Friendship Day. Really?

Just got a call from a long time friend. “Hey pal. How r u?”, asked he. “I’m fine”, said I. “Just called to wish you friendship day”. And we both laughed to tears for next 30 secs or so. A day for friendship. Who are we Colonists? Ok, bad joke.

Friendship is the essence of humanity. Why is there a need to put a day for it? Ok…let me try and go with it a bit. It’s friendship day, today. What am I supposed to do? Call up my friends? Greet them? Shouldn’t I be had been doing it regularly if they are my friends?

Historically such days were declared to celebrate some achievement. Independence Day, Republic Day etc. What I feel is sometime down the line, it became a fashion to declare days just for the sake of it. I mean friendship day? Who are we Invaders? Again, bad joke.

In college I understand, it gives a shot at maaroing chance. What after that? Also with declaring days with increasing frequency, it’s not far when we will be marking more than one thing on a single day. Imagine Friendship Day and Animosity Day falling together. That would be hilarious, now wouldn’t it?

To me it seems yet another capitalistic agenda to mint money. Friendship band, cards, gifts, tv, movie and what not. That’s genius by the way. Respect.

With the scale getting larger year by year, not long before I get mutated too. Who knows my friend, you will get a card from me next year.

Sunny Leone and Swadeshi

“The way characters like Sunny Leone are being celebrated and thrust upon us socially, incidents like this were just waiting to happen”, quipped a lady friend of mine, seemingly annoyed with what has happened in Karnataka Assembly.

The literati of India has always supported making pornography legal, citing bans to be signs of cultural repression aka Taliban. The people who go lengths as to how porn is an art and as to why restrictions surrounding it must go, fall short of answering one question, “Do they share same views with respect to a porn star”.

Will they encourage their children to take up this profession, the way they would encourage them to become say a cricketer or a film star? We don’t even have to wait for an answer, given the uncomfortable and insulted look on their faces.

Sunny Leone is admittedly the first famous and celebrated porn star in India. Still she is someone we would want to enjoy, not emulate as a role model.

We would like the porn stars to be some aliens, existing just in the movies and not in the society. Would we rent out our house to a known porn star? Would we share social space with him/her. Accepting adult video and accepting the people working in them has to go together. It can’t be a one way race.

It is also a reality that most of the young kids have easy exposure to these movies via internet. So what’s the way forward? Be it Khajuraho, Be it Lingam pooja, be it Kamasutra, be it Exploding population, sexuality is inherent in our religion and society. But somehow we lost race to the West in capitalizing and making money from it.

I would suggest that instead of letting Western adult movie industry thrive on Indian viewers, it would be better if our own people benefit from it. Go Swadeshi!