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The rule of the philistines
One is amused and amazed at the fact that the terms ‘moral policing’ and ‘freedom of expression’ are much in the thick and thin of things these days. Is it because there is now an upsurge of conservative militancy? Or, is it because the world has not suddenly become a bad place; but that news travels faster now, and television and the Internet are there to blow things up? Look closely, you will know there is a little of both to it.
A decade or so back when Shiv Sena hoodlums plundered the offices of a small Mumbai-based newspaper called Mahanagar, there were few to take up the cudgels on its behalf. But today when the Star News office is pillaged by marauders of an unknown entity over what good journalists will not think of as earth-shaking news, it does have more people reviling the act. And yes, most would have seen the leftovers on television.
Utterly bitterly malicious
We have a new national pastime these days – humiliating our heroes, degrading the very people who have done our nation proud. If the jeering of Sachin Tendulkar by the lumpen scoundrels of Mumbai masquerading as cricket fans wasn't enough, the takeover mafia of Gujarat has done a moo de grace by hounding out Verghese Kurien.
It is all fine, some might say. The old order must certainly changeth. And it must just as certainly yield place to the new. You cannot fault the contention – it is the law of nature. But you can drill holes in this contentious argument when it becomes a ruse – when you seek refuge in the laws of nature to serve your pernicious wishes. Subterfuge it was the way the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation debased the very person who made it the biggest cooperative marketing success story in the world. It is fine, the old-fogey order must change. Pal, we are a nation of young people aren't we?
The kids are not allright
This one is hard to believe — two schools in Mumbai have issued notices asking girls and boys studying there not to touch or hug members of the opposite sex.
Did you just say OMG?
CNN-IBN reports [Link]:
Vibgyor School and Jamnabai Nursery School have specifically forbidden boys and girls from touching or hugging members of the opposite sex in the school premises.
School authorities say the rule will “discipline” students, who are easily exposed to and influenced by violence and vulgarity on TV and other media.
"It is our duty ki unko bataya jai kya sahi hai, kya galat hai (... to tell them what's right and what's wrong)," Trustee of Vibgyor School, Rustam Kherawala argues, justifying the move.
