Bra & the Social Cause

I like the women who fancied revealing colors of their bra as their Facebook status. They were “doing it for a social cause” you see ! These days one hardly finds someone with any slight bother to spare for the social betterment. Yes, we all expressed our confusion at the start over this color phenomena, posted desperate questions and on learning the entire episode, should I say, enjoyed fantasizing about it all ? Like some cheap imagined-porno-graphic-novel thrill ! Lovely, the women did it for a cause. We’re all indebted. Breast Cancer is in real need of awareness you see !

Unsure if this is an expression of self-imbibed over-sensitivity or my inability to “catch-up with the modernizing, forward thinking world” or perhaps my hypocritical “narrow-mindedness”. I haven’t been able to reconcile that yet but what I DO know with a great degree of certitude is that it irritates me. This shallow, unfinished, condescending un-understood understanding of us, The modern, educated, informed urban generation. The ease with which we find ourselves inspired by snobbery . The innocence behind one own fooling. The penchant for making fashion of every issue and another fashion of associating with it in rather unconventional ways. We’re such a creative lot ? Aren’t we ? Not to forget – Concerned and Conscious.

“…you see there are too many things around us and in this maze of information the only way to draw attention to something is by being weird, wild and bold… this way we could help the cause…” Someone said to me. Rightly so ! Poonam Pandey (or whatever the name of the recent national stripper is) was a genuine, concerned supporter of Indian team. Immensely patriotic. So much so that she was even ready to bare it all “ to get our boys going”. How unselfish of her ! Poor girl was ready to compromise with her personal sanctity for the good of the nation !

In such an honest and fashionably patriotic world, I don’t even know why men like Anna Hazare live with a foolish hope. Hope that the benefactors of his struggle will even bother. Hope that Satyagraha could even save us from the gloom. He should instead spend time on finding the right PR team, a backend support staff complete with strippers, fashion consultants (to design his wardrobe), brand ambassadors, some media darlings ( May I suggest Rakhi Sawant / Rahul Mahajan here, Mr.Hazare ? ). They could do a better job of this “campaign against corruption”. We need change and radical thoughts to grab attention you see !

I can’t contain this bitterness of sarcasm and social satire in me anymore. Folks, My apologies !

But don’t you think this is something worthy of our attention? A cause whose time has come? A man, 72 years of age and deserving of a retired life watching sunrise over the mountains from his rocking chair, has chosen to fast unto death. To speak up. To be disobedient. To be stubborn. All this to achieve something that would make OUR lives better. What was the need for him to take on this at this stage of life. He might be gone by the time any change is auctioned. This is for US. For our sake ! and we choose to remain mere spectators – albeit sympathetic and compassionate !

Just one update on facebook, replace your “non-veg joke forwards” with one for this man, substitute 100 minutes of chat with girlfriend-to-bes with 1 minute of message to 100 people. We all can not head to Dilli. Nor can we fast ( I can’t !) but can we atleast take the pain of expressing our solidarity ? To speak up and not be muted, to rise and not be crushed. To let the poor old man know that we are there. Behind him ?

Let us display our strength, our frustration at being fooled constantly - by the politicians, beauraucrats, corrupt businesses and the media-on-steroids. We are listening but when we decide to speak – it will be a roar !

It wouldn’t take you longer than peeking into your shirts, throwing some light , decoding the color and typing it up on facebook status update box – I am sure of it. Trust me on this one !

My friends, I know we all want this. We can be the ambassadors of change. If only we decide to even whisper.

I have spoken and doing whatever I can. With this writing. Its time I speak of “Us”

PS : I meant no disrespect !

Those in Bangalore – Please phone +91 9880244380 / +91 9845026693 to know how you can speak up. Also do visit Freedom Park (till the 10th April)