Bandstand - A Second Perspective

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.