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.

Comments

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

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

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

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

    ReplyDelete
  8. woww 500th post thats HUGE !
    congrats !

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

    ReplyDelete
  12. 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. Thanks, Kokila.

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

      Delete
    2. 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. 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. 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. 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

Country where humour died

Humour died a thousand deaths in India after May 2014. The reason – let me put it as someone put it on X.  The stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra called a politician some names like ‘traitor’ which made his audience laugh because they misunderstood it as a joke. Kunal Kamra has to explain the joke now in a court of justice. I hope his judge won’t be caught with crores of rupees of black money in his store room . India itself is the biggest joke now. Our courts of justice are huge jokes. Our universities are. Our temples, our textbooks, even our markets. Let alone our Parliament. I’m studying the Ramayana these days in detail because I’ve joined an A-to-Z blog challenge and my theme is Ramayana, as I wrote already in an earlier post . In order to understand the culture behind Ramayana, I even took the trouble to brush up my little knowledge of Sanskrit by attending a brief course. For proof, here’s part of a lesson in my handwriting.  The last day taught me some subhashit...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Violence and Leaders

The latest issue of India Today magazine studies what it calls India’s Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB). India is all poised to be an economic superpower. But what about its civic sense? Very poor, that’s what the study has found. Can GDP numbers and infrastructure projects alone determine a country’s development? Obviously, no. Will India be a really ‘developed’ country by 2030 although it may be $7-trillion economy by then? Again, no is the answer. India’s civic behaviour leaves a lot, lot to be desired. Ironically, the brand ambassador state of the country, Uttar Pradesh, is the worst on most parameters: civic behaviour, public safety, gender attitudes, and discrimination of various types. And UP is governed by a monk!  India Today Is there any correlation between the behaviour of a people and the values and principles displayed by their leaders? This is the question that arose in my mind as I read the India Today story. I put the question to ChatGPT. “Yes,” pat came the ...

The Ramayana Chronicles: 26 Stories, Endless Wisdom

I’m participating in the A2Z challenge of Blogchatter this year too. I have been regular with this every April for the last few years. It’s been sheer fun for me as well as a tremendous learning experience. I wrote mostly on books and literature in the past. This year, I wish to dwell on India’s great epic Ramayana for various reasons the prominent of which is the new palatial residence in Ayodhya that our Prime Minister has benignly constructed for a supposedly homeless god. “Our Ram Lalla will no longer reside in a tent,” intoned Modi with his characteristic histrionics. This new residence for Lord Rama has become the largest pilgrimage centre in India, drawing about 100,000 devotees every day. Not even the Taj Mahal, a world wonder, gets so many footfalls. Ayodhya is not what it ever was. Earlier it was a humble temple town that belonged to all. Several temples belonging to different castes made all devotees feel at home. There was a sense of belonging, and a sense of simplici...