Adult Content

Government of India suo motto or on PIL [Public Interest Litigation] regulalry annuounces blocking of internet sites, TV channels and other media on charges of adult content, indecency etc etc.

This is not about national security and or sedition [I shall keep tose for another day!]
The latest victim is a sony channel in India which is known for its funky shows. I have not found anything more wrong in that channels programmes than the semi-nude gyrations that go on and on and on on innumberable music channels, or various participatory programmes where participants repeat those same movie songs in more of less the same costumes on TV for a prize. These are all aired during non-adult hours. Mind you adult in India does not really mean adult [movies are screened and then certified and only then shown on TV].

Are we idiots as a nation or does our government especially departments which take pleasure in social policing have nothing else left to do?

Children sit and watch Mahabharata with frantic parents trying to explain to their children how a woman can have five husbands and still be a paragon of virtue, mythological pieces regulaly have women wearing hideously ugly dresses and much else. In the sixities the temptress Menaka exposing large bellies and much else was a set piece in such mythical films... Religious discourse, supersitious healing, selling of spurious unlicensed goods cover TV from end to end no one thinks of putting a stop to them. Why this bias against adult content [where adult is defined by some act which was passed by a Victorian Colonial Regime 100 years back?]

Our children and parents are quite mature, please give them a break and let them grow up into mature parents and balanced children.

Cheers

Shilpa and Fork

I am apalled to read about the racist slurs cast at Shilpa Shetty on a popular Channel 4 TV Show. But one of the so called racist slurs was significant. Watching her eat with her fingures, one of the "white" house mates commented that "How can you eat with your fingers, God knows whereever they [fingers] go". More than racist i think it was a health advisory. Especially for men who hands tend to feel their centre of gravity all too often.....I have taken the advice seriously and have switched to using forks now... Thanks Shilpa your poison has been my food.

Gandhi and YouTube

I had missed the rather bad quality pole dance take on Gandhi ji on YouTube, but of course in this age of "multimedia" where one media provices content to the other media for survival you cant miss much.YouTube, Orkut, Google Earth have been providing a lot of content to many Indian newspapers and TV channels, it looks like soon the old media will shut down if they are deproved of content by Internet companies and serial killers.Of course thanks to the TV channels I did not miss Gandhi being assassinated once again on National media. Apart from the fact that it was a bad joke poorly played, I did not realise what was the fuss over YouTube all about. Why were there questions of YouTube being punished? I guess you have to make the right noises when the shit hits the fan:)Punish YouTube i you must or if you can but also punish the following first: if you can1. Largest media space devoted last week was to Gandhi ji love for Sarala Devi Chaudhuri Tagore's niece: gravedug in his latest book by Rajmohan Gandhi his grandson:)2. TV channels which constantly spooled and looped the same clip for hours3. A host of other political, academic and other institutions who have capitalised and monetised the great man even when he was alive:)Any way let's not dig too deep into history. As someone mentioned to a national daily "Gandhi ji would have laughed off at this joke but taken some of the galring failures of our politicians more seriously".Amen