Rhythm Chanana should be a delirious girl today. Who Rhythm? Well, if you are asking me that question, then you are not clued into topics of ‘modern times’, driven by the cloud of social media that determines lives based on perceptions these days. This girl decided that since sarees were not getting enough visibility on Instagram, she would go commando! Well, not exactly, but if you were to witness what she wore for some of her trips in the New Delhi Metro, you might need no imagination to decipher her vital stats. As per social media behaviour, Rhythm found her five seconds of fame with bits of cloth barely covering her in a public conveyance where other fully clad women lowered their eyes lest they meet the scandalised peepers of male passengers. Honestly, if women’s liberation was being doubted in the democracy of India, the Chanana girl was breaking free, quite literally exercising her democratic choice! I am cent per cent sure her parents would applaud their daughter for becoming the talk of the town by this bold antic and not good grades! Kudos!
Was this deliberate skin show in a public area unwarranted? How are we even asking these questions in this age when ‘feminism’ is channelled at breaking the shackles of male patriarchy, misogyny and societal malaises right? This means, how dare the person who took the video clip (without showing her face, mind you) without her permission! This means, isn’t it fair that she gets into the metro almost nude where mothers are travelling with their children, adults are going to work, teenagers to college and all that! Why should champions of choice consider the distinction between private and public spaces? Or, for that matter, clothes (or the lack of them) for the bedroom and socially acceptable behaviour! Rather, the men must be defamed and demonised if they look at her. By the way, would such women complain if the men don’t even do that out of sheer disgust? We could probably ask Uorfi Javed (the possible inspiration for girls like Chanana), who thrives on shock publicity. Wonder what her source of bread would be if one day, the Indian paparazzi (and IG pages that thrive on brainless content) shift their gaze on a fresh, talentless, barely clad wannabe!
I am provoked to call these people bullies like Ellie in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. They are depressed people battling insecurity due to dysfunctional families or the wrong kind of influences. But instead of taking the proper guidance, they want the world to accept their rules as norms. Just like how the Javed lady declares her dress experiments as fashion! Or how her braindead followers cheer her on for smashing the patriarchy prevalent in the Muslim samaj or upholding the empowerment flag! By doing what? Upcycling plastic garbage bags, electric wires, bottles and probably kitchen waste into distorted separates that barely cover her assets when she flaunts them at the airport. Honestly, sometimes I feel like asking whether the frequent trips are to a mental health practitioner where she possibly will learn lessons on how to grab cheap attention in the garb of therapy!
Considering that Indians have given undue weightage to Bollywood for so long, I am sure the pain is real to see their stars losing steam. What is the next best option? Some social media influencers practically are peddling the narrative of “perception is reality’ and training young, impressionable minds on ‘how to achieve fame by appearing famous’. The Kim Kardashian way, if you, please! So, I wouldn’t blame youngsters like Chanana if they are being tutored to get the wrong inspirations and life hacks from influencers like Javed or Komal Pandey. Or maybe Ira Khan, actor Aamir Khan’s daughter, walked into the opening gala of Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in a see-through skirt that exposed her innerwear vividly. With star kids dressing the way they do for social functions and getting oohed and aahed for it, the simple girls in Metros would be motivated to take a cue in making headlines the easy way! Decency, manners, and decorum be damned.
Bollywood still is the biggest hook for many in tier two cities from where parents send their children to pursue higher studies in Metros. So, if media (print as well as virtual) are on an overdrive to show that the opening of NMACC was everything about the Hindi film industry, let’s not blame the brainwashed to not sift through or scratch the surface (how many of you know about the shashtriya sangeet and cultural programmes held there on those days?). Yes, Hrithik Roshan set new standards of chivalry carrying the sandals of his girlfriend at the party, but no man is allowed to hop into the metro in his undies like Chanana did. Men are not supposed to cringe or react even if women roam in their birth suits on the road, but the onus remains on the man to be well-attired because they better not be perpetrators of sexual assault to the senses in a free, fair and equal world.
Role reversals of gender in such cases are not cool!
People are sharing videos of a couple kissing passionately in the metro, too, quoting how unacceptable this public display of affection is. Now let’s get real. We take our seven, eight-year-olds to the movie hall to watch commercial cinema churned out by the Hindi Tinseltown; we do not criticise them when they are glued to the iPad watching some nonsensical YouTube rush; we are okay with them in the room as you catch adult Hollywood cinema or The Fame Game on Netflix (where, aping western narratives, homosexuality is glorified, adultery is normalised and PDA is hip) then why expect children to act responsibly when they are outside. Just be grateful that Indians haven’t started going to the office in their innerwear (remember the London incident?) or nurse strength in your heart to cope with it if that becomes a reality here, too, one day! Ab kya kahein, woh din bhi duur nahin lagta hain!
Sharmi Adhikary is a senior lifestyle journalist and columnist with a yen for exploring interesting concepts in fashion, culture and cinema.
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
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