The college from where I graduated in engineering was on the bank of river Ganges. I joined the college about three months late due to my own reasons. Meanwhile the menace of ragging period was almost over. Still I had to face few sessions of mass-ragging. Few people from the senior batches would take us to the bridge over the Ganges River, and will force us to pronounce abusive words loudly. Before this time I had studied in a closely guarded public school and I never had any experience of saying any abusive words even privately. Anyway I was forced to say many such words and I had to say it to avoid being beaten up by my seniors. Even though I said all those words under such a pressure, I clearly had guilt inside me, that I should not learn these words as a practice. My friends, who were habitual of using such words, knew that I won’t use such words and they regarded me as different person. I also noticed that although many of the students were using such language amongst their own groups, all of them were courteous and careful enough for not using such words in front of teachers or parents.
Today, in the name of changing times and progressive society we see the occurrence of public programs that openly use such abusive and foul language, being attended by well known celebrities. I also saw a talk show on a leading TV channel, where a leading female anchor was in a way endorsing such events, in the name of trend of the youth and freedom of expression for them. In the name of freedom of speech, people start bashing the very basic nature of social fabric. Humor that uses the names of human private parts, may be okay for extremely closed local group of similar age, but when it is publicly done and endorsed by a larger group, it definitely indicates that something somewhere is getting on an unusual track. It does need attention of society. If we are able to give right kind of values to our children or are able to maintain sufficient communication between generations, things will continue on the right track. The concern heightens when such kind of acts doesn’t even incite the guilt that our generations had. It further heightens when either real people are used as joke props or some people even start daring to use religious icons to directly and consciously hurt sentiments of other people. This may be to gain quick popularity. Interestingly, today one can even get money by getting larger youtube hit count, as you will find advertisements of various leading brands on such videos. Some of them also start calling such things as creative freedom.
I do not know if these people will also classify the act of people like ‘Jack the ripper’, the serial killer, in the category of creativity. I strongly and actively condemn the acts of public use of abusive language. More than the use of abuse, I am worried much more about the disappearance of guilt. The whole social fabric is based on mutual respect. Disappearance of guilt can break this thread forever. I am myself a torch bearer for freedom of speech movement, but speech definitely means a purpose. Today we have great social networking tools. It is up to us that we use them for our benefit or for destroying the purpose out of our life. I don’t believe in locks and banns. What I believe in is, telling the new entrants to this society, that why few things were made the way they are. We definitely need to tell a child, that why we can’t roam around without clothes. The basic questions will come from the new generations. It is the people from our generation who need to learn the answers correctly and handle things with the right kind of logic and right kind of communication. After all the wits of forthcoming generations are getting better and better every day. An open and trained mind is definitely better than just an open mind.
Dr. Sunil Ji Garg
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