The Hate Brigade

I have been following the newspapers very closely for the last one week after THE Mangalore incident. The reason? Yeah, right. The war between the moral police and urban India over Valentine’s Day. I checked the sidelines, the editorials, letters of readers, etc etc etc of two different newspapers and came to the following conclusions-
1. Shri Ram Sene activists (and other sentimental groups) are both wrong and right- Why wrong? There are many reasons due to which Gen Y is infuriated, me included. One, they are imposing their personal opinion on us. Two, they are beating people up in the name of culture. Three, they are saying they are doing all this to protect women still they are threatening them only against celebrating Valentine’s day. Four, holding hands is affectionate, not obscene (this is for Mr. Gehlot). Other reasons are not coming to my mind right now. And why right? They are right when they say there are enough days in our own culture to celebrate love, why go for Valentine’s day which is- definitely- an imported one.
2. Renuka Choudhary (I hope I’ve got her name right, she’s a minister after all) too is wrong as well as right- Why right? Obviously she’s against the assault on women and everyone in their right senses should be, since nobody said beating up women is a part of our culture just ‘cause they were drinking. Come on, men also drink. Acceptability and tolerance are actually good, if it’s not too much to ask for. Why wrong? Because of the Pub Bharo movement. She, under any circumstances, shouldn’t encourage drinking. Let’s face it- drinking, smoking and drugs, they do more harm than good (in fact, smoking doesn’t do any good at all, unless you want to do away with your lungs).
3. The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women (they started The Pink Chaddi movement)- Right for protesting against Shri Ram Sena. People, who are living in this country, they should always speak up for themselves and fight for living life on their own terms, unless they have committed a crime. Personally, I don’t wear spaghetti-tops, skin-tight jeans, I don’t drink, smoke or go to pubs (I am not old enough to do these *chuckles* but given a chance, I don’t think I will…it’s a question of comfort and any sort of addiction is bad) but I don’t think if anybody indulges in all these they should be beaten up. That is plain stupid. Just let them be. None of your business who does what. But, it would have been better if the mode of protest was different instead of sending chaddis. That might have got more supporters. Some people are already calling this obscene and indecent (not me…I was thinking of joining this group at first! As long as it works on fringe-groups, anything will get a thumbs-up from me).
4. Couples indulging in PDA- Holding hands is, as I said, not obscene, it’s affectionate. I don’t think people should mind much, not nowadays, when society is becoming a bit lenient. It might just bring a smile to your lips and a memory to your mind. I have seen guys holding hands, nobody says anything. But whenever it’s a couple, that becomes a talking point. Marriage seems to be the ticket to everything. If a man abuses his wife physically that can be passed off as a small household tiff, but if a guy holds his girlfriend’s hand in public that is oh-so-un-Indian. But, but, but… keep hugging, kissing etc confined to private spaces (or if you are too eager, try a movie hall…hehe!). Our society is not that liberal and most people find the all-over-each-other-in-public situation really awkward. These acts are bound to raise eyebrows and too much of sugar might make you sick!;)
5. Some people are so dumb, I didn’t realize. Some principle of a school reportedly said about sex-education in schools, “Why do you need nude pictures of boys and girls in class? Just teach the boys that they have to be brahmachaari till the age of twenty-five. Just tell the student AIDS is contracted from syringes and blood transfusion.” Very educated, eh?
6. Moral police is neither moral nor police. Nobody appointed them to protect law and order in this country, they are all self appointed and are opposing rapid changes in this country which they think is against our tradition. And they are not exactly very moral. If they beat people up, blacken couples’ faces, burn cards, threaten women with dire consequences against their will in the name of protecting them, stop people from different communities from talking to each-other, harass normal people leading normal lives and do God-knows-what-else which don’t make it to the newspapers then I will rather call them immoral. All they are doing is causing trouble and creating a wall of hatred between different communities living together in harmony in the country.
7. Valentine’s day is just too commercialized. I don’t believe in celebrating this day, except saying “Happy Valentine’s Day” to my friends (after all I love my friends and family, this day is for everybody, not just lovey-dovey couples). Love is not just for one day in a year and it certainly doesn’t reside in ‘V-day Special’ cards and gifts. But if people want to celebrate, I’m happy.:) Celebrating something never hurts. Gives us a reason to smile, doesn’t it?
8. Khushwant Singh- He’s awesome. He made Valentine into velan-time which is an Indian tradition originally from Gujrat! The story had me smiling…even in this hate-each-other season. Yeah, it’s not the season of love. It’s hate all around. Self appointed upholders of Indian morals and values hate the Gen Y for aping the west. Gen Y, in turn, hates these people back, and then these people hate Gen Y even more. Love, you say?

Why am I writing all this? Even I don’t know. One of the reasons, as always, is bugging you.;) My cho-chweet hobby…hehe! All I would like to say is- be brave enough to accept the truth, be honest to yourself and…DON’T TAKE INJUSTICE LYING DOWN.