Skip to main content

Kiss of Love


Kissing is certainly better than killing.  The Kiss of Love movement that started in Kerala in protest against the moral policing perpetrated by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Mortuary (as it should be named) is spreading to many other places including Delhi. 

This is the real Pink Revolution, I think.  Our Prime Minister introduced the phrase ‘pink revolution’ during his election campaign in the so-called Hindi belt to refer to the beef industry allegedly sponsored by the Congress Party.  Cheap gimmicks don’t actually take one long way.  So the PM has cleaned his ways by taking up the broom which act was converted into another gimmick by his followers.

What the youth of today are demanding is a vision beyond such gimmicks.  We don’t want divisive politics, they are asserting.  The people of India don’t want a government that will decide what they will eat or wear, which religion they will practise or don’t practise, and who they will marry or befriend.  The people want a government that will usher in prosperity and happiness for all citizens.

Organisations like the RSS belong to a bygone era.  They have no role to play in an Information Technology-driven society unless they modify (not with a capital initial letter) their worldview. 

Yes, we need culture and good public manners.  Going around planting kisses on every attractive pair of lips is not at all a healthy way of expressing anything.  But that’s not what the youth are doing.  They are demanding quite something else.  The obscurantist organisations and their political parties fail to understand the changes that the youth want today. 

A society which lets people do what they want so long as the deeds are not harmful to anyone: that’s all what the youth are demanding.  Let religions and politics confine themselves to their rightful places. 

Swachh Bharat cannot be achieved with the broom and the toilet cleaner.  That’s what Young India is saying.  Clean up your minds first and the rest will follow. 

This is my 500th post at this site.  A kiss of love and gratitude to all my beloved readers. Let there be more love and kisses.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Renu VyasNovember 9, 2014 at 2:17 PM

    Violence by any name..be it in the name of religion, culture, language is shameful. I wish the governments would concentrate more on development rather than pathetic issues like the so called love jihads, the "hindutva" moralities and such nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 9, 2014 at 6:50 PM

      Absolutely. I see hope in the youth of today; they are demanding meaningful politics.

      Delete
  2. Nima DasNovember 9, 2014 at 4:25 PM

    First of all congratulations on your 500th post. must be feeling very proud of yourself!
    I fully agree with your views. The youth wants a change of mind set. RSS is a medieval thing!The Govt. should wake up to the needs of the youth!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 9, 2014 at 6:52 PM

      Thanks, Nima.

      I think there is a paradigm shift that's happening in India. See the way the simple movement which started in a corner of the country picked up momentum and created waves in Kolkata and Delhi.

      Delete
  3. MeenalSonalNovember 9, 2014 at 4:30 PM

    Congratulations on 500th post. Yes you are right what we need is change, but in right horizon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 9, 2014 at 6:53 PM

      The direction is important, I share your apprehension. But the move has to start somewhere and the best thing now is that it has begun. I only hope it won't just fizzle out like India Against Corruption did.

      Delete
  4. Online JournalistNovember 9, 2014 at 7:33 PM

    Congratulations on writing 500 blog-posts successfully.
    You are no doubt a 'gifted writer'!
    Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sushma HarishNovember 9, 2014 at 7:50 PM

    Congratulation for two things. 500th post and expressing your thoughts. On lighter note, do you really think picking up broom can't clean the physical surroundings. On cleaning up minds, agree with you, will take different efforts. Different perspective. The physical surroundings have to be cleaned and I feel the initiative is appreciated by majority. What say?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 10, 2014 at 6:57 AM

      Thanks, Shushma.

      I'm not at all against the cleanliness drives. I'm against making such things mere drama. Please click on the link I've provided in the post and you will see how dry leaves were first strewn by workers so that the BJP leaders could come and sweep it. People, particularly the youth, will see through such games, that's what I'm saying.

      Delete
  6. jkalwayeNovember 9, 2014 at 9:14 PM

    ''Yes, we need culture and good public manners. Going around planting kisses on every attractive pair of lips is not at all a healthy way of expressing anything. ''I hope and wish ,a detailed story that reveals the drama and facts behind this kiss of love movement .I am lazy and so scaring to compose a detailed article as you do .it need so much patience and dedication ,yes ,yes a sorta so deep hard working and dedication too.let God bless your creative pen ,writing and writing thousands and thousands .........Thank you sir .thangal oru malayali ano

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 10, 2014 at 7:00 AM

      Thanks, JK. I'm not sure I possess patience and dedication. I think it's just my way of "being": questioning what I don't like... Yeah, I spent 5 years in Ernakulam as a student of St Albert's ...

      Delete
  7. AnonymousNovember 10, 2014 at 12:37 AM

    Congratulations on the 500th Post :) Woah! :) Awesome :) Keep going, keep writing, spreading happiness and inspiring. Best Wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnanyaNovember 10, 2014 at 7:19 AM

    woww 500th post thats HUGE !
    congrats !

    ReplyDelete
  9. LsNovember 10, 2014 at 11:57 AM

    I loved this article. When I was in Kerala, I was precisely debating this and was supporting the KissOfLove. But the media there is portraying the whole issue in a different light and showing it as sleaze. The soul of the movement is in the right place and therefore it will surely succeed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 10, 2014 at 12:59 PM

      In many ways the Malayalam media is still conservative. The politics is full of duplicity. Religious institutions reek with corruption. It's no wonder the youth feel stifled there.

      Delete
  10. D.NambiarNovember 10, 2014 at 12:05 PM

    Very nice conclusion. Our minds need cleaning!
    Congratulations on the 500th post. Interesting subject and the writing is powerful. The discussions about this 'samaram' has been pretty distasteful. You put the point across really well.

    Lots of love to your blog. Here's wishing you many, many more 500s. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 10, 2014 at 1:00 PM

      People, particularly the younger generation, are getting disillusioned with politics. The latest youth movement is a sign. It's better that our politicians and other leaders take a note of it and make necessary amendments in their ways.

      Thanks for your wishes and greetings.

      Delete
  11. A Homemaker's UtopiaNovember 10, 2014 at 12:27 PM

    Just perfect thoughts..Congratulations on your 500th post..Keep writing :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Kokila guptaNovember 11, 2014 at 2:17 PM

    Congrats for your 500th post !
    You nailed it with the last line .. and if they are not listening we are doing it our way :) Just like that .....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 11, 2014 at 2:46 PM

      Thanks, Kokila.

      "Our way" may not outlive theirs. Nevertheless... keep trying.

      Delete
    2. Kokila guptaNovember 13, 2014 at 10:17 PM

      Yup !
      'our way' may be not always THE MOST correct or THE BEST way and I am most certainly not comfortable with ''this our way' but yes I am in full agreement with the point ! Quite like you I guess... :)

      Delete
  13. AditiNovember 11, 2014 at 5:44 PM

    500th post, oh great!! Yes the cobwebs of mind need cleansing as much as the environment. Although I do not like public display of affection, whether in defiance of moral policing or not, I will let it pass since I agree with the spirit in which the blog is written. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 12, 2014 at 9:37 AM

      I'm severely allergic to public displays of affection especially those coming from the 'lustiness' of adolescence. But I've noticed that the youngsters involved in this movement were not actually kissing or doing anything of the sort that would put off people. They were making a point. Of course, you understood that.

      Delete
  14. AnonymousNovember 26, 2014 at 11:00 AM

    Kissing is definitely better than killing. This is a tool for non-violent protest against hypocrisy in the name of "moral policing". It's not that the protesters have suddenly become over-emotional to express their affection in public. But, if youngsters do kiss each other in public I don't understand what's so bad about it! It's all in the eyes of the beholder - how we see it.What does the moral police do children are being raped, students are beaten by the police in the campus during non violent protest (ref: JU, Kolkata), when women are gang raped and denied of justice, when boys are victims of ragging in engineering colleges? Who are they to define what is decent and what is indecent...what is moral and what is immoral? My support goes for Kiss of Love protesters and thank you for coming with a post on this controversial topic which needs more light to be understood by the common people. They are being misled by the so called moral police.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

The Second Crucifixion

  ‘The Second Crucifixion’ is the title of the last chapter of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s magnum opus Freedom at Midnight . The sub-heading is: ‘New Delhi, 30 January 1948’. Seventy-three years ago, on that day, a great soul was shot dead by a man who was driven by the darkness of hatred. Gandhi has just completed his usual prayer session. He had recited a prayer from the Gita:                         For certain is death for the born                         and certain is birth for the dead;                         Therefore over the inevitable                         Thou shalt not grieve . At that time Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare were moving to Retiring Room Number 6 at the Old Delhi railway station. They walked like thieves not wishing to be noticed by anyone. The early morning’s winter fog of Delhi gave them the required wrap. They found Nathuram Godse already awake in the retiring room. The three of them sat together and finalised the plot against Gand
6 comments
Read more

Vultures and Religion

When vultures become extinct, why should a religion face a threat? “When the vultures died off, they stopped eating the bodies of Zoroastrians…” I was amused as I went on reading the book The Final Farewell by Minakshi Dewan. The book is about how the dead are dealt with by people of different religious persuasions. Dead people are quite useless, unless you love euphemism. Or, as they say, dead people tell no tales. In the end, we are all just stories made by people like the religious woman who wrote the epitaph for her atheist husband: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.” Zoroastrianism is a religion which converts death into a sordid tale by throwing the corpses of its believers to vultures. Death makes one impure, according to that religion. Well, I always thought, and still do, that life makes one impure. I have the support of Lord Buddha on that. Life is dukkha , said the Enlightened. That is, suffering, dissatisfaction and unease. Death is liberation
4 comments
Read more

The Final Farewell

Book Review “ Death ends life, not a relationship ,” as Mitch Albom put it. That is why, we have so many rituals associated with death. Minakshi Dewan’s book, The Final Farewell [HarperCollins, 2023], is a well-researched book about those rituals. The book starts with an elaborate description of the Sikh rituals associated with death and cremation, before moving on to Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and finally Hinduism. After that, it’s all about the various traditions and related details of Hindu final rites. A few chapters are dedicated to the problems of widows in India, gender discrimination in the last rites, and the problem of unclaimed dead bodies. There is a chapter titled ‘Grieving Widows in Hindi Cinema’ too. Death and its rituals form an unusual theme for a book. Frankly, I don’t find the topic stimulating in any way. Obviously, I didn’t buy this book. It came to me as quite many other books do – for reasons of their own. I read the book finally, having shelv
10 comments
Read more

Hate Politics

Illustration by Copilot Hatred is what dominates the social media in India. It has been going on for many years now. A lot of violence is perpetrated by the ruling party’s own men. One of the most recent instances of venom spewed out by none other than Mithun Chakraborty would shake any sensible person. But the right wing of India is celebrating it. Seventy-four-year-old Chakraborty threatened to chop the people of a particular minority community into pieces. The Home Minister Amit Shah was sitting on the stage with a smile when the threat was issued openly. A few days back, a video clip showing a right-winger denying food to a Muslim woman because she refused to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ dominated the social media. What kind of charity is it that is founded on hatred? If you go through the social media for a while, you will be astounded by the surfeit of hatred there. Why do a people who form the vast majority of a country hate a small minority so much? Hatred usually comes from some
8 comments
Read more