that ass girl!" A direct lift from the Eminem song.

My young son who thinks the world of gangsta rap due to its catchy beat but knows that there is a line drawn in the sand since its not INDIAN and therefore never repeats the words in them. The same child is now exposed to the words as a part of the Indian song and therefore has a direct licence to repeat them at will.

Most readers who have read my article on the hypocrisy of the sex education ban will perhaps see the merit in using the songs for sex education now that the boys can point to a part of a fellow female child in school and say "shake that ass girl!" and hes just singing a song.

Its enough to turn anyones hair grey.

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PDA
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I have just read that two schools in Mumbai have made a note in the calendars given to children saying that they will equate PDAs (Public Displays of Affection) with destruction of property and graffiti.

Lets see there are two chains of thoughts that cross my mind, the first is that the authorities deign that the students should not be allowed to do things IN PUBLIC that make the people around them uncomfortable.

People around them ? Oh yeah they must mean the teachers and the principal since the students would definitely not do anything which would make their peers uncomfortable otherwise they would be ridiculed faster than you can say "sex education". Children can be cruel that way.

This edict means that now even innocent friends must use the corners and all the other sneaky places to do a simple thing as hold hands.

Indian education is so much better than the Western education, so much more rounded.

See how well we teach our children to be hypocrites as even a young age to train them for the double face they will need to be a success in Indian society in later life.

The second thought that runs across my mind is that the rules of PDA are not clearly defined. As far as I can see, the parents who have made any comments at all are only talking about opposite sex touching and holding hands. This means that all same sex holding hands etc is permissible.

Twisted isn't it.