Love can be expressed in myriad ways. The kiss is just one of them. People were trying to Keep It Simple, Stupid, in a Kerala café, when they were interrupted, by persons, apparently denied the same privilege, at their own instance or by peer pressure. It was not part of their culture, and therefore should not be a part of anybody else’s. Fair enough. After all muscle plays an important role in both the efforts – the kiss and its prevention, albeit different muscles for each. Muscle determines the outcomes too - ecstasy or fear. In the instant case it was fear, the ecstasy having died long back in the arms of culture!
For the media, it was an opportunity for TRP’s to go up. They couldn’t really care less if love is what caused it, or hatred, for to them these are two sides of the same coin – either way their TRP’s go up – They covered the protests and the arrests with equal gusto and the couple that started it all, was left in purgatory, perhaps never to kiss again.
As a society, we tend not to express love in ways that can be seen. Love according to our given template, must be felt – like a mother’s love when she cleans a bruised knee, or cradles you in her arms. Sadly she does not do that once you reach your teenage years, for it can be termed incest by those that are denied that privilege, that honor and that special feeling of comfort and safety, last felt in the womb.
It matters little that a protest, that was strangely titled ‘kiss of love’, (I always thought that a kiss is born out of love, especially as both are formed by four letters), fizzled out due to the same opposition stepping up a gear. Only this time, they were joined by men in real khaki. The opposition to the opposition, amazingly spanned the religious chasm that was previously and will be hence, a Himalayan crevasse.
It spread to the land of Rabindranath Tagore, where too it sizzled and fizzled as the teachers and the taught reportedly differed and the long and short of the khaki’s hustled them around.
When the ‘Kiss of love' failed, the creative liberal minded set, replaced it with a milder version, never mind, that the envisaged kiss was a simple peck, rather than one imported from the south of France. The Kiss was replaced by a milder, less intoxicating, symbol of affection, the hug! More acceptable to the muscular Indian, they thought, but they were wrong. The hug provided for more body contact, and therefore was akin to ***. Definitely a no-no. Again never mind, that it is a very popular healing mechanism in God’s own country.
Funnily enough, while we love to display hatred, in myriad ways – rape, molestation, murder, violent protests, police brutality, organized crime and hurtful words, we find it difficult to display affection and love. Perhaps because, as those in the know say, it’s not a part of our culture, hatred is!. Either way, culture is to blame.
It’s time for a new Abhiyan, Swacch Mann Abhiyan.
