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The video post, the call for followers’ attention on social media, and the horrific, nasty, leering comments drooling at the voyeurism all point to just one thing - the depravity of the average Indian man.
A video from New Year’s Eve on Marine Drive in Mumbai, India, has gone viral, shared by a handle that actually asked for 10k followers to “post full video”.
I have a story to tell you. Picture this:
A turbulent/iffy/memorable year, as the case may be, is finally coming to an end and you are with your significant other (SO). As passion strikes you, you seal the moment with a lip lock, a warm embrace. You forget to draw the curtains because the moment takes you in and expressing your emotion at that special instant becomes a pulsating imperative, the only action that makes any sense, nothing else matters.
Some of us have been lucky enough to be in that ephemeral minute and understand how very special that point is!
When the throbbing heart overtakes the senses, the cautionary head does take a back seat. Sadly, this situation of succumbing to the diktats of thy heart doesn’t always work for the better.
Take for instance this young couple who thought they had stolen a special moment. Only they didn’t account for the countless voyeuristic passers-by, who actually stood on the road below hooting lustily at them.
Have I scratched your conscience yet?
No?
These men then ripped their phones out and started recording the couple’s making out.
Some even shared the video on social media, asking for an increase in the number of followers, inviting comments and promising to share more footage if the counter went North.
One such prized citizen is …
Forget the nauseous post, the cringe comments on this post make one wonder what kind of debauched society have we become? Have the men who are passing lewd remarks feel that they have arrived on this planet via immaculate conception? Have they or their relatives never indulged in a moment of amour?
Is privacy such a difficult ask?
Why is a simple peck by a couple in the confines of their room, turning random gaping men on so much?
It feels perversion and voyeurism have become mainstream and this is Mumbai we are talking about which is supposed to be an advanced society compared to the rest of India, where time is money and people have no time to spare.
Yet scores of grown men stopped walking, stood still, stared unabashedly, shouted, smirked and passed obscenities.
Could you imagine the plight of the young couple? How scarring this would have been? How a special instant degenerated into a scalding hell?
Would they overcome this trauma somehow?
Perhaps!
The scary part is that anyone with a camera can pry into your life and upload it for collective consumption.
The scarier part is the no-holds-barred, public armchair flogging by random strangers on such seriously worrisome shares.
The video post, the call for followers’ attention on social media, and the horrific, nasty, leering comments drooling at the voyeurism all point to just one thing – the depravity of the average Indian man.
My question is why and how do random men get away with this sort of blood-boiling behaviour with zero accountability?
Will these sleazy beings ever be taken to task? Will someone stand up and ask the right questions? Don’t the parents of those bois who went berserk at Marine Drive have their fair share of blame in this sordid fest, for their sons’ tacky demeanour?
Where does the genesis of this terrible problem lie?
If we raise our sons right because our daughters are already at fight, will we see a shift in societal behavioural patterns, even a generation later?
Too much to hope for?
As a cynical and jaded pen, I thought I had seen much, but this Meta post share gets my hackles up.
On New Year’s Eve, we were out with my daughter. As the clock ticked away towards midnight, we were heading towards the parking and the malls were already getting rapidly filled with men who gave you the mental strip-scan. As I hurried my young daughter to our car, she said, “Mom, don’t get frightened so easily, this is the daily affair on my way to college.”
I stood still for a second as my heart sank.
And that, dear reader, is the crux of the story.
The baser thinking of the prying men, that women are easy meat available for public gazing and ogling, privacy be damned!
And people living in glass homes should know better.
Anupama Jain is the author of: * ’Kings Saviours & Scoundrels -Timeless Tales from Katha Sarita Sagara’, listed as one of the best books of 2022 by @Wordsopedia. Rooted in the traditional storytelling of Indian legends, warriors, read more...
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What I loved was how there is so much in the movie of the SRK we have known, and also a totally new star. The gestures, the smile, the wit and the charisma are all too familiar, but you also witness a rawness, an edginess.
When a movie that got the entire nation in a twist – for the right and wrong reasons – hits the theatres, there is bound to be noise. From ‘I am going to watch it – first day first show’ to ‘Boycott the movie and make it a flop’, social media has been a furore of posts.
Let me get one thing straight here – I did not watch Pathaan to make a statement or to simply rebel as people would put it. I went to watch it for the sheer pleasure of witnessing my favourite superstar in all his glory being what he is best at being – his magnificent self. Because when it comes to screen presence, he burns it, melts it and then resurrects it as well like no other. Because when it comes to style and passion, he owns it like a boss. Because SRK is, in a way, my last connecting point to the girl that I once was. Though I have evolved into so many more things over the years, I don’t think I am ready to let go of that girl fully yet.
There is no elephant in the room really here because it’s a fact that Bollywood has a lot of cleaning up to do. Calling out on all the problematic aspects of the industry is important and in doing that, maintaining objectivity is also equally imperative. I went for Pathaan for entertainment and got more than I had hoped for. It is a clever, slick, witty, brilliantly packaged action movie that delivers what it promises to. Logic definitely goes flying out of the window at times and some scenes will make you go ‘kuch bhi’ , but the screenplay clearly reminds you that you knew all along what you were in for. The action sequences are lavish and someone like me who is not exactly a fan of this genre was also mind blown.
Recent footage of her coming out of an airport had comments preaching karma and its cruel ways, that Samantha "deserved her illness" because she filed for divorce.
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