Aur bhi ghum hain zamane may...

I was pleasantly surprised to see my article on front page within two days of submission. Going by the initial response it received, I was glad it made some readers smile…until it was shred to smithereens. I failed to comprehend what the fuss was about!
A dignified silence is demanded in times of adverse and uncalled for vilification but one has to draw a line somewhere and say enough is enough. As if a whole incriminating censure was not enough, there was an I-log entry on the issue followed by another. It was not only vengeance but also settling scores by firing over someone else’s shoulder in a virtual world.

The instances I have mentioned are not the figments of my imagination. I did not seek to make sweeping generalizations nor was I making a politically incorrect statement. These things do happen; men do indulge so just as some women corner men. Worst things have been written about women and silently accepted.
I am sure the men are capable of defending themselves. So why has this lady become their spokesperson and taken cudgels on their behalf? Is she their knight in shining armor? Or is it that every opportunity is a good opportunity to attract attention to one’s self??

It’s amazing that people not only have the time to read each interact but also cut/paste them and post a comment on them. Multitaskers thankfully have neither the time nor the inclination. They have more serious issues to deal with and pressing matters to attend to in the real world.

The lady claims to know where I come from. She is highly misled.
Though I do not belong to the ‘upper crust’ I do know where she hails from!
I do not live in an ivory tower or in a glass house. I neither suffer from a fragile ego nor nurse any insecurity.
I have no fear of being displaced or toppled from a pedestal.
My visits to Chowk are transient. The appreciation of its other visitors sits lightly on my shoulders; my being does not depend on it. It is enough for me that my light articles bring a smile on someone’s face.
I seek no permanent place here. On the same note I have no grand illusions about what I write - I am not seeking a Pulitzer here, for heaven’s sake!

The colour green does not sit gracefully on the countenance of a woman of caliber and substance.
My dear friend from Chowk did not defend me on my behest. He did it of his own volition. I came to know about the article being published after about 20 or so responses. I did send my own post but surprisingly lost it. I discovered it too late. My article had been sabotaged by then. Anyway Beejay had done such a good job in my absence that I preferred to remain silent. There was nothing more I could say. I couldn’t have bettered her, anyway.


I have always maintained that if I can accept the bouquets I have the grace to accept brickbats too. But what she indulged in was neither criticism nor a critique. It was vendetta with a CAPITAL V.
Wordsmiths of her competence should know that some expressions are metaphoric as pointed out by Beejay. One needn’t carry a stopwatch or a metric tape. The salesperson may not have experienced an erection exactly, but he did derive some pleasure or else why would he pull a lady customer’s shalwar up an inch or two?
I do not enter a 2x2 cubicle for giving my measurements nor buy undergarments from a hosiery or napkins from a pharmacy but there are scores of women who do and undergo the experiences I have mentioned. There is nothing to get uptight about them. Such indulgences or pervertedness whichever term one prefers, should be taken with a pinch of salt and loads of humour should they be written about.
There are worse things happening to women, which seek our attention and energy. Imrana is a case in point. Instead of conducting a postmortem as to what a writer did or did not think of while writing an article or whether she did or did not expect/anticipate the kind of response her write up garnered, one should give a thought to more serious and grave matters like the plight of the hapless Imrana. The clerics out there are making a mockery of the religion by punishing a victim and subjecting her to a bizarre and absurd decree and letting go the perpetrator of the crime.
The might of the pen can be superior to that of the sword’s; hence those who have the ability to bring awareness and perhaps justice too, should do so with their talent than censure an article for not being light or funny as also those who find it light and funny.

Aur bhi ghum hain zamane may…