Kissing does not give you AIDS, but it can damn well get you arrested. And then, we do love a good controversy. Especially, if we can create it from nothing.
From women wearing jeans in colleges and boys and girls going on a date on Valentine's Day to television shows, movie posters, tattoos, handshakes, your pet's name, private art shows and even magazine covers; whatever can be declared obscene and banned, will be banned.
Now, arrest orders have been issued against Hollywood actor Richard Gere and former-item-girl-recent-Big-Sister Shilpa Shetty for kissing at an AIDS awareness programme.
But wait! Gere pecked Shetty on the cheek to prove that AIDS cannot be transmitted through a kiss, and since then, we've had their effigies burnt, an arrest order issued and the morality brigade getting their systems in knots. All this over a peck, in a nation where public pissing is considered a birthright.
While India takes all the pride as the land of the Kamasutra, Gere and Shetty were not even close to 'kama'. It was a form of expression, and as Gere has been quoted as saying, "a naïve misread of Indian customs". That we would agree to: for someone who has travelled to India earlier and has mingled with people from all walks of life, perhaps a little common sense, if not sensitivity, was called for. While air-kissing, butt-grabbing and casual squeezing are norms at Page 3 dos, Delhi truck drivers don't go around kissing people as greeting.
Having said that, it is NOT the truck drivers who are objecting to the Gere-Shetty peck. It's the morality brigade, who is. They weren't even present at the event, yet they are the ones going hammer and tongs about the (non) issue. Why? Because, according to them, that kiss was obscene.
And pray, who decides what's obscene for a billion people with different viewpoints?
"Hypocrites, liars, cheats and thugs," says Ridhi, a media student.
"Rakhi Sawant's music videos," according to Anshul Sharma, a chartered accountant.
"Abusive language, gestures and dressing up inappropriately," says Deepanjali, a features writer.
"The way men think this city is one giant loo and happily leave their imprint all over the place," says Laureen C Momin, a PR executive in Delhi.
"A serial like Saloni Ka Safar, which at this day and time shows skin colour bias," says Mita Mukherjee, a teacher.
Every person has his or her own definition of what constitutes obscenity. And even though many of these definitions could be within the purview of the dictionary definition of what is called 'obscene', does that help us reach a consensus? No.
As journalist Azera Rahman puts it, "Because a nude woman's painting can be obscene to someone, but can be an aesthetically pleasing piece of art for somebody else. It varies from person to person."
Or as ad-man Suhel Seth sums it up in a statement: "One man's bra is another man's burqa."
And while some find the bra obscene, there are those who may think the burqa might be too.
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