A reality check...

I've discovered quite a few things about my family and friends and myself following during the events following actress Kushboo's statements to a tamil magazine (newspaper) about the use of condoms as a means of preventing AIDS... They can be startlingly conservative and simply cannot stand the illusion of the perfectly conservative society being broken. They also believe that the keeping of that illusion is for the benefit of children of my age. I was left wondering if I was perhaps “evil” (not a proper decent Indian girl at any rate) for believing that it was perfectly alright for Kushboo to say those things. In fact I think it was beneficial to the people to have her say them, because, all said and done, I would prefer an India which was having safe sex and was AIDS-free rather than an India which has one of the highest percentage of AIDS victims but protests ignorance of existence of premarital sex and condoms.
I suppose the primary issue was her condoning premarital sex or rather openly acknowledging its existence. The whole thing is ridiculous- we all know it exists! Why on earth should she not say what’s on her mind? She did it with good intentions and not to malign TAMIL society… She didn’t even single out Tamil women so I can’t understand why we should take offence.
Even assuming her statements were meant to offend (which they weren’t), she should’ve been left alone because she has the right to say whatever she chooses. There was no call for banning her films, protesting against her and filing cases against her. Suhasini had a right to come to her defense but she has no right to declare herself representative of the Tamil community and apologize on their behalf. They have as much a right to voice their displeasure at Kushboo’s remarks as she has to make them. The whole thing has been blown out of proportion and every Tamilian party, the actors’ forum and celebrities have been unnecessarily dragged into it. It’s about time it stopped and it’s about time people learnt to accept reality or at least stop condemning those that aren’t afraid to accept it…