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March 11, 1999
SPECIALS
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'Talking dirty isn't chic anymore'How Readers responded to Varsha Bhosle's recent articles
Date:
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 23:06:23 -0700
Tell us what you think of this column, you ask? GARBAGE!
Date:
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 18:24:31 -0500
Funny (no pun intended) that a column on humour should contain so little of it... But other than that, I have to agree with her. We don't laugh much at ourselves, especially in print. I guess we have to learn to poke fun at ourselves and our sanctimonious leaders before we say that speech is truly free in India. I just can't imagine a Jay Leno making snide remarks about M K Gandhi or Vajpayee or even Amitabh Bachchan and getting away with it. It's really a pity because I think Indians are really funny, especially when left to our own native languages. I think Tamil jokes are some of the punniest and that gentle Kannada humour makes me laugh until my stomach hurts. Gol-maal and Jaane bhi do yaaron are two of the best comedies I ever saw, up there with the Pink Panthers and their ilk. I guess it's that stiff-upper lip colonial British influence that keeps us from being free souls. JP
Date:
Fri, 5 Mar 1999 03:46:16 +0800
I was just reading through Ms Bhosle's column on the humourless Indian male/non-conformity to journalistic standards and a whole lot of issues. I just as hell couldn't make out anything clearly. Apart from the validity of the arguments/opinions spewed forth, her column, or any column for that matter, should at least be readable and focussed on some points. I end up reading her column and feel cheated. One word could concisely sum up her style of writing: Reader-unfriendly. I guess she does want people to understand what she is talking about. So she would do very well to proof her article once or twice (do u guys have an editor who does this?) so that people can more easily get what she is saying. One other thing to say: I have been a teenager for quite some time now and half the time I thought it was cool to talk about sex and act liberal. Ms Bhosle seems to be under the same illusion, though I don't think she is a teenager. May be she should realise that talking dirty is just not chic anymore. As a reader, I would appreciate articles that go beyond the surface, just not quick assumptions and even quicker conclusions. Madhu
Date:
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 14:22:38 -0500
I really enjoy reading Varsha Bhosle's columns. She helps put things in perspective for me. I enjoy reading her views on politics, crime, religion etc, but Varsha Bhosle's column "Mysteries of digital life" is a disappointment. The way she goes on and on about cell phones is a pity. Obviously, she has not noticed that things are speeding up. Competitive pressures are causing product cycles and time to market cycles to shorten. People are undertaking more personal and professional activities now than they ever used to. At the same time, commuting time has increased due to congested roads etc. A cell phone can be effectively used to make use of the otherwise idle time that professionals are forced to spend in commuting. Time is money and each one of us may value it differently. To some, phone calls that cost Rs 80 might be well worth it under certain circumstances. Obviously, since cell phones are fairly new, expensive and viewed as esoteric technology, some people carry it around as a status symbol. This will change in time and only those people that absolutely need to carry one will do so. Of course, in Varsha's opinion no one has the need to carry a cell phone. This is poppycock! It is arrogance and hypocrisy! Varsha does not like anyone telling her what to do, and yet she seems to know, and indeed asserts, that no one has the need to carry a cell phone!? Varsha says, "Besides, what did they do in the Pre-Cellular Age? Mental telepathy? And now the damn thing enables even online banking, shopping, ticket reservation, e-mail and news services! WHY?" Given this inane argument, why did Varsha decide to replace her Remington with a PC? Carrying this further, I may ask why she even bothered to buy a typewriter when she could have used a pen and paper or why even use a pen and paper, when you could carve your articles in stone... and so on and so forth, ad nauseam! "It's strange that in all my travels in the West, I never even noticed the mobile phone. Perhaps not so strange, for Westerners have an in-built horror of trespassing upon other people's space." This is indeed strange! I hope that Varsha is not including the US when she mentions the "West". I live in the US. I've lived in the midwest section, the West Coast, and now I am living on the East Coast of the US. I have been living in the US since 1983. In all the years that I have lived here, I have always been appalled at the complete lack of concern displayed by Americans for other people's "space". I commute to work on trains and almost every day there is at least one person using a cell phone, talking so loudly that I have a difficult time concentrating on whatever I am reading. It's almost as if the person using the cell phone was instructed to speak up so that people on the other end of the car might hear him (most often these perpetrators are male). Varsha should keep to topics that she is familiar with. There are so many things that Varsha can write about and make sense. I have loved reading her other articles so far. I often find myself saying, "You tell them, Varsha. Way to go girl." What forces compelled her to choose a subject like this, particularly when she obviously has no understanding of high technology and related hardware, is unknown to me. Could it be that she accidentally whiffed the white-out that she probably used when she owned her Remington and wrote this article in an inebriated state that clouded her otherwise good judgment? I don't carry a cell phone but there have been numerous occasions on which I wish I had one handy. If nothing else, during emergency situations, access to a cell phone can literally mean the difference between life and death! As I was about to click on the "send" button, it occurred to me that this article might be written in jest. If that is so, then please ignore this email. I thought about writing to you first to inquire about this but then I figured that you have failed to reply to my request for Varsha's contact information (as in email address etc) and I would only be wasting my time waiting to get a response from you guys.
Date:
Thu, 4 Mar 1999 20:13:01 +0100
This one's from one of the few males that don't hate you. Well said, Varsha. I've been a vocal proponent of free speech, in a slightly different arena... the IRC. (Even if you're not interested, I'm gonna say it. Yeah, I know free speech doesn't mean you HAVE to listen to me.) I've been a frequent visitor to EFNET (an Indian channel, lots of Indians in America chat there) where you had only to mention the word "propriety", they'd tell you exactly where you could shove it, with such illustrative language you'd have no illusions. And tell you alternate locations to boot, effectively covering your family, siblings, and other inhabitants of your family tree. I then proceeded, on a suggestion of a friend, to visit this place called Talkcity. Loads of Indians there too, but they live IN India. Turned out this place was like the haven of the mentality you talked about. No "offensive" talk. You couldn't be rude, even if a person asked you "a/s/l" so many times you wanted to show him the good ole middle finger (unfortunately there's been no agreement on a common emoticon for this, though a good number of representations have been made). It's so "decent" if you say the word " saala " in a channel, you're kicked out. The funny part is, any word is only banned on mass request. Words like hymen and masturbation are not banned. Words like saala are. It's no wonder who requested that. Why do we consider Indian language slang offensive? It's not in our "culture"??? Grow up sometime! I still go there. I don't know why, but I do. And I still get kicked out because they would have banned some other word I used. Hmph. I know its not truck-driver language you talked about. But that's just my two paisa's worth. My guess is, we're all just PC coz we're afraid of confrontation. And you eulogise my idea of confrontation, Varsha, keep it up! Deepak Shenoy
Date:
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 09:30:07 -0800
Hi Varsha, I have only read 3-4 of your articles but I felt I should tell you this. Do not hurt yourself and others by scolding. Harsh words have never done anything good. Observe and understand. Be a witness and take responsibility of the mess in the world, even if you think it is not your doing. Try not to contribute to the suffering in the world. Respectfully, Joydeep Mitra
Date:
Thu, 4 Mar 1999 11:43:38 -0500
Continue the good work, Varsha. Sometimes when I read your articles, it just seems that my own ideas have been put into words. And don't worry about hate mails. Ashish Kumar Passi
Date:
Thu, 4 Mar 1999 12:21:36 EST
You had me jump at least 4 times after I read your "good news". Thankfully, the next line helped glue my bottom to the seat again to read the entire column. Have been reading your columns for a while (if six months can be counted as 'a while'); the mind -- and sometimes the heart -- swears you have that 'maniacal' trait that I can identify with. So, on with the bashing of the tacit 'mores' and undefined rules... and, please, no more of the "good news"!!! Rajesh
Date:
Thu, 4 Mar 1999 13:19:06 -0500
No, not really. May be some people really *do* feel uneasy when they watch a smooching scene between SRK and Kajol, if you/we cast away some (y)our cynicism. Personally, I don't think I am hypocritical about that, I admit I 'd rather be in SRK's place at that moment. ;-)
Prashanth
Date:
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 13:36:07 -0500
Yeah, you show 'em who's the boss, Varsha...!
Arjun Inamdar
Date:
Thu, 4 Mar 1999 16:24:31 -0500 (EST)
I am not sure what Ms Bhosle is complaining about. That she is not allowed to use "improper" words? If journalism is only about reporting events, occurrences and expressions with the most "expressive" words, then everybody could be a journalist. A journalist can be effective even without using Americanism. P G Wodehouse is the most sold author in Madras -- I am happy. You probably want the "excitement" and the "realism" of Sydney Sheldon. But I am not sure of that would fit the definition of the word "novel". As for the comments on journalists in Britain getting the kind of liberties they get, may be you should go to Britain. If journalists all over the world do the same kind of language, then there will be nothing to look up to. Without change there is no life -- if using unparliamentary words in journalism is the only change that you can think of, then it is a pity. Talk about Brahminical fogies in this day and age. In any day and age it will be nice to have our children read newspapers and journals of information rather than those of relentless gabble and gobble which will "teach" them only words that they could pick up from street gossip. Indians are unhappy with their journalists because all they do is complain. Can the journalists and reporters not highlight the positive aspects of India and its culture? Can we not be proud of our culture? Bhratiya sabyata is better than no sabyata. Sudarsan V
Date:
Fri, 05 Mar 1999 13:10:02 -0500
Here is one desi who snickered! Ven Hari
Date:
Fri, 05 Mar 1999 14:00:08 EST
Totally juvenile neologisms (mosies, madrus, pinkos, macs etc), cusswords (louts, dweebs, twerps), great leaps in logic to arrive at strange conclusions (my readers are pathetic because they don't love my style of writing!!!), alternately bashing up fellow columnists (Rajeev Srinivasan, Dilip...) and readers who dare to disagree (Minorities & Secularists), all of which is well marinated in caustic bilge. That's the stuff your columns are made of! Why even bother to change this rabble-rousing recipe which has become your trademark? Why interfere with a formula that works?(eh Editor :-)?)
Date:
Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:10:38 -0800 (PST)
Dear Sir/Madam, Wonderful! Keep it up! Even though I did not agree with your pro-Hinduvata views, you certainly are a breath of fresh air in the field of Indian journalism where most of the hypocritical Brahmin fogies with Phd in stenography and experience in photocopy have only one ambition -- become a PR man for the Marawari boss-proprietor of the paper. Srini Balan
Date:
Fri, 5 Mar 1999 15:45:52 -0800 (PST)
Varsha Bhosle wrote: "But this is Budget time. Economics. Which branch of science, your adorable columnist knows less than zero about. (Which is not to say that she flees from economists; indeed, she encourages males of that species to urgently contact her to, er... help expand her horizons.)" She also wrote: "enough for me. For try as I may, I can't reconcile myself to protectionist ideals. Which is a one-line opinion -- and didn't solve my problem of how to do a 1,500-words during a Budget week..." Glad to help you out. What indeed is swadeshi? Who benefits from it? The common people are deprived of the world's best goods while the industrialists make a lot of money. For example, the manual of Bajaj scooter says that you must tilt it before you start it if nothing else works! This is the quality of goods that is peddled. If you and I MUST buy only goods produced by Bajajs and Godrejs, do they promise that they will not buy anything not made in India? So who benefits really? It is none other than the neta-babu-lala nexus. The lalas make money. The netas get the bribe and the babus make the policies which in reality should have been made by the netas but since they are illiterate, they leave it to our babus. Will the Indian industrialists suffer if foreign companies come in? Of course they will. Not only do they deserve to shut down, it is also good for our country. Remember the mediocre soft drink run by some Happy Singh or someone by that name? He had to sell his company after Pepsi came in. Look what Pepsi has done. It has provided jobs to 40,000 people, helped farmers in Punjab increase their yield of potatoes by 100,000 tonnes in one year and made them happy by paying them for the potatoes they supply. When anybody says that Indian industries will suffer and therefore foreign companies should not be let in, they are throwing in their lot with a few 1,000 industrialists at the cost of crores of people. My own belief is that Indian industry will not suffer. Only the current set of mediocre industries will suffer which is good for the country. New talent, which competes in an honest environment brought about by a free market will bloom. The only way to keep control in the hands of the politicians and bureaucrats is to continue the repressive system called socialism which creates a scarcity of jobs so that power is concentrated with the people who run (actually ruin) the system and those industrialists who pay a fat bribe to them. Arvind
Date:
Sat, 6 Mar 1999 10:04:01 -0500
Dear Ms Bhosle, I can imagine when, about 20,000 years ago, seized by a strange impulse the first civilised caveman first started cleaning out the dirt and bones from his cave, a cave woman told him, "&%#$!! All the others have such filthy caves, how can you alone choose something better? You're so hypocritical! &*%$#@!!" Ms Bhosle, do keep writing, but no negative stuff, please.
Sadhana Gupta
Date:
Sat, 6 Mar 1999 10:50:44 -0800 (PST)
I am pretty sure that this is not going to be published publicly, the reason being, I am going to use the same language which Varsha is recommending me to use. These new Varsha types "REAL WOMEN", just think that using words like BALLS, BALLS, BALLS and talking all the time about bans and restriction and sex and against religion in society can only relieve the mankind from its misfortunes and raise its intellectual levels. Be it in the opposition to Hinduism, in whatever form, be it the support of having sacred names deliberately given to characters in movie like Fire or opposition of whatever the BJP government does at the Centre. We are not free, we are living in a society with other human beings, and so we have to respect certain norms which the society has formed over a thousand years. Blindly challenging the futility of the rules in the society is just being OVERSMART. Mind it, it is not going to change the society. I still feel shame seeing the ads of tampons on screen. Varsha must have been feeling elated and proud seeing these ads with family |
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