let's censor 'em all.

Disclaimer for all those upholding the Indian morality and culture: this article has content that may be offensive to those who don’t get the concepts of free speech, satire, consenting adults, and entertainment.

I know we are back on the morality debate, but nothing seems to be left alone by the ones who consider themselves sanctimonious. I have a good idea of what the word after that should be.

AIB Knockout, a roast that made it to the headlines, and is now the talk of the country, for astoundingly insane reasons. 10 comedians, and one roast master, made fun of two established artists and each other, in front of 4000 people, and were watched by another 8 million or so, on YouTube. This is not a form of comedy they developed. They were all consenting adults who laughed at themselves, profanity or not, and were also watched by consenting adults.

It did surprise me that our country and the people who uphold the ‘moral values’ inherent to our country digested this, without comment. But after all how long does a bubble last? Complaints of desecration of the pious minds of the youth, inappropriate content for the women, being antichrist (!!!), and what not, sprouted immediately.

A good number of people think it is stupid to raise such a hue and cry over this, a lot of them think they need to perform some sort of cleanse for all and sundry who were associated with this in any manner, and then there are the wonderful politicians who are happily travelling on the middle ground, while still making their preferred course of action clear.

We’ll move on to the rant after bringing to notice yet another wonderful development regarding yet another phenomenon that involves consenting adults. The Hindu mahasabha will be marrying off any couple they find on Valentine’s Day. Whoever it is will be converted to Hinduism; they are going to work hard and overcome the patriarchal trait in their blood that dictates that the girl be converted to the guy’s religion. And while at it, they also say that it is okay to convert people because every Indian is a Hindu anyway.

So forget the journey downhill, we are looking at going back to the cavemen stage where the men protected the women while she was pregnant or menstruating, from wild animals. Except the women are permanently thought of being as ‘weak’, and the general public have taken the place of wild animals.

Inappropriate clothing, non asli-indian-naari behavior, unwillingness to call some creep bhaiyya, nightclubs, even Chinese food, and the like are blamed when a woman is raped. It is ultimately her fault. We shall sit here and negotiate with the man, and decide what is to be done while she fights for life. But here comes a show that makes fun of people who are happy to be made fun of. Let’s register complaints against them, and trample all over their creativity and effort, because we think Balika Vadhu and Kasauti Zindagi ki are what the Indian youth should be watching. Oh! Also the Big Boss. Oh! And Roadies. It is also alright to read the Times Of India, when they make ‘news’ out of female breasts. I don’t even have legitimate counter arguments for the people who were offended (after they either bought tickets for it, or watched it on YouTube), because there are no sensible arguments being made by them. Not a single one.

There genuinely isn’t one retort I can think of, with regards to the entirely sensible statement made by the hindu mahasabha. Though, I don’t know why no parents are offended by this, and are registering complaints against them because they are worried for their kids. What happened to the other religious organizations? Do they have nothing to say about their people being forcefully converted? Why? Because now it deals with the taboo of ‘couples’?

I’ve always thought that our priorities were skewed. But this is taking it to a whole new level.