Yesterday, i heard a completely obnoxious song on radio. The day ended with news of a Bangalore mob molesting a woman. and a Punjab politician murdering in cold blood, the father of the girl his goons were sexually harassing. The father's fault? he met the politician and protested against this behavior.
These 2 things are correlated. When your popular music has misogynistic lyrics, and they are played in our parties, it means we endorse the lyrics somewhere in our heads. There has to be a lowest common denominator of crassness that we absolutely refuse.
The Guwahati girl and the Bangalore girl were not molested by that mob alone. They were molested by each one of us who plays these lyrics and tells our kids its ok for an inspector to whistle on duty, and its a desirable trait.
In india, we have this very convenient attitude of blaming someone else for all our problems. Its always the corrupt policeman, the corrupt babu, the corrupt politician. And when all else fails, its the "System".
Well, guess what? WE ARE THE SYSTEM.
In the case of crass lyrics, i hear stuff like, "Oh but this is all they dish out these days." This is the same film industry that gave us Naushad, Javed Akhtar, Sahir Ludhianvi, even Ghalib, in mainstream lyrics. Why are they now giving us Fevicol and munni badnaam hui? Who makes these songs super hits? When social cinema with stars like Farroq Sheikh and Dipi Naval was successful, it was successful because we liked them. We vote with our money every Friday. The industry just responds to those votes.
The crime against ur family and your popular entertainment are related. Insist on a consistent message each time - to everyone. It is NOT ok to play Honey Singh, or Fevicol and dance to them. It is NOT cool for a 6 year old to dance to an item song. It is NOT ok to look at a person who is 40, and confident, and call her a cougar at the water cooler. It is NOT ok to let your boys and girls have ideas that are anti the other gender, and think that they will change with age as they get attracted to each other. Before they get attracted to each other, they have to learn to respect each other. As people.
THERE IS NO SYSTEM TO BLAME ANY MORE. ONLY US. ABOUT TIME.
These 2 things are correlated. When your popular music has misogynistic lyrics, and they are played in our parties, it means we endorse the lyrics somewhere in our heads. There has to be a lowest common denominator of crassness that we absolutely refuse.
The Guwahati girl and the Bangalore girl were not molested by that mob alone. They were molested by each one of us who plays these lyrics and tells our kids its ok for an inspector to whistle on duty, and its a desirable trait.
In india, we have this very convenient attitude of blaming someone else for all our problems. Its always the corrupt policeman, the corrupt babu, the corrupt politician. And when all else fails, its the "System".
Well, guess what? WE ARE THE SYSTEM.
In the case of crass lyrics, i hear stuff like, "Oh but this is all they dish out these days." This is the same film industry that gave us Naushad, Javed Akhtar, Sahir Ludhianvi, even Ghalib, in mainstream lyrics. Why are they now giving us Fevicol and munni badnaam hui? Who makes these songs super hits? When social cinema with stars like Farroq Sheikh and Dipi Naval was successful, it was successful because we liked them. We vote with our money every Friday. The industry just responds to those votes.
The crime against ur family and your popular entertainment are related. Insist on a consistent message each time - to everyone. It is NOT ok to play Honey Singh, or Fevicol and dance to them. It is NOT cool for a 6 year old to dance to an item song. It is NOT ok to look at a person who is 40, and confident, and call her a cougar at the water cooler. It is NOT ok to let your boys and girls have ideas that are anti the other gender, and think that they will change with age as they get attracted to each other. Before they get attracted to each other, they have to learn to respect each other. As people.
THERE IS NO SYSTEM TO BLAME ANY MORE. ONLY US. ABOUT TIME.
6 comments:
Very correct. We have to take responsibility for the mess
And the worst is when such lyrics are part of the loud Indian weddings. It reinforces that such behaviour is societally acceptable..
Onkar sir: thank you.
FITW: my thots exactly.
I can't agree more with you. Endorsing such songs does mean endorsing such behaviour, which we do all the time in the name of catchy tunes and pop music. No wonder the way present generation is being misled.
The disregard and contempt these politicians and their goons have for the constitution... Only a united public can force them to bow to the Indian constitution under which nobody gets away with murder.
hi A: and then they blame the kids for being "too spoilt" and "irreverential". we feed them this crap and then worry when they internalise it. we are not just corrupting a state or city, we are poisoning an entire generation, and with it, our own future.
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