Alka Dwivedi

Cool Dudes?

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Alka

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I read this screaming headline. Girls assaulted at Mangalore pub

The activists of Sri Rama Sena entered the Amnesia Bar and Restaurant on Dr Shivaram Karanth Road on Saturday evening and threatened the women sitting inside. The men, who took objection to women drinking alcohol, pushed them outside, many women falling to the ground while they were being driven out.

Well what happened at Mangalore is a condemnable incident and events like this shouldn’t happen in a liberal society. But I am wondering about one thing. What the cool dudes accompanying these hapless girls were doing? Or for a change imagine, that these girls were visiting the bar alone or in a group. But what were the males present in Mangalore bar having higher conscious level than these hooligans were doing? Watching those girls being beaten up and pushed around? Or they were thinking on the similar lines of the goons of Sri Ram Sena, since they were drinking so they deserve such treatment? Come on cool dudes, you must had outnumbered those gundas at the Mangalore bar. So where were your biceps at that time?

What the media was doing apart from filming the Mangalore bar incident? Capturing the Sri Ram Sena’s Ravans’ act was more important than dialing to police? Where was that type of chest beating when Taslima Nasreen was attacked? Do they ever understand that this kind of selective reporting takes away their credibility?

Comments

4 responses to “Cool Dudes?”

  1. Suvro Chatterjee Avatar
    Suvro Chatterjee

    While feeling nothing but disgust for the animals who harassed and abused the women at the Mangalore pub, I see no reason to believe that the men who were drinking/chatting/partying at the pub were much better specimens, the kind of men who step boldly forward to defend women in distress (and why should they, indeed? Aren’t that type sneered at as MCPs these days by smart women – except when they are in physical danger? You can’t have your cake and eat it too!)

    I am a conservative oldie, who finds the whole pub culture in India beneath contempt. It’s not a natural and healthy part of life, as it is in most western countries. Let’s not make it a gender issue. Most people who patronise pubs in India, male and female alike, are doing it secretly and guiltily; most cannot drink happily with friends at home, and most take great care to see to it that daddy/bare bhaiyya/hubby or mummy/wife doesn’t find out. Correct me if I am wrong, somebody. My experience of of the pub/club culture, and the way Indian men and women start behaving the moment some alcohol’s sloshing about in their blood, made me decide long ago to drink only at home, and drink alone unless I have a very special companion, one who can hold one’s drink!

  2. Tanmoy Avatar
    Tanmoy

    I wonder when would civil society in India manage to overpower political will. It is funny because in a democracy we are the creators of politicians. However, we are such puppets isn’t it? If you see carefully you would see every thing that these hooligans, killers do is actually exploiting our weaknesses. This is the sole reason why we don’t manage to stop them.

    Moral policing always existed in every household in India. Young people abuse the policing in a sense of freedom. That is why you see Indians learn about sex through porn, they don’t talk of smoking or drinking infront of their elders, they romance in hiding. This kind of hypocritical culture in older and younger generation perpetrates a passive support to such activities. Though you would find few who amongst the set you or I interact who would openly support such a thing but can we deny many do, even if they don’t accept it? These are the boys-girls who want to lead a life in a certain way but want their spouses to be ideal. I bet there are thousands of such people who don’t fight on the streets but support such actions, are racists, communal. Sadly they are mostly from educated elite groups.

    I sincerely wish people who got affected in the incident come out, try and mobilize mass media and incompetent police to act. It is hard to see them doing that though considering the fact they would be threatened of grave consequences.

    If we want to get rid of these things, we as a society should shrug of our hypocrisy first. Recent times have brought it out in open very badly.

    Even with such incidents we say, a film like “Slumdog Millionaire” is trying to project India in poor light. I don’t think it takes a lot to project such a picture. Just because all developed country has an underbelly does not mean in India we should allow burning of churches, beating of people so “proudly”. The patriots who want to live in perpetual denial should stop talking and act for their own sake – not for God as that would mean some more Churches and Mosques being burnt.

  3. Paradox Avatar
    Paradox

    Welcome back. I guess it was anger which made you write again.

    I would share my perspective regarding the point of the ‘dudes’ not jumping in to bash the attackers. I wonder how many guys in there would be expecting an attack of this sorts. Not only that they were mentally unprepared, I dont think they were in physical preparedness also. Regarding strength in numbers, we expect most goons to carry guns. I guess people found it more acceptable to take physical and verbal abuse rather than a weapon injury.

  4. white magpie Avatar
    white magpie

    But seriously..I wondered about the same thing. Only one of the 4-5 male escorts messed with the hooligans..Bloody eunuchs..

    When you are attacked by a group, one quick action in the earliest minutes is enough to dispel the entire mob…No cojones there..

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