Moral Policing: No Thanks!!!

We are a country with over a billion people living extraordinarily mediocre lives. Many of us don’t know where our next meals will come from. We have so many real things that we need to worry about. Yet we can’t stop obsessing over little things like a young couple kissing in public. Protests rise against moral policing and we get caught up in the symbolism. Are we dumb enough to think that these protests are aimed at just making kissing in public legal? (By the way, it's already legal.) Have we forgotten about how couples have been getting thrashed for so much as holding hands in public?

I see so many self-righteous “respected” grown-ups publicly shunning the “Kiss of Love” Movement, labeling it as Western Culture corrupting and degrading the Indian culture. How is this an effect of the Western culture? It's like watching a goldfish with its 3-second memory cycle. If you were to believe these gentlemen, Indians didn’t know about kissing before meeting foreigners and all rapes happen because people watch English movies. Such absurd things people believe in this country!

It's so sad to see the so-called educated people voicing their opinions about this matter with such gusto when all these years they looked at youngsters being humiliated in public for fraternizing, which by the way, is an absolutely normal social norm for people in that age. Coz honestly, if men and women are not able to interact socially and romantically, it leads to a very unhealthy attitude between the sexes.

For example, I know at least a few gentlemen from the last generation who were discouraged from fraternizing with the opposite sex and it left them perpetually unable to have healthy relationships with women. One of them, a family friend chose never to get married as he never felt any kinship to women while another turned into a masochist and tortured his wife.

You know the real problem with moral policing is the simple fact that the people who do it are usually illiterate, narrow-minded, and slaves to a redundant orthodox outlook. Come to think of it, these are the same people who won’t let their daughters go to school. And the really disturbing thing is that we follow them when we should know better.

I am not a big fan of public displays of affection. However, I understand that it is natural to indulge in PDA at a certain age. Most of us did. We won’t do it now. And those of us who didn’t have anyone to do it with at that age grew up and became frustrated guys that express their moral indignation on social media. Here “Moral Indignation = 2% Morality + 98% Envy”. All I am saying here is let the youngsters be. Don’t beat them up for holding hands. If their behavior in a public place bothers you, instead of crying foul on social media, walk up to them and ask them to stop politely. And believe me, they will.

Moreover, I see annoying posts doing the rounds on FB about these things not being a part of the Indian culture. We can’t stick to all old habits. If we did that, we wouldn’t be a developing nation like we are today. Change in cultural practices is a part of evolution and development. And the sooner we accept it, the better it is for everyone.