Booze, Babes and Bawdy Lyrics

The new trend of Groping and Molesting Around Pubs

A bindaas Chameli, paua chadha ke jiggles her bosom, shakes her booty as hundreds of inebriated men salivate and try to grab a piece of her. She tempts, “Husn jaan leva hai, dekhne mein halwa hai”.

Cut. 

A skimpy Munni rolls her tongue, rubs her derriere as she belts out “Hai mujh mein poori botal ka naasha,..... amiya se aam hui.” The song is a chartbuster, the movie super hit. 

Cut. 

A pouting Mallika croons seductively, " Razia Gundo mein phans gayi"  as several  rogues  try to grab her. Undeterred, Mallika  happily teases some more.

The trend could have started when ‘choli ke peeche’ became a hit and was followed by “mein aayi hoon UP Bihar lootne” and scores of others. No wonder, Kareena is proud of her seductive 'Halkat Jawani' number in the movie 'Heroine' and hopes to outdo Chameli in terms of winning lumpen goons.

In the movie Cocktail, an intoxicated Deepika suggestively encourages Saif to grope her as she dirty dances in a pub.

Scene over. Deepika moves to the security of her vanity van. It is just a song. And with bodyguards around, no one can touch her. 

So who gets groped in real life? 

The ordinary girl on the street - the one without a bodyguard. No security. No driver.

These filmy images lurk somewhere in the crevices of psychotic, unbalanced minds.
Apart from a criminal background, medieval mindset, parochial outlook or sick psyche, there could be hundred other reasons for getting inspired by negative images. I am not sure whether reel imitates real or vice-verse. 

Ideally if a tipsy heroine in skimpy clothes invites raunchy men to grope her, it does NOT give a right to any man to molest women in or around pubs, be it Gurgaon or Guwahati.  
But when did we live in an ideal world?

A word about 'Responsible Drinking'. How many alcohol users understand the word? The five kilometer stretch  of state highway in front of my house has no PCR but six liquor shops. Two liquor shops belt out provocative item songs for an assortment of  truck and bus drivers. Some of these  drivers ferry young girls from call centers at night.
The Delhi rapists  younger brother Mukesh, who allegedly drove the bus around when the 23-year-old girl was subjected to a near unprecedented degree of brutality, had told the police: "mera bhai sharab peene ke baad janwar ban jaata hai" (My brother turns into a beast after consuming liquor).

 Take a crowded public transport in Delhi and one in five girls will have strange men rubbing their thighs against them.Most have learnt to live with lewd remarks, groping, whistling and daily harassment.

Lately, we seem to ceaselessly hurtle from one outrage to another each time a new story of crime against women breaks on television. While one is still reeling from one outrage, a new one hits the headlines with double the vengeance.

Perhaps, there is only so much outrage that a nation can evince in a week’s time.  In our hearts we know that such stories are breaking every hour somewhere, someplace….. 

Is it only me who feels the need to tone down the overt sexuality of raunchy item songs where a tipsy heroine invites hordes of leering drunkards to grope her?

Shades of Illusion

Just when the classic romantic hero was gasping for breath, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ infused a new life to the fast diminishing tribe of rugged, sadist and macho heroes. Even though the genre is called ‘mommy-porn’, ‘chick-lit’ enthusiasts are feasting on all the shades of arrogance, mystique and masochism. 
A friend rightly pointed out, “What’s next after mommy-porn? Aunty erotica or Granny smut?” 

In the book, when Mr. Money Bags, Christian Grey, whispers to Anastasia Steele, a college girl, “You. Are. Mine. Come to me baby,” the blindfolded girl melts like a Swiss chocolate in Delhi heat. Besides this Grey guy makes women wistful. Imagine a lover who will upgrade your plane tickets and buy the seat next to you as well so no one else sits there. Irresistible. Right? The debonair tomcat then alternates between showering the girl with flashy cars and whipping her to indulge in some riotous power play. Never mind the pedestrian prose, the purpose of EL James is served admirably. 

Now don’t chew me to bits. I read one chapter on my Kindle and did not feel the urge to buy the book. Not yet. The intention is not to spoil your kinky party. Take that hot cuppa , revel in the pitter patter of the rain drops, indulge in some hedonism. A slow romantic number in the background will add to the experience. Good luck to those who feel that this novel is a celebration of women’s sexuality. 

So what exactly is bothering me? Well, two things. First, the trend of urban women emerging as money grabbers and exhibiting appalling greediness.
Second, impressionable minds being swayed by romantic fantasies. So if you are a young girl just like the heroine of this bestseller – take a breath.  Among all the irresistible shades of power and riches, the indispensable shades of humility, trust and respect form the back-bone of any long term relationship.

I felt the need to write this after a friend confided that her daughter had rejected two good marriage proposals simply because the prospective groom was ‘not exciting enough’. Not exciting enough? In real life there are no eligible bachelors with yachts, Mercs and wineries across the world. Even Sid Mallaya is broke!!  Yes, Salman is there. I know he recently gifted an SUV to Katrina Kaif. But then Salman and Katrina have been friends for almost a decade and most importantly, Katrina is no ordinary college girl. She is in a position to throw some SUVs here and there herself.

Agreed, one should not take romantic fantasies too seriously. Hopefully young  girls are conscious of the fact. But more often than not, books and movies blur the fuzzy line between reel and real. And by the time the vision clears, the scenery disappears. 

As if on cue, I recently read about this new website called ‘Miss Travel’  which claims to help women fly around the world in style, all funded by stinking rich men who have everything in their lives except a committed relationship. The men pay for your business class airfare, stay and shower you with expensive gifts. All the women need to do is show up and look pretty. What happened to all the blah blah about equality? According to the website, it is a once in a life time opportunity to find the man of your dreams; a generous doctor, rich lawyer or a wealthy banker. Good. But what about the perils of traveling alone with someone you just met in cyberspace. And imagine the give and take involved? There are no free lunches.

For the growing tribe of  Poonam Pandey-ish women, such opportunities are a blessing. Several British women, I am told are signing up for such websites to test the waters. For all the millions of hard working, self respecting women who are trying to make it in a man's world, some find the easy route  via someone else's wallet. Be it the heroine of Fifty Shades of Grey or the women who sign up for MissTravel.com, accepting expensive gifts in lieu of something else is an exhibition of greed.

Take Valentine’s Day, birthdays or anniversaries, it is assumed that women look forward to expensive gifts. And there is a sense of competitiveness too. The myth is purported by novels, movies and advertisers. Yet, if a paid holiday fascinates you, go ahead and book a ticket on http://www.misstravel.com/

Don’t forget to carry ‘Fifty shades of Grey’. The book will keep you in the mood, even if the billionaire is an arrogant masochist philanderer who wears dentures.

The Face of the Defacer

I have always been irked by Romeos who scribble names of girls they fancy, painters who imagine elevator walls as their personal drawing boards or perverts who draw dirty diagrams on the toilet doors. Not to mention the scores who deface monuments, markets, buses and trains. In my guest post on the multi-faceted Rachna Parmar’s blog ‘Rachna Says’ I vent my ire and ask you three questions.

Why do people who scribble on elevator walls, buses and trains shy away from doing so when they are at a swanky airport or a foreign location?

Is scribbling and defacing exclusive to men or do women also indulge in it?

What can be done to curb the menace?

http://www.rachnaparmar.com/2012/07/the-face-of-defacer.html