Yet another star was made to wish, “eat your words” is more than just an idiom. This time it is none other than Sushmita Sen who is in the eye of the storm with PILs and angry Indian women who are deeply hurt by her remarks on chastity and virginity.
When I read that it was because of an excerpt in Tamil newspaper I couldn’t stop laughing. Being a tamilian, I know for a fact how sensationalistic those magazines and newspapers are. I mean imagine an entire edition that advertises, it describes in graphic detail a gang rape of a small kid over 20 pages, claiming people have the right to know!! Absolutely preposterous! I fear going into conniptions at the very thought.
But that apart, it made me wonder how the judicial system decides to play its role. On it trying to do its duty by punishing people who might have violated their right of speech by monitoring hundreds of dailies and journals everyday!! What with so many pending cases and litigations that plead attention.
When someone as high up in the judiciary, as a judge of a high court, reacts so fervently, it makes you wonder whether there might be some amount of truth to the entire allegations. Lets me try to assess why or how the entire moral fabric will start tearing apart at the seams when an icon expresses her opinion in response to a journalist’s query between questions of her recent AIDS awareness campaign.
How fickle minded do we Indians rate ourselves? How easy is it to influence us? I mean how many of the junta decided to adopt a kid as a single parent after the same celebrity did so? When Sushmita Sen decided to support the HIV +ve widow of her staff (who was HIV +ve) and her two sons, how many of us decided to support atleast the cause? When she pledged to donate her organs, how many of the public did so? How many of us decided to support special children education just because this celebrity did so?
If the answer to the majority of the questions above is any figure in double digits or more, I agree that by her statement she has set a bad example and scores of people will decide to throw away their virginity just because she doesn’t think that concept exist in the current scenario. Because we people have no brains of our own and our moral fiber has to be held in place only by these celebrities and celluloid. And on their failing to reach the public, we need 15 news channels and 100 newspapers to highlight what they said just in case people didn’t pay attention.
When the same situation plagued other celebrities it was equally stupid and all the aforementioned sarcasm and cynicism would apply in their defense too. I mean Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty kissing was made such a big issue that the fact that it was an event organized to garner support for kids affected by AIDS was totally lost.
It reminds me of Shyamalan’s Sixth Sense where the ghosts see only what they want to see. I guess the media sees only what they can sell. Ironically people haunted by the media seem to be more in number than ghosts.
Its time to take up more sensible issues that need attention. (when I typed that I realized the same could be said about my choice of blog content :) ).I guess all said and done its that point where I try to rationalize what prompted me to write this. Other than to keep my writing streak going or that I’m directing new people to my blog page, I respect Sushmita Sen. Amidst scores of celebrities who offer lip service to social causes (or just lip services on screen) here is someone who goes the whole yard in doing what she believes in.
My personal take: Morals are something every person has to uphold as part of a nation that takes pride in its culture. I completely disagree with Sushmita Sen on what she said being a representative of India on the global arena. But again, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, As long as they don’t try to impose it on others.
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