Doth the ‘C’ in Chennai stand for “Conservative”?

With a series of (mis)happenings in the recent few weeks in my hometown Chennai troubling me, this blog is the vent to all those misgivings. Though the brunt of these incidents was my opposite sex in Chennai, I cannot stop deriding at the fallacious reasoning, the incivility behind such actions and the incongruously adamant “flag-bearers” of such narrow-minded campaigns. That I’ve not been directly affected by such idiocies might temper down the deserved causticity, but it would be a pleasure to voice my opinions in support of womanhood.

I’m not sure if these “news” have reached beyond the TamilNadu tabloids, so here’s a small preview.

September 2005 : Anna University(Chennai) imposes a “dress-code” on female students in all colleges, affiliated to the University, thereby leaving them with no choice other than salwars & saris, with the hollow motive of curbing eve-teasing.

A few days later : Faced with allegations of gender bias, the ban spreads to their male counterparts, depriving them of t-shirts and jeans in college, though it doesn’t seem to ruffle many feathers, primarily due to the guys’ limited choices over their outfit. Earlier, if they were alternating between t-shirts and shirts, presently they’re stuck to shirts, without much dismay.

October 2005 : A Tamil tabloid publishes photographs of a private party, depicting wineglass-doting women, and decries at a couple’s public display of affection, albeit at their private party. Not stopping at adding a distasteful caption to these photographs, the tabloid theatrically agonises at the “influence of Western Culture”. The TamilNadu Police proceed one step further and try to trace the party-goers from the photographs, with the sole intent of putting such “culprits” behind bars. Fortunately, better sense prevailed at the higher echelons of policing, and the attempt was given up, not the before they had shut down the venue of the party – “The Park”. “The Park” was opened after 10 days of courtroom wrangling.

October 2005 : Actress Kushboo had inadvertently shared her views about India Today’s survey on Indian pre-marital sex, and now she’ll be facing at least 40 defamation cases in courts all over TamilNadu. The petitioners’, mostly female lawyers, backed obviously by selfish-motived politicians, ludicrous argument is that they had to undergo mental agony upon hearing Khusboo’s views that pre-marital sex is becoming prevalent in TamilNadu, as indicated by India Today’s survey. Her swift and tearful apology on television did not placate the “moral brigade”, as they preferred to be called. (This “moral brigade”, incidentally, comprised of supporters of a Tamil director, against whom actresses, led by Khusboo, besides others, had launched a tirade, a few weeks ago, for equating them to sex-workers. Tit for Tat, is it ?)

There ends the preview, and that prompted me to muse if the ‘C’ in Chennai really meant “Conservative”. “Conservative” is just a milder term in this context, as these incidents are categorically unwholesome.

Getting to the crux of the issue of “dress-code”, the motive being “to curb eve-teasing” is laughable at the least, for the law enforcers have given up their attempts to inculcate morality and civility into the pervert minds of the teasers, but have instead resorted to curbing the fashion portrayals of the modern day Indian women. The seemingly endless myriad of apparels(pun intended!) of a college-going-female has now shrunk to salwars & saris, governed by the clouded reasoning that other attires seem to provoke the teasers to their perverse heights. Sarika Shah was properly attired on that fateful day, and so were hundreds of other victims. Such a “reasoning” is parallel to a Stay-at-home-if-you-don’t-want-to-get-caught-in-accidents-on-street notion. Ludicrous and Laughable!

What if, a few years down the line, salwar- & sari-clad college-goers bear the brunt of this social endemic? Will the University, then, step up their vigilant stranglehold and ban salwars & saris too, thereby emptying out the wearable wardrobe of a girl? It wouldn’t surprise me if the University passed a ‘burqa / purdah’ law on its female students. Wake up!, Mr. Vice Chancellor, It’s 2005, and The Taliban have expressed their interest to recruit you.

I’m sure no girl would’ve trouble in following the dress-code. But, the need of the hour is to discipline the teasers, and not trample upon the freedom of expression of the victims. Call it “gene bias” or “jean bias”?

On the other hand, the ban of t-shirt and jeans on guys, is a respite for folks who alternate between a shirt and a t-shirt. Now, they’ve an extra reason to stay stuck to the same old shirt, and / or pant, for that matter, for months together. Guys !!

“The Park” hotel was host to a private party, but it turned out to be a not-so-private party, with photographs of the party crowd appearing in a Tamil newspaper the next morning, with distasteful captions. The newspaper lambasted at the women, for they had tasted alcohol, in moderation, with their spouses, and one of them had even gone to the extent of kissing her husband. How atrocious? How can accept a husband kissing his wife? It’s definitely atrocious and unacceptable to a bunch of immature journalists, stubbornly stuck in the quagmire of orthodoxy.

After stalling their attempts to book the party crowd, the Police brought the shutters down on “The Park”, albeit temporarily, under the pretext of hosting an unlicensed party. What was brought to the fore was the fight for supremacy between the newspaper and the Police as to who was the kid amongst them. Grow up, people!

TamilNadu, which had revered actress Kushboo as its demi-god, is now volleying her across almost all judicial courts of the state. She had echoed a survey from India Today, a nationwide magazine, on pre-marital sex. Her views seemed to be on the lines that a literate groom wouldn’t expect a virgin bride, with such high rates of pre-marital sex, as shown by the survey. Sensitive, sure it is, but it’s an individual’s opinion, and India, being a free nation, outlines, in its Constitution, one’s Right to Expression as “..can express freely his/her opinion, but shall not impose them on others”. And, that is exactly what she did. The women wings of a few political parties raised a big hue-and-cry over this, filed a slew of defamation cases against her and demanded her immediate deportation (!), having caused irreparable damage to the clause “Tamil women”. Though it never deserved an apology, as an individual is free to convey his/her opinions, if the Indian Constitution still holds upon these uncivilized protesters, she graciously appeared on television, and tendered a tearful apology. Starting tomorrow, she is required to appear before at least 40 judicial magistrates, across the state. Though it’s evident that the judiciary will squash the defamation cases, given the Constitutional Rights of an individual, I am aggrieved at the retroactive mental process of these ludicrous political parties.

On a different note, I found most buses, plying across the city, with rotund males shamelessly ensconced in seats allotted specifically for females, while the women, some carrying their babies, struggled with the other standees. Despite their requests and the conductor’s appeals, these creatures turn stone-deaf. I had to intervene in few such cases, and render a brief, but harsh, revelation that it’s been specifically mentioned as a seat for the women / elder / physically challenged, as the case may be. But, what difference can a singleton make, when there are thousand such shameless schmucks. Hope it dawns on every guy.

If ‘C’ in Chennai really stood for Conservative, I would be happy to retract to “Madras”.

Sometimes, I wonder if this is where I grew up, if this is the state that spawned the poet Bharathi and if this is the same state with a woman on the Chief Minister’s chair, and if the claims to 33% reservation for women is just electionspeak.

‘C’, as in Concerned,
Arun