Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sex - The new “in” thing?

Yeeeep… the new cool thing amongst everyone. I remember when we were back in school. There were whispered conversations about the “S” word, especially after we covered our first chapter in Science, Life Processes. And we would keep looking back in the fear that someone might hear us.
Now? Well, as they say, in the olden times, if you have it, hide it. The new mantra says, if you have it flaunt it. They were talking about money until now. Not any more.. now it’s about whether you “dunnit”.
Everyone of us knows that at some or the other point, we have all been victims of peer pressure, now, It needn’t necessarily be about something as life altering as drugs or taking to alcohol in a big way, but something as insignificant as clothes, or simply how much money you can spend when you go to the movies with your pals. All I can say is, THAT kind of peer pressure I could deal with. I acted smart. I just made friends with rich people who didn’t care two hoots about spending money, be it paying for an entry in a discotheque or going for a movie.. hehe..

So it started with “Mere paas yeh wali video game hai.. tere paas hai kya?”, then “Let’s go to PVR for the movie, not that Anand! Chee! It’s such a dump!” followed by “Let’s go to Shoppers Stop for shopping man!”.

And now.. “So… done it or not yet?” and the look in their eyes can only tell you that you are expected to say yes if you are as cool as they think you are. If you do not, they go all wide-eyed and stare at you as if you were the most lowly form of life on the face of this planet. It happened to with me quite a few times and I tell you, it’s just plain weird. Then I start to think, have we all actually come THAT far? Have we become so “mod” as to be so casual about what us Hindustanis think is a sin “before marriage”? Is it ok to be casual? Is it ok if you are above a certain age, after which you are smart enough to know what you are getting into, pardon the pun. Do we blow the whole concept out of proportion, giving it more importance than it deserves? What?

Today, I watched Dev D. Parent: Please, for heaven’s sake, do not let your kids tag along. Friends: Do not watch the movie with your parents. You’ll cringe, and so will they.
The movie is quite explicit in that it has nothing whatsoever to do with emotions called eternal love, loss, sadness, repentance as was portrayed in the original movie, but purely lust, obsession, lies, jealousy. There are scenes that are not quite so graphic as they are suggestive and obvious, and well, the lingo? You know. My point: The concept of sex, the act itself is so in your face and depicted so casually that it is perceived by everyone in that manner “What’s the big deal!”.
Just like Archies comic says “You don’t need drugs to be cool”, well, there’s no need to think that you need to “do it” to be cool either, and anyone who does think so, is the real loser.