Authors can't afford to be a Hypocrite

                                 DO AS I SAY AND NOT AS I DO

The false profession of desirable or publicly approved qualities, beliefs, or feelings, esp. A pretense of having virtues, moral principles, or religious beliefs that one does not really possess.~Dictionery

In Literature such protagonists are not uncommon who are hypocrites and are abhorred by readers. Sometimes such characters are successful in worldly sense, but the author does not like to establish supremacy of vices and shows how such characters burn in the fire of hell created by their own psyche.

That is why an author cannot afford to be a hypocrite himself. If he is good, he is good, if he is bad he is bad. There is no pretension, a desire to be respected for the virtues he does not possess. Many a times the personal life of authors are controversial, even to the extent that they are considered as a threat to the society. 

Authors usually do not follow the systems built by society and they have to constantly experiment with system and values of an Individual and the Society. They become a spectator and this neutral approach is the only source of their comprehension.

Author is a proletarian and has a matter-of-fact approach to solve the riddles of life. But his readers are aristocracy whose Hippocratic  life style  is exposed and criticized and in the heart they discard such books but admire openly in clubs and bars. 

Russians have a history of condemning hypocrisy. Putin has been alleged to have "Double Standard" when he attacked the Ukraine government for attacks action against pro-Russian separatist in eastern Ukraine while he has recently signed a   law criminalizing any act of separatist.

What would be 'height of hypocrisy' or who would be a 'hypocrite of the first order' could be a matter  of perspective or cultural thing, but some countries are definitely known for  hypocrisy which is part of their Diplomacy. The secret hegemonic ambition of a country or an individual are sometime so powerful that other nations (Canada, EU) which lack self-confidence find it secure to blindly follow them, shamelessly. Whether it is stand of Russia in Crimean case  or issue of Israel in Palestine the nations have no shame for double standard since it is accepted norm of behavior from politicians all over the world.

It is so surprising to see that even Religious leadership is also behaving duplicately, which is just opposite to the task entrusted by society on them. Whether it is a Hindu Brahmin who serves as a priest or a Muslim priest or a Christian Priest, they have crossed the limits of immorality while preaching morality to the public.

Some of them have been tried in the courts for rape, molestation, cheating, child abuse and even murder, but still the majority of the population of every religion has faith in their priest. If there is God, in all probability there is, He does not need a mediation of any kind to talk to us or solve our problem.

Andrew M. Greeley was an Irish-American Priest, and he wrote many fiction and nonfiction and never used contraception for his ideas. His deadly sin series and novels like The priestly sins were severely criticized for explicitly exposing religious catholic institutions.

In the end Greely says "I am a priest..Pure and simple.." And that is what every author has to be if he wants to create literature of the first order.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Author is also Advocate at Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur

Public Display of Affection

                                    "Shmoop!".... *kissing!!*

                                     

Public Displays of Affection, can be seen in the form of kissing, touching, groping, licking, nuzzling, cuddling, crossing hands into each other's opposite back pocket, etc. Usually spotted among new couples, frisky teenagers, and occasionally the "young at heart" (god help us). ~Dictionary

Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2014 in Nigeria is anti-democratic law, and Section 377 of Indian Penal Code is a draconian law which criminalizes any activity which is against the "order of the nature", or the definition of obscenity and obscene acts in the  Section 292/293/294  of the Indian penal Code is intentionally kept vague and obscure to twist the law and give unlimited power to Police to harasses who are obstruction to the means of capitalist, bureaucrats and politicians.

Honorable Supreme Court of India in the case of Samaresh Bose v. Amal Mitra has differentiated vulgarity from obscenity.

 i) A vulgar writing is not necessarily obscene. Vulgarity arouses a feeling of disgust and revulsion and also boredom, but does not have the effect of depriving, debasing and corrupting the morals of any reader of the novel. Whereas obscenity has the tendency to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences.

Now we can overlook the legal aspect since If the police want to book  they have numerous provision of the Law, that they can use. Why they would go for cumbersome law when sedition law, and Cr.P.C. 107 has already given them unlimited power to detain anybody just on the ground of apprehension and its undefined threat to tranquillity. Courts are not made to define the law, they interpret the law made by legislation. The Act or Code itself should contain the definition of all ambiguous terms like unnatural act or obscenity. The democracy has lost it objectivity and is just another form of autocracy.

What kind of public display of affection is intolerable for society? Do the people react in the same way when an old couple is kissing on a bench in a park when reminiscences of golden days surges? The society does not find it harmful.We can shun it by saying a cultural thing, but if we believe in universal applicability of 'Law of nature', and accept human psyche as synonymous to "nature", we would be able to differentiate that all types of cultures are on the same racing track, and the one lagging behind is ready to gallop and surprise the audience.

The various acts of public display of affection are holding hands, embracing, kissing (hands, cheeks, lips, earlobes) or smooching, caressing, cuddling, fondling, hugging, petting, snuggling, necking-what is the exact stage when Police would shout 'STOP'- this act of yours is illegal.

Police Department runs shortage of staff, constables are chasing young couples in the bushes, theft, kidnap, rape and all other crimes remain uninvestigated, radicals and fundamentalist are getting stronger, and middle class is the only sector of the society obsessed with values and is happy with the moral policing their children are facing. So the youth, have become rebellious and enjoys doing what irritates the older generation.

Literature has reflected the sentiments of society.  "Seven Minutes" by Irving Wallace, "Eleven Minutes" by Paulo Coelho, "Bad Girl" by Mario Vargas Llosa, "Thy neighbor's wife" by Gay Talese are some of the examples when the issue of expression of sexuality has been taken up seriously but a universally acceptable code of conduct is still a distant dream.

There are exhibits' and voyeurs living symbiotically, chauvinistic males  who display affection to establish their possession, feminist females who want to win race and take initiative, people fighting with their own insecurities as if public display would seal the relationship, some are tempted by libido and some are fun-seekers, there could be numerous other types involved in the PDA.

What do I suggest?

I suggest stealing an apple and find out yourself if it is sweeter.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Author is also Advocate at Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur

Age of Wisdom in English Literature

                                    Waiting for Age of Wisdom

George Ritzer the sociologist, first time used the word McDonaldization exhibiting the Fast Food characteristics adopted by society. The four primary components identified by him have also moved in the Global Literature. The Harry Potter and 50 Shades of Grey are the McDonald of Literature.

McDonaldization is nothing but another kind of rationalization emphasizing change in traditions and cultural values. The shifting of values is not in the positive direction. Even though the nature is doing its best to teach the predicament of advancement, man is not yet ready to learn any cheap lesson. The question is who would pay the price of costly lessons? Obviously The Poorest class of the mankind would suffer the disasters created by nature, and the rich would get another chance of proving their generosity.

An eBook can be published much quicker than McDonald delivers Pizza at your doorstep. So far as writing a book is concerned, it is just like McDonald doesn't grow the potatoes to make McFries similarly authors, hunt for ideas and plot of the story in published or unpublished literature of other authors. If authors could only learn to grow their own potatoes, they would never be labeled as McDonaldised.

How many copies Sold? Is the first question when you talk about a book. The Sell has become synonymous with quality, while once it was believed that quality always suffers in the hands of quantity. Why otherwise Carlyle should say 'There are nine fools in the world for one wise man..."One should write what people want to read or one should write what he wants to write and should not bother if his work is accepted or rejected by society. Is there any responsibility to refine the taste of people on the creative artist?

Predictability is a great asset for any product to win the heart of the customer. A book having clichés like Love, Girl Friend, Boy Friend, Heart, Friendship, Break Up along with an enchanting book cover of boy and girl, holding hands, crying, the monogram of a broken heart or walking in different direction have become the success formulas  in literature. Also, you have to encash the wave of theme or genre, if live-in relationship is in thing write about it and if semi-erotica is breaking the record of Sale, you must also try your hand on that. Many Indian Publisher would conform to the view that books are sold by name of the title and attractive cover design.

                                                                               pixabay

If we look further back at the post industrial revolution and the emergence of romanticism we realize that despite the advancement of science and technology man has remained spontaneous, irrational, imaginative and emotional. In the entire cosmos there is a cycle of the Age of Barbarianism,  Age of  materialism, Age of individualism, Age of industrialization, Age of enlightenment, Age of Romanticism, Age of rationalization and Age of Wisdom. We are only few centuries far from Age of Wisdom.

Literature is now mostly being read for entertainment. A novel is like a peanut you want to munch while travelling or waiting in a queue at the dentist. What we need is the De - McDonaldization of Literature. Micro-cosmos within man is harmonious with nature only when he shed off all that is artificial and learns to respect what is Original and Natural.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Stealing the Ideas is The Idea

                                  Plagiarism is the worst kind of Theft

Whoever may steal whatever is most precious in the world is not as condemnable as the thief of literature. And there are lots. This is one of the most heinous, shameful and despicable kind of theft invented by the mankind. The original creator remains anonymous and thief who is apt in the management skills climbs the stairs of success. Constant repetition of a lie, and finding that no one has disputed his claim of authority, boost his self confidence, and he trusts the distrust created by himself.

Recent charges of Plagiarism against Chetan Bhagat by Dr. Birbal Jha an academician of Bihar (author of Englishia Boli) has once again raised the controversy which once began with "Snapshots from hell" which was copied into "Five point someone". Contemporary Indian authors have started claiming that they may not be sold as much as him, but at least they are original.

The irony is, just by changing few narrations, dialogues, descriptions and sequence of events the copyright authorities can be manipulated to issue you a copyright certificate of a duplicate or plagiarist work. So plagiarism is different from copyright infringement, since the later is a punishable offense. In modern age where communication is so fast and Global exposure is instant, such plagiarism is brought to light later or sooner, though by that time plagiarist has already enjoyed the fruit of his labor(?).

Unfortunately, such charges are levied against successful people, most of the plagiarist are not exposed till they are successful. Many films are made on the same subject simultaneously, but one is successful and others are flop, that is how if the same story is written by two different authors, one may sale like hot cake and other would stale. Language, thought, idea and expression and their representation in any literary work could also be a coincidence and judiciary may pronounce a clean chit to the offender.

There are of course different kinds of plagiarist depending upon the intention by which offense has been committed. A student while doing a research project or dissertation may omit to mention the source of his citations (University of Illinois at Chicago) or a Journalist may hide the source of his information, multiple publication of his own work by an author are various kinds of theft of artistic creativity.

So extrovertly a reader is the best judge to compare two works and decide if one is a copy of another, and introvertly  the conscience of an author can judge if he has lifted the idea and transformed it into a viable project in his own name. Many authors are the writers who consider it as profession to earn money and fame, while the true purpose of the literature is to create a work that develops a better understanding of human nature and the Universal determination of it. Once we acknowledge this, there would remain a chance when World would be a peaceful place to live without war, killings, poverty and hunger.

Remember what T.S. Eliot said "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. Bad poets deface what they take."

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Read  more at­­­­:  http://vipinbeharigoyal.blogspot.in/

The Adultery in Literature

                                                  The kingdom of God on Earth

Adultery has remained a central theme in many popular and controversial novels of the world literature. The characters like Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Connie Reid (Lady Chatterley's Lover) and Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter) suffered the curse of felony and remain miserable, while male characters when they commit adultery, they enjoy a passionate life without much guilt and society forgives their stray behavior easily.

The chastity of woman has always been considered as  a prized jewel by the society, and the dignity and status of such woman is far superior to the woman who is tempted by passions. The Seventh Commandment forbids adultery, but the Tenth Commandment goes one step ahead and even forbids the desire of it.

Many a time and in many culture women was considered as property and her capability to progenration made her indispensable asset. Why society had a softer attitude towards crime of adultery done by men?. If a gross generalization is done male committed adultery with a prostitute and females with some friend or relative (mostly of her husband). So there is a degree of moral degradation in the crime, as to whom the crime was committed. Princess Diana was known to have several extra-marital affairs, some of them are still secret, and many of them are open secret like with James Hewitt, James Gilbey, Barry Mannakee, Oliver Hoare Bryan Adams and Dodi Fayed who were bodyguard or billionaire she did not care. Despite this fact, she was very popular amongst masses.

Remember how Bill Clinton who first denied having sex with Monica Lewinsky later on confessed an 'inappropriate' relationship with her before the Grand Jury. Moreover the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice were dropped against him. The Americans (including his wife) forgave him, at least publicly.

Now these instances of two advance countries of the World, One of which once ruled the world and other is contemporary ruler (in one way or another), it is clear that society has given a ' clean chit '.

Literature is the reflection of society. Human nature across the boundaries of the nation is same, so when an author writes a book the description may help with the orientation, but the objective to understand the human nature is fulfilled only when and if the author wants you to like a character you like it, and he wants you to dislike, you dislike. So even if the main character is a sinner like Anna of Tolstoy the reader is sentimentally attached to her and feels a loss of dearest friend when she finally threw herself before a train.

Man is polygamous by nature and woman is monogamous or the entire race of Homo Sapiens is polygamous is a debatable issue, but it is sure two persons are sometimes so spontaneously 'hooked up' with each other that it would be a crime to keep them apart. Only goose is truly monogamous in nature. It will never cheat on its spouse, and even when its partner dies, it will not seek a new mate. And who does the moral policing for a goose?

Women are more "like nature' than "like culture' and hence they have 'concreteness' in comparisons to 'abstractness' of their partner. So while describing a woman character, even if she is an adulteress, she may have that modesty, dignity and pride that a chaste woman has.

Neither author nor the reader has a right to condemn a spouse because what they are doing is sinful. Even  the partner of the spouse should not be judgmental and should only exercise his right to decide if he wants to continue the relationship or break it.

Remember, the epitaph on the grave of Tomas, in 'Unbearable lightness of being ' written by his catholic son, reads "He wanted the Kingdom of God on Earth".

So Be It.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Irresponsible literature in the shadow of Mythology

                                Literature and Mythology

Nearly all oblong or circular, and as if traced with the compass, they seem to form one vast archipelago, equal to that charming group lying between Greece and Asia Minor, and which mythology in ancient times adorned with most graceful legends.~Round The Moon by Verne, Jules

Mythology is defined as "the body of myths belonging to a culture. Myths are traditional stories about gods and heroes. They often account for the basic aspects of existence — explaining, for instance, how the Earth was created, why people have to die, or why the year is divided into seasons. Classical mythology — the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans — has had an enormous influence on European and American culture."(The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy).

Literature is "the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing." (Encyclopædia Britannica).

The comparative study of the mythology and literature of various cultures and countries has helped in drawing conclusions about philosophical and psychological changes that came with cultural advancement of civilization. Literature in context with mythology has potential to reach intellectual mind which may prefer or condemn the advancement of civilization over culture. The values of society are reflected in both mythology as well as literature, but mythology is closer to collective consciousness and as Emile Durkheim said "the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society forms a determinate system with a life of its own. It can be termed the collective or creative consciousness."

He has used the word 'belief and sentiments' to appreciate the differences, yet an analogy that exists between an individual and the society, the interaction in them results in creativity. The object of study of Mythology is to support various Psychological theories, that is why it can be said that nothing new can be written in Literature after Ramayana and Mahabharata. The thin line of demarcation between normal and abnormal vanishes when human psyche is understood in the context of mythological stories. That was, in a way, an effort on the part of creator to make human mind free from guilty conscience, which is quite necessary to maintain an equilibrium in the society.

That literature which was once created orally, with the advancement of technology reached to present stage when paperback publishing is called traditional and the day is not far when it would become extinct and eBooks and audio books would take over the market only to save the future human race from hazardous consequences of paper industry. With the expansion of reach due to increased rate of literacy in third  world countries and advance technology author had to act more responsibly for the cultural advancement of the society, which he has conveniently overlooked.

Many authors do hard work and spend  years and decades to do research on a subject before they give final shape to a book. One great Indian scholar and author Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan traveled to many eastern countries like Nepal, Tibet, Russia and China to collect manuscripts written in Pali and Sanskrit and brought them back to India on several yaks to write fiction based on these books. William Dalrymple when writing his book 'City Of Jinns' collected many documents from survivors of British India.

Literature can and must be created out of Mythology but a great caution is required. The book when read after few centuries should not construe a wrong picture in the mind of the reader. Nobody gives that right to an author.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Abusing Human Life~Children's Day Special

               inHuman Rights and Indian Children

What makes them happy?

Once again we are going to celebrate Children's Day with all the privileged children of the society who have access to the education system and did not become a victim of the highest child mortality rate of the world, highest  malnutrition children of the world and highest human traffic trade of the world and are not employed as child labor. Believe me they are lucky.

It's not a coincidence that those under privileged children are not far from the eyes of a common middle class/Upper class Indian who have lost their sensitivity and are happy to console themselves that they are not one of them.

These children are garbage pickers who roam in the streets since dawn and clean half of the garbage by picking up valuables (?) like plastic and  metal pieces from the heap of mixed garbage of leftovers, empty cans and bottles, used tampons, diapers, broken glasses, vegetable peels and stinking toxic wastages. Their unwashed, unclean body and faces smeared with dust and torn, dirty clothes they too appear as part of a heap of garbage from a distance. When their fingers swiftly dissect the garbage and quickly pick up anything valuable, their eyes glitter and the triumph of luck reflects on the face for a moment. Though they know that even if the valuable collected by them are sold at higher price they would not receive any kudos from their father, who would use the money to buy country liquor, and more money means more liquor and more liquor meant more thrashing of wife and children.

The inhumanity reach to its climax when one of these children finds something he wanted to eat since long after watching many advertisements on TV channels, picks up a stale piece of pizza, noodles, cake, ice-cream or chips and eats it under temptation.

Of course, our greatest concern should be for those who failed to see the light of a day, due to willful riddance by parents obsessed with gender discrimination or due to poor medical facilities, unhygienic conditions at the spot of delivery, negligent medical staff in Government hospitals,  adulterated medicines, untrained midwives and lot many more reasons. Who has missed them?, their parents, family, society or nation. A loss of life must be somebody's loss, but I don't know who? If human life is so useless and petty any effort to implement a law to ensure its sustainability is futile.

Many of these children become criminals. As a juvenile criminal they are sent to reform homes, which have become training centers to make them hardened criminals. Day by day  crime rate is increasing and police force remains inadequate in manpower and resources to curb that upward shoot of the graph. The elite would spend any amount to keep criminals away from them. They paid heavy taxes, but political parties used that amount to fulfill their own ulterior motives. The elite had to devise a new plan to gain sympathy of downtrodden who were mint of criminals. So they came out with Philanthropy Plan and made trust, foundation, charity institutions, and NGO which on the one hand saved taxes, laundered their money and on the other hand they gained the sympathy of prospective enemies.

Rich is dubious, but so are the poor. One could see through another. Philanthropist did not earn the respect from society at large. Except from peers, no poor man clapped when they tried to establish themselves as self proclaimed Hero of the society.

Every problem has an inbuilt solution, and sometimes it is so obvious that we overlook it. The time has come when we stop fighting against problem, but shake hands with it. Despite spending millions of dollars we have not solved any problem of the world, on the contrary it has increased in dimension. China could become world power only when it converted its 'Population Problem' into a 'Men Power' asset.

UNICEF and Human Right Watch report says, 12.6 million children are engaged in hazardous occupation, more than 5 Million Nepalese girls are sex workers in brothels of the world out of which 2.5 million are in Indian brothels, there are 3 million child beggars in India and so on and so forth.

Do you think that situation could be worse than this? If you can't beat them join them. What may happen if we legalize all kinds of flesh trades and state should just monitor to eliminate coercion, harassment and exploitation of the trades.

So far as 'Black Money' would be mightier than 'White Money', this would be the only solution.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Contemporary Feminism In Indian English Novels

            Why Indian English authors are not feminist?

   

 This has always been a man's world, and none of the reasons that have been offered in explanation have seemed adequate. ~Simone de Beauvoir.

And man's world it is. Especially if the most powerful feminist woman of the world says so. Is it admittance of a truth, a sarcasm on the society or admittance of failure to prove your point, that "Man and Woman are Equal". Can society conspire to marginalize woman for many centuries, or it is the woman herself who ducks on the surface to inhale fresh breath of air, finds the waves too strong to handle and ducks back into the sanctuary of her deep inner self.

A woman can't understand other woman as a man does. Most of the Feminist English Authors are females, and some prolific Indian female authors writing in English during the latter half of the twentieth century are Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Kamala Das, Anita Desai, and Shashi Deshpande, Jhumpa Lahri, Arundathi Roy, Anita Nair, Shobha De. Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on voting rights, property rights, second-wave feminism brought up issues like sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities and Third Wave feminists have broadened their goals, focusing on ideas like queer theory, abolishing gender role expectations and stereotypes, and defending sex work, pornography, reproductive rights, and sex-positivity.

Each wave had its own share of strong literature written by male and female authors, all through 1968 till today. Not only this we had Radical feminist, Dissident feminist, Socialist feminist and Anti-prostitution feminist all around the globe when Indian English Authors, who were born in British India or Independent India, learned  English from earliest childhood, failed to make a mark in the world literature. Had it not been R. N. Tagore world would have looked upon India as a literary barren land.

Betty Friedan (The Feminine Mystique) The Second Sex (Simone de Beauvoir) A Room of One's Own (Virginia Woolf) The Color Purple (Alice Walker) are some of the best work written since first wave feminism. It has considered gender in the terms of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, as part of the deconstruction. When gender is part of the essential self and society constructs a tab to give you an identity on the basis of that, the denial of the tag would be denial of self.

Lisa Tuttle has defined feminist theory as asking "new questions of old texts." This could be endless. Buddha once said "Unfathomly deep, deep like a fish's course in the water is the character of women." An enlightened man Buddha was. But Sigmund Freud was a psychoanalyst, why would he say " The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is 'What does a woman want?'

Exasperated male are not undefeatable. Indian Authors created enough social drama and portrayed heroic women as sufferers, rebels, vengeful, tactful and ready to sacrifice but have never bothered to peel those layers of the psyche which makes her so.

In the third wave feminism the focus has shifted to queer theory and non white woman by Rebbeca Walker. Despite the tall talks of a woman having reached the zenith of equality and any further efforts would only undermine the whole issues and the movement would lose its support are a camouflage of patriarchal society to suppress the undercurrent which had really hit the balls hard.

A talk of feminism would instigate an Indian mind to talk about Vedic era and mythological depictions of the female form as the Goddess, because it is easier to put them on an alter and fake-worship than to understand the language of symbols and gestures and treat them equally.

The Indian women has come out of identity crisis and her metamorphosed form is ready to treat herself at par with her western counterparts, would it not be a high time when Indian authors both male and female portray the dilemma, progression and future of feminism in India. 

The western concept of Androgyny was an effort to subside exaggerated and polarizes form of masculinity and femininity and strikes a balance by a combination of the best qualities of the genders, had a parity with the Hindu concept of Ardhnarishwar. Why somebody should think that nurturance, compassion, tenderness, cooperativeness, meekness and gentleness are feminine qualities while aggressiveness, leadership, initiative, competitiveness, boldness, daring and adventurousness are the masculine qualities. Qualities allocated to one gender when and if found in other gender it would make him/her inferior. So a masculine female was as condemnable as a feminine male.

Being feminist is a mental status acquired by the unconditioned mind with an effort initially till shackles of patriarchal social conditioning are broken and a woman-centered perspective of celebrating womanhood evolved for all and everyone irrespective of their gender. Thus, like a religion, it too, is a way of life.

Third Wave deemed universalism of  hardcore feminist would try to differentiate non-white from white and queer from normal is unwonted because that may mitigate what has already been gained and accepted and has transcended in the collective psyche of the society.

An author if has a patriarchal mind set can never portray a strong feminine character, unless he has trained his mind to rise above gender bias, it would definitely reflect in  female characters of his book. Indian society is not only deep rooted patriarchal, but also a hypocrite and has to go a long way.

The authors could have paved the path, but unfortunately they too are weak feminist.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Renaissance of Indian youth By Kiss Of Love

Kiss of Love-Keep It Simple Stupid

Whether kissing in public is a legal offense or not, Whether moral policing is good or bad for the society is not the issue. Whether the police and authorities should harass, lath charge, disperse the people who are peacefully demonstrating their opinion is an issue.

                                               (let's go somewhere else, its prohibited here)

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Right Commission said " The Indian authorities are clearly missing the bitter irony that a law used by the British to imprison Gandhi is being used against those who disagree with the government".

Moreover, those who opposed the demonstration were violent and had a support from authorities. In all probability either they will not be arrested or they will be released without any harassment. Are we on the same track as Taliban? How they would be different from us if we too are fanatics about imposing a self made Moral Code for the society.

Friedrich Nietzsche also approved the Law of Manu, which is only authentic code of conduct for Hindus and it has no where condemned Public Kissing. Law of the land enforced by highest judicial authority, Supreme Court Of India  also made it clear that 'no case can be made out' of two people consensually hugging and/or kissing. The verdict was passed  by the Supreme Court when unscrupulous authorities tried to arrest Richard Gere for kissing and embracing Shilpa Shetty on the stage in an awareness program.

The Moral Policing has its origin in the history of India which remained slave of Mughals and British for almost one thousand years. Both of these races were permissive and considered beautiful Indian girls as their properties. A lot of stories of Mughal Harems and British concubines are written on the black pages of Indian History. Chastity of a woman has always remained an issue in all the religions of the world, may be because paternity is still a belief unless someone go for a DNA test.

We have to appreciate Indian Judiciary, which has always worked with an open mind and acknowledged the change of values with time. They passed judgments in favour of homosexuality, live-together, property rights of women and of 'other woman' who is not married legally but is kept or concubine of a man.

But unfortunately the same 'Justice, Equity and Good Conscience' do not prevail in law enforcing agencies.

The NHRC has formed a "District Police Complaints Authority" to examine the grievances of the public in the matter of rude and uncivil behavior towards the public, abuse of authority, misuse of power, wrongful arrests and detentions, custodial violence etc."

The scene at Kozhikode and Jhandewala estate  reminds us the barbarian troops of British regime implementing sedition law on freedom fighters. All Free Thinkers are freedom fighter and already society of youth, which comprises the maximum population of India, and on whom our respectable PM has put lot of trust has come forward to curb the fundamentalist from imposing a Moral Policing.

India is a multi cultural country, and in Mumbai, which is also a fort of Shiv Sena the public kissing is not a big issue. In the evening at Juhu and Band Stand one may be surprised that he/she is in India. The same is true for Golden Beach, Chennai and lot more places. In Goa on Kalingut beach not only foreigners but Indians have been seen taking a nude bath right under the banner by the Government stating "Nude bath is illegal and prohibited."

Kolkata rightfully demanded 'Amar shorir amar mon bondho hok raj sashon' (It's my body, my mind, I won't allow moral policing).

Come on, there are other issues, India is having the highest number of children suffering from malnutrition.

An innocent kiss of Love may not harm society but a clandestine racket like Kochu Sundarikal involving minor girls is abhorred. 

Kiss is a simple, innocent ethical act of expressing love.

So "Keep* It* Simple* Stupid*"

© Vipin Behari Goyal

How to determine your Literary Quotient

What is your Literary Quotient?

While I.Q. ie. intelligent quotient is measure of cognitive abilities estimated by ability to answer intelligent question and E.Q. emotional quotient is ability to use both your emotions and cognitive skills and is estimated by the ability of a person to deal with tricky situation, L.Q. or Literary Quotient is your level of understanding Literature which determines your cognitive skills, emotional maturity and ability to handle tricky situation intelligently.

The formula remains the same:

 Now refer to my earlier post of Break your Glass-Ceiling. I have described various level of understanding of literature.

These are as follows:

Here are books or authors at each level:

1.Comics—

2.Enid Blyton- Famous five series

3.Alice in wonderland, Alibaba, Arabian Tales, Sindbad, Marco Polo, Panchtantra, Little Prince, Gulliver’s Travels etc.

                                       1.  GLASS-CEILING

4.Romance books and love story--Mills and Boon (Mostly Girls)

5.Sci-fi fiction, Horror for boys, though it could be vice versa or both.

                                         2. GLASS-CEILING

6. Matured romantic books—Gone with the wind, Thorn bird, Sidney Sheldon,

7. Suspense and crime thrillers—James Hadley Chase, Robert Ludlum, John Grisham, Mario Puzo

                                          3. GLASS-CEILING

8. Books based on facts- Ken Follett, Irving Wallace, Wilbur Smith, Arthur Halley, James Clavell

9. Banned books —Lady Chatterley’s lover, Lolita, Nancy Friday, Anonymous

                                     4. GLASS-CEILING

10.Fiction with philosophy—Ayn Rand, Paulo Coelho, David Brown, Khaled Hosseini, Murakami, Aldus Huxley, George, Orwell. Saul Bellow

11. Autobiographies—Benjamin Franklin,  Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi,

                                        5. GLASS-CEILING

           
12.  Classical Books—Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare,   Jane Austin, Pearl Buck, Earnest Hemmingway, Somersaught Maugham, Bertrand Russel

13. Text books of Philosophy, Psychology, and History to understand literature.   

                                       6. GLASS-CEILING

14. Philosophical or Psychological Fiction—Robert M. Pirsig, Jostein Gaarder, Mark Haddon, J.M.Coetzee, Gabriel Garcia Marquezss,

15. Self-improvement Books-- Malcolm Gladwell, Robin Sharma, Rhonda Byrne

                                     7. GLASS-CEILING

16. Philosophical Fiction- Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, Kafka, Hermann Hess,

 17. Supernatural and spiritual literature- Harold Kushner, Dalai Lama, Swami Rama, Swami Yogananda, Richard Bach, Elizabeth Gilbert, Mitch Albom.

The list of authors is not exhaustive but you will understand what level of books we are talking about. Now follow these steps:

1. Honestly decide your Glass-Ceiling Level. If you have any confusion, you may take help of your parents, spouse or a friend.

2. Multiply  that Glass ceiling Level with Ten(10). That would determine your Literary Age.

3. Now fill the formula for L.Q. with your Chronological Age and Literary Age and multiply with hundred (100).

4. Match your results with following table.

Marks	Literary Status
Above 200	Literary Guru
150-200	Literary Expert
120-150	Literary Worm
100-120	Literary Brilliant
80-100	Literary Curious
Below 80	Literary Dull

4. You have determined your Literary Quotient.

Example:

Suppose your Chronological Age is 40 and you have read books up to Glass Ceiling stage 5 multiply this with 10=50 divide by your chronological age which is suppose 40, then 50 divided by 40 multiplied with hundred is equal to 125. So your L.Q. is 125 and you can classify yourself as Literary Worm.

© Vipin Behari Goyal