Blown out of horizon!

When I first conceptualised this issue, this was to be titled as (the much clichéd) ‘blown out of proportion’ but the word ‘proportion’ was too mild for the issue which demanded a much stronger peg, so the word ‘horizon’ meaning a visible limit. Read on to understand the reason for exaggeration.
It was the issue of India Today (tamil) that hit the stands on September 18th which published the survey regarding - the opinion of tamil women on pre-marital sex (they claim 20-25% were affirmative in this regard). Filling in was Khushboo’s all famous so called derogatory remark, opinion, expression, view - “ the society should free itself from out dated notion that a woman has to be a virgin at the time of marriage.
They should rather know how to protect themselves from pregnancy and AIDS if they choose to have sex before marriage. Educated men today do not expect their brides to be virgins at the time of marriage.”
There was no reaction for almost a week. Then the new magazine Tamizh Murasu (of Sun TV group) owned by the family of union minister Dayanidhi Maran, came out with canard reaction of ‘shock’ which represented the comments as tantamount to social and cultural ills.
Among those whose reactions the magazine sought was Thol Mavalavan who heads the Dalit panthers of India (DPI) which is now co-authoring the anti – Khoshboo script for which social and cultural stands sound unconvincing.
The veteran actress (who at one point of time was sooo loved that the people erected a temple for her at Trichy) saw some worst days of her life - In a high decibel and ugly campaign, adverse comments were made about her character, as she was supposed to have maligned the chastity and the goodness of tamil womanhood, had betrayed the decent people of the state and she was given marching orders to relocate to Mumbai (as she originally from Mumbai). She saw a monsoon of chapples, eggs, rotten tomatoes, broomsticks…. She received so much flak and so many threats, one even heard of a ridiculous threat by some group to send loads of condoms because she has given the sound advice of practicing safe sex – so much for the serene of society and culture and in this process treating logic and common sense as extinct species. Even I found the statement “educated men today do not expect their brides to be virgins at the time of marriage” derogatory but that’s my remark, opinion, expression, view and that doesn’t mean that I should tantamount it with chapples, eggs, rotten tomatoes and broomsticks.
Political and business intentions were clearly camouflaged under social and cultural outcries. Lets undertake a rational cause - effect analysis – let’s talk business first : - Khushboo incidentally, hosts a game show ‘Jackpot’, on Jaya TV which soon became the most popular show on TV. This pricked its rival Sun TV which ruled the airwaves or 15 long years so the sun groups magazine Tamizh Murasu who 1st published the intentional negations behind the plank of Indian culture.
Now the political dimension – sometimes before this exaggerated agitation was enacted, producer/actor Thankar Bachchan made a remark that rocked the tamil film industry. He reportedly said “women who acted for money were like prostitutes”, when he had a call - sheet problem with his lead actress Navya Nair is his film Chidambarathil. (heres the catch) In this furry Khushboo and another tamil actress Manorma representing the female voice of the film industry led the protests against T Bachchan’s remarks and demanded apology. They forced him to apologise to his lead actress.
Here comes the twist out of the cocktail of caste, film and politics T Bachchan is from the vanniyar caste. So are the members of tamil protection movement lead by PMK (pattali makkal katchi) a partner of the UPA coalition. The PMK lead by Dr. Ramadoss whose son Ambumani is the union health minister from the party of vanniyars. The series of coincident doesn’t end here, Thirumanavalam, leader of DPI the second body of agitation is a close friend of T Bachchan.
All this to level the score boards!!
So much for following one of the chapters of democracy ‘the freedom of expression’.
Isn’t illegitimate politics as bad as illegitimate sex?!!
T Bachchan said to a reporter in this regard “as a creative person I value the freedom of expression and speech. But by saying things which are contrary to our culture and tradition, Khushboo is indeed insulting the tamils.”
Ok now lets take this statement at face value – views relating to pre-marital sex are contrary to our culture and tradition and it is insulting the tamils –

Consider these examples for information –
- Our country ‘Bharath’ herself take the name from King Bharath who himself is born out of wedlock by a pre-marital affair between maiden Shakuntala and King Dushyanta. Let’s dig a bit deep, nymph Shakuntala herself a result of a pre-marital affair between Menaka and sage Vishwamitra.
- Rig – veda known to be the first book known to the planet contains the worlds first known romance of nymph Urvashi and King Pururavas a married man for four years, Urvashi even complains about Pururavas mating with her ‘thrice a day’ (-mandala x, sukta 95, verse5). Further rishis Mitra and Varuna, exited by the charms of Urvashi both ejaculated, resulting in sage Agastya.
- Shrimad Bhagwatam, celebrates Lord Krishna’s dalliance with sixteen thousand gopis, of this it accords primacy to Radha (a married woman), infact so loved is the Radha-krishna pair that even today greeting in the Krishna country of mathura and vrindavan is ‘Radhey-Radhey’. Morever, his dalliance is for pleasure and not for progeny (offspring) (an approved motive elsewhere in the scripture).
- India’s richest temple Tirupati (Andhra-Pradesh) has its founding story – where Vishnu falls in love with the local beauty Padmavati, but he must pay a bride price for her and he has nothing without his wife Laxmi (the Goddess of wealth), so he is forced to take a loan from Kubera (the treasurer of Gods) and that’s why devotees consider themselves blessed by donating money into the Tirupati hundi - they are helping Vishnu pay for his bigamy.
- Mumbai based writer Devdutt Patnaik in his book ‘Goddess in India’ says the scripture has it that “under no circumstances could a man refuse a women who demanded sex during her fertile period.” Its Indra the Lord of fertility gave women the right to approach any man when she on a hormonal high. Following this rule was Ravana conceived by his mother Kaikesi and sage Vaishrava.
- Wasn’t Karna (an integral part of the Mahabharata) boon-bounded (by the Sun God) but pre-marital.
Later the tradition tried to camouflage these as moral stories and termed them as divine leela (divine play) to achieve greater ends.
The point in citing these mythological examples is not to categorise or debunk Hinduism nor am I comparing human beings to divine entities - but just a reaction to the insane agitation built on the foundation of culture and tradition. So with indignation I question, do the tamils consider the Rig-Veda, Mahabharata, Srimad Bhagvatam, foundation of Tirupati an insult to their culture?!!
Are we living in a state where freedom of speech and freedom of expression are hypothetical paradise or curbed under political domination?
People who want victory at any cost – if not so why don’t they agitate against the films serials and songs (in tamil nadu itself) which not only show adulterous relations but then justify them! Why don’t they turn aggressive against India-today at first place for undertaking such surveys?
They’ll give the chappal – broomstick treatment to Khushboo and agitate against Sania Mirza for making statement in support of safe sex but no action against FM – P Chidambaram, Narayan Kartikeyan and Aamir Khan for supporting Khushboo.

They are searching for soft targets aren’t they?
These political chamchas are known to hoodwink the masses –
They’ll file a case against the stalwart Arundhati Roy for describing adulterous relations in her novel ‘God of small things’ while the rest of the world awards her the prestigious Booker Prize for the same novel;
They’ll create a hullabaloo when its comes to censorship in films but a Bheege hont tere which is the highlight of the A rated film (Murder) can easily seen on TV, on the net;
These wise men decided to remove words like Gujarat and Ayodhya from Govind Nihalani’s ‘Dev’, set against the backdrop of riots, but they turned blind eye to Praveen Togadia’s ‘Ram Sevak Amar Raho’ vcd’s – sold openly at the VHP offices;
They brand Anand Patwardhan’s cinema as dangerous even though the judiciary disagrees!
Last year CBFC rejected Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’. Bush though he hated the documentary, couldn’t prevent it screening in the US, yet our censor defended the global enemy.
The hippocratic list goes on….
At the risk of repeating myself I comment - our freedom expression and our right to information is at stake. Let’s not lose the power of reasoning in this chaos. Let’s question everything and let common sense come out as the ultimate winner.
Now take a deep breadth think again is the title justified?

*(The information is sourced from newspaper articles - the mythological facts are sourced from an article by Renuka Narayan - Hindustan Times 26th Nov 05, also helping – article in Hindustan Times, Oct 29, 2005. Take the scissors away from the Censor Board - by Rakesh Sharma)