It was Day 2 of the most amazing
college festival that I had ever attended and after standing in queue for over
an hour, we managed to get passes to the Euphoria concert that evening. The day
had been good with some amazing competitions and shows and the built up to the
concert had been brilliant with Papon and the East India company entertaining
the 6800+ crowd at IIT Bombay. The concert had been highly anticipated and Euphoria
did not disappoint! The energy they brought to the whole place was simply
amazing! And with that ended yet another day at Asia’s largest college
festival…
It wasn't until the next evening
that I logged on to Twitter and saw Palash Sen trending. On further
investigation, I learnt that some of his comments during the concert last
evening had “hurt” one of my female colleagues who went on to write a blog about
it which has been now blown into a full-fledged controversy. WHAT? Really? It
was such an amazing concert! On reading the blog I felt disappointed that it
was written by a fellow student at India’s most prestigious institute. If the
world calls us the most intelligent kids in the country, shouldn't we be more
tolerant and appreciative of humor? And sadly, Palash Sen was quoted
completely out of context in the blog and later during the “outrage” on social
media. Disappointing is how I would describe this whole episode and here is my
humble attempt at justifying some good humor that happened at IIT Bombay.
So my fellow student says that
Palash Sen asked the students in attendance if there are good looking women in
IIT. Standing in probably the 3rd or 4th row from the
stage, I saw that as a genuine question (if you may call it) to the crowd. His
words went “IIT ki khubsoorat ladkiyon”
which tells me that he probably wanted to dedicate the next song to all the
girls in IIT or something. And since in our culture, we are taught to treat our
women with respect, he added a prefix “khubsoorat”.
I mean, how would just “IIT ki ladkiyon”
sound? He is, after all, an entertainer and cannot afford to be boring on
stage. Yeah the majority of the crowd did say a loud NO in unison with a shake
of the hand but hey, that is what we feel. If you go back and check the gender
ratio in IIT Bombay you will be surprised by how skewed it is. In a democracy,
we are free to express what we feel aren't we? Like writing blogs and stuff? So
we did answer that question and unfortunately the answer was NO from almost all IIT
Bombay male students and no, it wasn't preplanned! Now I’m sure Palash Sen
would not have expected the answer he got from the crowd as there were, after
all many pretty ladies on the campus during the festival. The innocent question
sadly, has been misunderstood as an attempt to humiliate women and make them
feel small. Sad!
No ma’am we do not believe that
the world is made to “please us, our sensibilities and our sexual fantasies”.
But yes we all want people around us to be good looking don’t we? I do not know
a single girl who would not mention “good looking” as the 1st or at
max the 2nd criterion as a must for the guy of her dreams. So please
take it as it was, just a genuine response to an innocent question and not an
attempt to malign women in any way. And yes we were talking about physical
beauty alone at that juncture and not the inner beauty that we ALL possess.
The next objection raised was
about the “rotiyaan belna” comment
made by Palash Sen. Dear ma’am, since you confessed that you did miss out on
the order of things that happened, I consider it my duty to remind you the complete statement
there. He said “ladkiyaan tumhare liye
rotiyaan belengi aur tum unke pair dabaoge” in almost the same breadth. And
till the time of writing this article I did not hear any guy complaining about
the “pair dabana” comment. Yes I
totally agree that girls are not made to cook food for us and I am all for
gender equality in the kitchen. But hey, are we made to dabaofy pair of women? Or is it that girls find rotiyaan belna demeaning and guys find pair dabaana rewarding? I leave that
question for all to answer themselves but as for me, I do not find any of it
demeaning or rewarding.
“You have to agree that men are
more intelligent than women” you quote these words of his which, I must agree
sound sexist. Well similarly our Gods killing our demons sound unfair or a
judge sentencing a man to death sounds murderous. Why? Because they are all
quoted out of context! If you take the whole episode into consideration, you
will realize that he was referring to the skewed gender ratio in IIT Bombay
which shows that more men have made it to IIT than women which may give an
impression that men are more intelligent. And that is what he was referring to!
But you choose to mislead readers by quoting something completely out of
context.
“God is also a man” you say? In
that case I should stop praying to all the devi’s
we consider supreme. Poor Maa Laxmi
has been spreading wealth around and poor Maa
Saraswati has been spreading knowledge and Maa Kali destroying the evil. All in waste! Tch tch...
I completely agree that women are
meant for larger things, to pursue their goals and not to look beautiful for
the sake of someone else. Sadly, I now learn that they are not meant to enjoy
some good humor in a festival meant for entertainment. And that is purely
disappointing. Don’t remember when was the last time a guy felt “offended” by a
joke cracked on him. Oh and before you ask, there are many floating around
through messages and whatsapp. Should I, as a Marwari feel offended on all the kanjoos Marwari jokes doing the rounds? Think of those poor sardars who have been a subject of
humor for ages now. If we all get so busy feeling offended and our media gets
so busy covering all the offended people, what will happen of our country? Poor
Kapil Sharma will be out of job in no time. Oh and I don’t even want to imagine
what will happen of Russel Peters. Think of a society without sense of humor!
Dr. Palash Sen then went on to
say that ladkiyaan padhaai karo aur
IIT mein admission lo, to which, mind you, the whole crowd
cheered and clapped (including guys)! I find it amazing how the advice has been
taken as “unsolicited” while all the jokes have created such a “mental mob” and "violence" for you.
Double standards you would call it? In my opinion, the advice is totally
justified and I have the gender ratio data in IIT Bombay to back my comment.
Yes dear lady, people are “respectful
and lovable beyond beauty or brains” but can we keep that aside and just enjoy
a concert while being appreciative towards a guy genuinely trying to entertain? We
can leave that discussion to a debate on the famous topic “Do beauty pageants
objectify women?” This was neither the time nor the place to get so serious.
Some other details of the concert
that have been conveniently forgotten are that Palash Sen did compliment one of
the IIT B female students as the most beautiful member present in the crowd through
a hindi proverb. He also said that “if boys were dumb, then why would there be
a majority of boys at IIT?” Makes sense doesn't it? He also said that “women
are the most beautiful creation of God” and at this time, I do believe it was
the “inner beauty” he was talking about.
Towards the end of the concert I
saw someone saying something into Palash Sen’s ears and he immediately coming
on stage and stating an apology if he offended anyone with his comments. I now
understand that it was either Euphoria manager or Mood Indigo organizer and
this was done when our lady expressed her disappointment. Yes Palash Sen did
apologize to the same crowd he supposedly offended on the same stage at the
same time. Still, our lady demands a public apology? I somehow find this
difficult to fathom.
Palash Sen says that he has been
cracking this or a similar joke at every educational institute over the last 10
years. Why is it that it has offended our women only now? And by virtue of
being most intelligent kids in the country (I don’t believe that, it’s just
what people say), shouldn't we be able to appreciate humor better too?
To sum it up, I find this issue
unnecessarily blown out of proportion and feel disappointed that a
thoroughly entertaining concert has been overshadowed by this senseless
controversy. I hope this ends right here in a good spirit and we as a country
learn to be more tolerant and appreciative of good humor. Thank You Dr. Palash
Sen and Euphoria for entertaining us, your energy right thorough the concert
was commendable. And a genuine apology from me for the uncalled for controversy
that followed.
