Short Skirts & Spraghetti Straps

“First they were arrested for the mere offence of partying in a farmhouse and put in jail. Then they were accused of consuming drugs without any trace of evidence………So two nights in a row in the jail house for the sin of wanting to dance and, maybe drink in a city that doesn’t know the meaning of “fun” anymore.” – First page headlines in India’s most influential, mostly read, benefactor of people by providing unbiased news – The Times of India.

I have noticed that in last six months after BJP government took power in Karnataka, the English media is hand in glove against the regime. The reasons are pretty clear. Bangalore, where the English media has its sway, is fairly populated by a huge young crowd. They are mostly attached to BPO and not being judgmental, I have doubts on their social or political acumen.
The tirade against the present government has increased after the announcement of elections.

Moral policing is the only focus issue with the English media. It started with the infamous “Mangalore Pub” incident. Renuka Chowdhury called the BJP government of Talibanisation. Women groups joined together to sent pink underwear to Mr. Mutalik. Nirmala Venkatesh was axed as she could not put anything provocative in her investigation. None of the girls beaten up came out in front of the media, never ever their parents stood up in protest against “Ram Sene”. The neighbors are more pained than the sufferers.
We saw debates in all English television channels for nearly a month. We forgot about the bomb blast in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, forgot about the daily wrong doings by the high & mighty of the society, and glorified ‘short skirts and spaghetti straps”.

Now they are back with vigor. Hundred people were arrested in a PARTY, held in the outskirts of Bangalore in a farmhouse owned by the state secretary of erstwhile Congress Deputy Chief Minister. The media were not allowed in the site, so whatever they write are nothing more than hearsay and that is the best thing they can do to provoke the young minds in Bangalore.
“What is the definition of scantily dressed? Are short skirts and spaghetti straps indecent?” – Quips “The Times of India”.
In Europe there are many beaches where you cannot enter if you are wearing clothes. For them wearing clothes in a “nude” beach is indecent.
So decency is a perception, the way you are brought up in a well defined culture and society. For fanatics in Afghanistan, women without a hizab are indecent. We do not make a hue and cry about the things in the world. The same newspaper rues after every Lakme fashion show that Indian women are giving up sari for western dresses. What a dichotomy?

In CNBC TV18 an anchor threw a question at a panel, if a man comes home after a stressful day after eight and he just wants to hang his hair down, can’t he go to a pub and have a couple of drinks or dance his stresses away.
The question is justified and I wanted the same when I was in Mumbai. I wanted to go after a stressful day and have a glass of bear in a “Ladies Bar”. Why did the Maharashtra government shut down those bars on grounds of indecency?
No one raised a finger when Maharashtra government went ahead and closed all bars. Why, because it never affected the so called English speaking crowd. Who cares for the masses?

We are there to write for Shoba De, Alec Padamsee and the entire nonsense breed who gives a damn about India or its culture.