There are days when my patriotism threatens to overwhelm me. I am just so proud of being an Indian that I want to scream from the rooftops in America, “Hello everyone! Do you know the glorious country I come from?” Case in point, today. When I woke up in the morning, made some coffee, sat down with the laptop, started going through news websites one after the other, and came across the detailed reporting in both Indian as well as international media about how the rich culture of the land has been offended by the fact that Richard Gere kissed Shilpa Shetty in an AIDS awareness function in NEW DELHI, the CAPITAL CITY of India. So much so that there have been protests from all over the country, including equally or more emancipated cities such as Mumbai. Americans are, thankfully enough and unlike most Indians, extremely demonstrative with their affection, as I am learning everyday. But that is not the point. The point is that something as trivial as this made people sacrifice their time and energy over things such as burning effigies of both the people in question, of asking them to apologize, and telling the non Indian to leave India and go back to his home. Of course kissing is not part of Indian culture! It’s such a sexual activity! Any kiss any where means getting undressed and jumping into bed! And we of course don’t know anything about those things because in our country, the second most populated country in the world by the way, children are born just by men and women looking into each other’s eyes. There is really no other activity involved! And all this when the same day’s news also includes the nexus between Dadua, the dreaded gangster from Uttar Pradesh, and Mulayam Singh Yadav, one of the most prominent politicians of the country. And the conversion of a thousand Hindus in Orissa to Buddhism because in spite of being Hindus they were denied access to temples in their own region owing to the fact that they were from lower castes.
Uff! My pride in my country knows no bounds today. I might as well tie the tricolor on my head and walk about the campus.
But then again, given today's events in the US, there are several things to be grateful for in India.
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32 comments:
ME FIRST!
Tell me about it! A country where majority of people seem to have nothing better to do.. and oh the wonderful media - they'd record anything (I mean anything) to play on their round-the-clock channels.
Oh this reminds me.. the other day I heard two people talking in bus (right behind me - and they were very loud - so well!) - they had such spectacular thoughts about the Fashion Week that I so totally wanted to hug them.
Just this evening, a popular evening tabloid reports this incident - and oh boy, did they use the most wonderful swear words adding, "kya hoga is desh ki sabhyata ka."
Man, bus stops can be so funny.
And did you read about the Star News office thing? People out there can do just about anything in the name of religion and politics. Sick.
I saw it on TV. Weird things make controversies nowadays. But there are three things:
a) Richard Gere has been visiting India for a really long time now. I'd have thought that he knows how people react here.
b) It would have made more of a point if he'd really gone ahead and kissed an HIV positive person.
c) Why was Shilpa Shetty explaining what he was trying to do? Why couldn't he too address the same people and say that it was nothing?
But then, that does not make people any less stupid. I wish we could do something about it. Makes me sick!
well......u missed the attack on star news .......
anyway.......nothing new in it....people everywhere and unfortunately now in bbay also have too much time to think over it......long live indian mentality............
Oh-My-God! I was thinking of making a similar post just yesterday. Exactly what I feel. And it's all the more appalling to see the way it's been blown out of proportion by the media. Disgusting is the word. They have literally directly instigated the extremist groups(although, I don't really want to use this word given that 'extremism' represents an ideology. Do these people even have any?) like Shiv Sena into creating the havoc they've created. Sample this particular abstract from a conversation b/w two news-readers of a leading National News Channel:
News Presenter A:Vaise yahan ho kya raha tha?(Haan haan, yeh toh side issue hai na. Who cares kya ho raha tha!)
B: Koi AIDS jagrukta abhiyaan ka show tha.(Yeah, just like any other Saas-Bahu show on TV)
A: Yeh toh kuch zyaada hi jagrukta ho gayi.(F*** you!!)
These people are a disgrace to Journalism.
Musings of a true Indian:
Ah what a wonderful day , got to beat my wife so early in the morning, too bad she caught me jerking off looking at the bai. After all i wasn't kissing her!! So i was well withing my cultural limits. I wonder how I am going to spend the 50 lakhs I am getting for my son's dowry. May be I will spend it on my son's education because my wife deserves no fun in her life, after all that's our culture!. Ah , I love my house , its right above the pavement , so i can spit my paan on it as much as I please ,at least i am not going beyond my cultural bounds by keeping my house clean. And what is this i see on TV!! Shipa Shetty kissed by Richard Gere! How dare he gets a slice of that pie i have been having wet dreams about for years! This can't be done. I have never kissed my wife in 20 years, and how dare he kiss that that that hot chick! I hate woman kissers , homophilics and lower caste men. OH wait , i know what i am going to do ! I am going to burn the whore's effigy . That will definate give me a cultural nirvana , and hopefully my bai will start noticing me more.
@ Rohit: pls let me be me first next time.. i havent me first-ed for the longest time! please *wink*
Really, when we discussed the news this morning .. I couldnt get myself to say that I would never go back but I did think what is the country's future going to be?! .. With dacoits in the Parliament and good causes turned in to ugly incidents! No one seems to be concerned about the real issues in our country.
This is such a sad state of affairs!
@Shardul: loved ur comment!
24/7 media can be a curse, really. Especially when the compulsion to come up with 24 hours of sound & video bytes in the entire day gets combined with irresponsible journalism ethics. Case in point, the convo reproduced here by Jayant (which channel was that btw - Star News, Aaj Tak?)
There will always be people who have nothing better to do than protest against something - anything - and the more coverage you give these freaks, the more their numbers will swell.
That said, I also agree with Richa, esp. the first two points. Gere isn't one of those newbie India-discoverers. He knows what this country and its people are like, and really, what was the point of kissing Shetty?
I don't think the tying-tricolour-on-head thing is a good idea. I mean, are you sure it won't be tantamount to "showing disrespect towards the national flag", the pride of India's symbolic patriotism? They might just slap a case against you, y'know.
And LMAO at Shardul!!!
@ Shardul
Man, lurvely comment.
*bows*
hope it does some good to the real cause they were together for..
although it din`t really made any sense..this hyperbolical kiss...could Richard Gere do this to any of the hollywood actresses...?what do you think...?
the media has hyped it unnecessarily..is it of any
surprise? we are used to it by now..
aaj tak had this particular programme on the abhishek-aishwarya wedding,where they were letting out their frustrations for not getting to cover it..their
premonitions included...Jaya and Ash would have a tough time jelling with each other,and if they want to work it out,Ash should mellow down..
let me quote one of them "shaadi ke baat jhukna to padega hee"...
outrageous i say.
@Shardul
kudos to u!!
Culture is like underwear. If you wear it all the time , it might give you a rash..
@ Amiya: Aaj Tak, what else?
@ Shardul: I know everybody's already said it, but WOW! Awesome comment! :)
My thoughts exactly. There is so much hypocrisy in this country. On the top everybody is so religious, god fearing, and against immorality. But on the inside they are full of shit .
A few examples to support my statement:
1. The recent Nithari massacre, where over 40 children were raped, killed, and cannibalized, was the only news on TV till Januar. They showed the gunny bags with human bones all day long. And now they talk about Nethari as if it happened a decade ago. Recently, the CBI has given a clean shit to one of the main accused (guy who owned the house) in nine of those killings. The CBI said that the owner was not in the house when these murders happened. , and the media seems to be ok with it.
2. At about 8:30 AM yesterday, a 12-year old boy fell into a sewer (http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=7150372e-3b37-4019-9f80-50555ab23722&) via an uncovered manhole (a regular feature on our roads) . The Army jawans were the first ones to reach the spot, two hours after the incident. With every passing news bulletin, this news got less and less coverage. The latest is that the search has been “called off”.
3. The media is nopt interested in the Ghaziabad anymore because they are reporting other important events such as the Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding. To include a little more realism in their coverage, Star News and Zee erected the wedding "mandaps" and placed cardboard cut outs of the entire jing bang, pandit and all. They have even put their staff on 24-hour duty outside the Bachchan house, to capture everything so that the country can watch it. They leave the hypocrisy for the last. At the end of each bulletin, they conduct a viewer poll, guess what question they’re asking! Can’t, ok let me do the honors "Are the TV channels giving too much coverage to the wedding,”
Mera Bharat Mahan
@ manu khanna - lol
Great blog once more....My comments got moderated by mistake...no hand in it ! i tell myself every day I shud blog...I really admire u !!!
rediff.com and deccan.com (which is a south indian newspaper) are very good sources of entertainment. i make it a point to browse through these sites atleast once a day. the kinda news they publish is utterly horrendous but atleast you could laugh at all those comments people leave on rediff.com!
for me its always been "a laugh a day keeps the doc away"
Of course, the rich culture never got offended when I was groped in DTC buses a million times and ofcourse nobody burnt any effigies when once I told off a man who was trying to feel me up. In fact I was reprimanded by the (primarily male) co-passengers for creating a scene. They had a bit of a laugh about it as well, grinning slyly and what not. I detest all this culture bullshit people are so obsessed with in our country. It's oppressive and it drives me completely insane.
Maybe the men are jealous because THEY would never get to kiss Shetty and women beacause Gere is so out of reach, and so hot. So - release of pent up sexual feelings thru burning effigies, bloody hypocrites. (OK, admittedly far fetched but tempting sociological cum psychological analysis, eh? :))
ps: Howdy? Nice post, as always - ur good when sarcastic! I was away on a trip to Kumaon, keep checking my blog next week, loads to write about! Take care.
Well....did u guys forget about 'our rich culture...n tradition'!How Dare you?How can you do that when its our only defense to the others cultures...The effort and time spend on a noble cause like Aids awareness is bullshit...everybody does it...no bi deal..but hey the kissing yeah we saw that...how could we miss it..its juicy n our media is dying for something like this..U know kissing is an act lien to our people..How dare Richard Gere intoduce us to such an obscene display of affection..It doesnt matter that child molestations are a household thing in our country or Rape has become a part of life in many rural areas...A kiss is not acceptable unless its in a third gradebollywood movie n pay to watch it...Really ban those international stars from the country..They are polluting "OUR rich culture....
There are still way too many reasons to be proud of being an Indian...as you rightly said.
I was totally taken aback with the kind of news and hype about Shilpa Shetty's kiss...for crying out loud that was....
Interestingly put.
Dear Mr Manu Khanna,
This is regarding Nithari killings and the clean chit to Moninder Singh Pandher. Don't blame the whole media for keeping quite. Tehelka broke an investigative story on Starnews on how the polce burnt the papers which had Moninder's first confession to the police and how he confessed killing kids...that confession was not used by CBI at all..Tehelka did a story on that..It's a different matter that it is not as popular as other publications...
[Sayan must be cursing me for shamelessly talking about Tehelka.Plz don't mind]
It's fashionable to call media names...There are serious newspapers..but they don't sell much...people say they don't wanto read depressing news everyday in the morning...did it ever strike you as to why people don't stop buying such trash..don't say we have no choice...There is choice...There is no market for serious stuff...
Hello everyone,
Apologies for the disappearing act.
I will respond to all the comments
individually and properly very soon. Currently, no time to breathe (not that I am accusing any one else of having too much time) as I am currently in the last two weeks of this semester. Better comments and posts will be up once these few days are over.
Take care until then.
Praveen: I agree with you.... no wonder papers like Indian Exprss and Pioneer dont sell so much....
Culture is a vulture,
Thats feeds on dead souls
It might look magnificient
But its claws will dig holes
In carion that resembles humanity
when someone killed it some time ago
That someone as you may have guessed Is nothing but religion the lion.
I wrote a LONG comment, but when I submitted it, blogger went bust, and I lost all of it. Damn, damn, damn. :((
Can't write the whoe thing again, but I will write down the last two lines, from a song from the movie Amar Prem, one of my mom's all time favourite (both the movie and the song):
"Kuchh to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna
Chhodo bekaar ki baaton mein, kahin beet na jaaye raina"
And now they're actually taking legal actions against Gere!
This was really really cool.... Richard Gere is actually doing so much for some illl-affected people in India, we should all be thankful, and instead...hahaha... Come on man! Wake up....
I guess the activists will soon be aghast that a child wasnt produced due to Gere and Shetty's 'intercourse'....
Maybe, thats another reason, for expelling 'non-Indians'.... A sexual activity bereft of a scientific proof....hmm.....
i so agree with aritro's comment! years of good work undone by a joke! but what also beats me is that why would someone like Gere who has been to India so many times and hence would be expected to know the "customs" and "culture" and other big words, try something like this? i can understand "the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions" and the tough urge that kicks us occasionally of getting a laugh out of every situation... but i still cant comprehend why he did what he did. he knew the gravity of the cause he was dealing with and the venue he was addressing - so why did he try something deliberately risque - however insignificant it might have been?
saying which, i do object over the sort of reactions the "kiss-a" garnered - but i also feel that gere should have been a tad more mindful of time, place and silly poo in future!
You'd better make a post soon.
Hey dude ....?? I got a question have you fallen of the face of this earth ? not a peep in almost a month now yea ...
I mean i have written more. :) and it has been published too... (what can i say i am modest)
Hi!
The new look blog is nice...but I thought the old look was nicer :)
And I don't agree with you at all...I mean, yes, the whole thing was blown out of proportion but it happens everywhere, including in the US. Media coverage of any event is rarely unbiased or objective. (Remember Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" and the uproar that would not die down for weeks and months after? Or the speculation about Prince William's ex-g.f's mum not being genteel enough?)Yes, tabloid journalism passes for the real thing in these times. That, as I see it,is the crux of the matter.
A forced hiatus?
UPDATE PLEASE!!!
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