It has absolutely, wait, absolutism? Beginning to sound like belief to me. This is discomfiting. See, i have difficulty believing that i really don't believe in anything. He said, equivocating.
Anyway, as i was saying, what's up with India and her sentiments?
My goodness gracious me, but sentiments can get hurt here so easily. The merest hint of disapproval can have whole segments of society in hissy fits that quite often involve sharp heavy objects.
I don't get that.
Actually, that's not true. I think i do get it. As much as i get anything.
I think democracy and its implications of equality is to blame. That is to say, [my writing mentors would be so very pissed off at that. 'If", they'd say, "you need to explain a preceding sentence, maybe you should have crafted it better in the first place".] [what do they know?] [literary stylin', dude] But, i digress. [really?]
The thing is, most of India, as far as i can see, is not entirely sure how to go about proving that each is as good as the other. Especially since value has been defined, historically, feudal-ly, emotionally, by the ruling classes. I guess that's pretty much true for most societies, but in India there is the added weight of millenia's [is that a word?] [i guess it is, now] worth of method, mores, and morality. All of which have been established by the ruling classes who are not shy about using ''Cuz, I don't like it." as sufficient reason to impose their values on the peeps. I mean, making women living in hot sultry places to cover up their upper bodies just because the moral authority found the sight of breasts disturbing. What's up with that? [Actually, i have a pretty good idea what rose, but i wouldn't want to offend any sensibilities by going there.] [i should probably re-word that locator.]
Take this latest outbreak of hurt sentiments [putative] surrounding the Prakash Jha movie on reservation and quota in education. As i understand it the movie has been, ummm, not banned actually, more like shelved for the time being, because there are opinions expressed in the movie that might, mark the word, offend the sensibilities of - check this out, i stopped myself from naming the segment because, you know - a particular group of folks. This in a country that makes loud protestations of freedom of opinion and thought. Look, i'm as aware as the next lawyer that freedom of expression has its limits. i am not allowed to stand up in a crowded place and yell "FIRE" and cause disturbances. i get that. But, I am allowed, after the movie is done, to state, loudly [within legal limits], that the movie sucks if that is my opinion of that. Hell, i'm even allowed to hold public meetings to discuss the suckage of the movie, if that is what i choose to do. And as long as i do not try to impose that opinion on any one, that is, as long as the others are at the meeting of their own free will, and i do not incite physical action,i really don't much care if the perpetrator of the suckage is hurt by my remarks. Hell, i probably made them pointed for that very reason. I'm reasonably certain that the perpetrator's opinion of me and my opinions is not going to be laudatory. Doesn't bother me a bit. Any more than it bothers me what anyone else thinks of my choice in ties.
You know, in looking at the chronology of the hot air surrounding Jha's opus, i couldn't help noticing that the groups that are protesting its showing didn't start doing so, until an opportunistic legislator started getting offended.
Hunh, an offended politician. Not a rarity in India. And i think that's because India's politicians think that the words governance and rule mean the same thing. A habit they picked up from their royal, thin-skinned, mentors.
I think i'll go and offend my own sensibilities by reading the papers and their use of accurate english.
Editors, please, absconding requires that the absconder depart without notice and with a possession entrusted to him, ownership of which lies, incontestably, with another. See how long the concept is? That's why english came up with a specific word for it. A lorry driver absent from an accident in which he is involved is missing. For all you know he may have suffered a concussion and staggered off and is lying dead in a ditch somewhere, his hands and pockets free of anything entrusted to him. And please, don't get me started on 'shoot-out'. okay?
Peace, out.
No comments:
Post a Comment