0.15 Moral code and passion

April 11, 2011 (Monday) : Moral code and passion

Passion for cricket knew no boundaries. Poonam Pandey, a 20 year model of some standing had made pledge on her twitter account few days ago that she will go “All Nude” and strip in the dressing room of Team India or in front of the whole stadium if the Indian Cricket Team won ICC World Cup 2011 and if BCCI permits her to do so. Whether she did what she promised (as India had won ICC World Cup) is not known but she landed a role in daily TV soap opera. Indeed, it was a very smart thing to do if she could get the role without stripping herself.

Indian Premier League (IPL) comprising of ten teams had started three days ago but was largely overshadowed by agitation against corruption. Now the confrontation on Lok-Pal (Ombudsman) bill having been put off for the time being, The IPL is expected to pick up in days ahead. IPL is a costly venture comprising of more than 200 international players from almost all cricketing nations. It is comprised of 74 matches and 51 days of 20 - 20 overs cricket. Each of the ten teams is owned by big business entities of the likes of multi-billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallaya and film personalities of the likes of Shahrukh Khan, Preeti Zinta and Shilpa Shetty. It is indeed very costly affair running in hundreds of million dollars. Better business sense makes it imperative that attention is returned to where it should be i.e. money i.e. cricket.

Indian Premier League (IPL), however, outlined the regional imbalances prevailing in India. Only one of the teams is anchored in eastern cities. All others are distributed in other parts of the country where globalization had made visible economic changes. No wonder cricket follows trail of growth and so called modernization of Indian economy. This, however, does not matter so long it offers the spectators worth for their time. Cities not having their teams find their favorites teams as there can be any number of connecting themes that will bind them to one or other team. Since IPL is directly related to big money and glamour, spicy controversies and gossips are also in the making.

Previous IPL had its fair share of spicy stories and controversies. One of the controversies was about the cheerleaders – a new dimension on Indian sports arena introduced by IPL. Organizers had pushed ahead with the cheerleaders despite moralist brigades who had denounced the brazen display of vulgar provocation. To a common crowd though, they appeared to be just very athletic, charming and joyful. Some even suggested that moralists should rather denounce the brazen behavior of leering crowd instead. Some of the franchisee enforced change in the dressing code of cheerleaders, some replaced them with ethnic dresses and some had even gone ahead for desi (local) cheering by folk artists.

The perception of moral codes about sex is not very clear in India. TV channels freely hobnobbed with hot, sexy item girls doing Bollywood songs. The songs like “Munni badnam hui (Munni has been defamed)” or “Sheila Ki Jawani (Youth of Sheila)” were very explicit and provocative with artists paid in millions for lip-singing background voices. A few years ago, on the other hand, thousands of young girls known as bar girls doing the Bollywood numbers were forced to shut down in Mumbai on moral grounds. Many of these girls are now forced to sell their souls. Some of these girls have fled to other cities and even to very conservative environment of rustic north India. It is also perplexing to see that while artists are earning millions for the same deed for which thousands are deprived of their livelihood. The subject was debated a great deal and the accepted consensus was that an act in flesh was not same as an act on screen. For this reason, no political party dared to touch the issue and take up the task of rehabilitating bar girls in some acceptable role in the society.