Once again, I got an opportunity to come down to Mumbai. This
time I was putting up at Bandra, near Bandstand. For most of us, Bandra and Bandstand
are known for only two things, super stars, and love making couples. When my
friends came to know of my stay, most of them suggested me to go and enjoy at
band stand – enjoying meant, watching the couples make love – others grinned at
my loneliness amid the passion. Now one thing is pretty sure, Bandstand has
become a public symbol, which won’t let any couple feel guilty of expressing
love in public over there.
It was not long ago, when I read a quote on Facebook and it
caught my eye, “In India, you can piss in public, but cannot kiss in public”.
Initially I fiddled the quote, branding it a gender biases quote. Lately did I
realize that we Indians have problem with public display of affection, PDA -
what most of my friends call it.
The funny part of Indian lives is, we may easily find
couples having a fracas in public, but would rarely find a couple romancing in
public. I am astonied to feel that we are hunky-dory with the bombarding
negative emotions but are wary of the most rustic positive emotions.
Being intimate is the greenest emotion – an emotion which is
the most primitive one, an emotion which leads to one of the purest processes
of life – generating new life. We live in a culture, where we consider physical
intimacy a sacrosanct act, an act worth ostracism. We discuss it, laugh on it, crack jokes
on it, watch it, but don’t admit that we practice it.
Recently came an end to an enthralling T-20 Cricket World
Cup and there too, something struck my eyes. The jubilation by West Indian team
was different. People were amazed to see a team, playing The Gentlemen’s game,
dancing and enjoying in a rustic fashion. Once again, the dance became the talk of the
town, because the behavior was unexpected on a cricket ground.
There’s no problem with the dance, or with the dancers –
read players – but, the problem lies with the viewers, who would shy away from
dancing in public. Parallelly, the problem doesn't lie with love making
couples, but the viewers. If we see our ancient sculptures, we would find
engraving of dancing and love making couples. This gives a breath to the
thought that there has been a time when these things were openly acceptable
but, because of a change in mindset, they have disappeared.
