Click to play videoNew Delhi: Young India is far more different from what is was even ten years ago. There has been a change in mindsets, in thought process and beliefs. CNN-IBN’s Amrita Tripathi discusses this new face of changing India on the show Glamour Bazaar.
To discuss the issue on the panel were, Shobhaa De, eminent writer, ad guru, chairman of the London school of corporate training, Alyque Padamsee, film critic Bhawana Somaaya and writer and journalist Sonia Faleiro. Features editor at ibnlive.com Jhoomur Bose also participated in the discussion along with the students who raised their doubts and expressed their opinions.
Amrita asks Shobhaa about her recent book. Why are you talking about India at 60?
Shobhaa says, “I sometimes feel that I started writing the book in my mothers womb which was just before we got our independence. So it seems, I have been writing the book for 60 years”.
She adds that the change that she has seen has been so radical, so dramatic, and compacted into 10 short years. “Till then we were a fairly sleepy nation. But, then the fact that we have gone to be seen from a pauper nation to a superpower is the biggest change for me. The fact that democracy has survived is another huge achievement. More than 50 per cent of India is under 30 and I have enormous faith in the people of India,” adds Shobhaa.
We see a change in values and priorities. We look at the media. In entertainment and news, page three has become mainstream. The cheerleaders debate for example.
Discussing the fact Alyque Padamsee said that young India is a young country and that is the good news, but the bad news is that we are ruled over by people who are 60. “Take for example, cheerleaders, what is wrong with them? It is ridiculous how politicians say that young boys shouldn’t see girls in mini skirts. It is about time that the government of India takes a look at the population statistics and began to examine what young India is all about,” he says.
Who is driving page 3 and page 6 abroad? Do you think there is space for everything?
Sonia says that the most distinct thing is that the people who enjoy reading page 3 the most are the people who are on it and the one's who pay to be on it. “As a journalist, I feel that the writings on page 3 are mostly reflective of people who are on it. Sometimes you look at page 3 and say you can’t believe that it is in a national newspaper,” says Sonia.
“Have your page 3 but apply your introspection and judgment as you would have it in page 1,” adds Sonia.
However, Shobhaa says that page 3 has been institutionalized and the very people who condemn it are the ones who are not on it. Even the newspapers that condemn it have fallen for the page 3 bait because it comes with a sort of value add. “Everyone wants to read page 3, chases it, wants to be on it, no matter how poorly it is written because it gives you a certain social status and especially among the youngsters,” adds Shobhaa.
Things have changed in the last few years.
Bhawna says that in late 70's when she became a journalist, they were looked down upon and the mainstream wanted to have nothing to do page 3 journalists. “In the 80's all the newspapers had a very frivolous column on cinema because it was a break from the regular serious stories. Once in a while when the hard stories were getting on too much, they had a film star on the cover. Today in 2000, the celebrities and movie stars have bombarded and invaded the page 1, 2 9 and 10 that I don’t think we need the film glossies anymore,” adds Bhavna.
“I have a problem with the demeaning of the fact that one wants to be on the glamour page of the magazine. If we have the money, what are we supposed to do with that money? Not wear bright clothes and not be seen. Why are we buying flashy cars? Is it to put them in our garages? Why are we feeling so bad about every other person being on this page? Why are we discrediting the fact that perhaps there could be people on page 3, who deserve to be there,” asks Jhoomur.
Bhawna also says that today if you are charismatic, you are in the news. Agreeing with Alyque, she says that everybody wants to be rich and famous and actually the middle class has become invisible because nobody wants to be middle class.
Alyque says, that no one is against page 3. “It is light and entertaining, but I agree that it is dreadfully written,” says he.
Amrita asks Shobhaa about her book where she has written about a shift from ‘ma’ generation to ‘me’ generation.
Shobhaa explains and says that it is a very affectionate change. “I see it also as a shift in attitudes. They are more self-driven and more self motivated because the world itself has changed and it is very fierce and competitive. If they don’t look out for themselves, who is going to look out for them? The mother or ‘ma’ has also changed. If she is to be found in the disco or a pub, then where do the kids go? They have no roadmap and they turn to themselves and they are doing a splendid job,” explains Shobhaa.
Bhawna argues that our country apes our idols on screen and Amitabh Bachchan was a hero who idealised his mother and for the last 8 years he has not being playing the hero. “So slowly the importance of mother has diminished on the Hindi screen because King Khan has never been obsessed with his mother. These things affect the socio-political changes that we go through,” explains Bhawna.
Alyque talks about the change that has come in slowly. “Earlier you were too happy to earn money and do a good government job and nobody knew you. But now they want to be known. The reason why the reality shows and Indian idols have become so popular is because people want those 15 minutes of fame,” argues Alyque.
However, Sonia feels that the new generation wants to put in those 15 minutes of work to get those 15 minutes of fame. That is what the reality shows are about. “Hard work was the key three generations ago and it is the key now and will be the key in the next,” says she.
But Alyque feels that one can pay today to be on page 3.
Shobhaa agrees with Alyque. “I would say it is a different India but the kids of this generation have to work less than their parents did. We grew up in a different India and we pushed ourselves. Today India is far more prosperous. Children are getting 10 times or 20 times than what we earned in our time. But the value of money has itself changed. For kids these days, 10,000 is nothing, for us it was a big salary,” explains Shobhaa.
Someone from the audience talks about the change and nuclear families that have made the new generation more independent. However, Shobhaa feels that being in a family means sacrificing and many youngsters do not believe in sacrifice.
Alyque explains the shift from ‘ma’ to ‘me’. And says, “It means that ‘I’ have become the center of my life. If I can help people, I will but I will still remain the center of my life. It is not the obedience to my mother or family or tradition anymore,” says Alyque.
Someone in the audience says that 'individualism has perhaps become the motto of our generation'.
Has the change in priorities and values led to a change in mindsets?
Amrita asks Shobhaa if she has seen a change towards her writings and in the attitude of people towards her writings?
Shobhaa says, “Oh definitely. At the time when I wrote my first few novels, which were boringly described as steamy, it had nothing to do with the sexual content of my work, but more to do with the fact that I was a woman writing about sex and that has changed. Today's India is far more accepting. Today people read my work without that pre-judgement that is coming from a woman,” says she.
Taking the discussion to Jhoomur, who writes blogs not only sex but also talks about emancipation of eve and other such issues in her blogs, Amrita asks, “What kind of response do you get?”
Jhoomur says, “I agree with Shobhaa that perhaps there is no hullabaloo about a woman writing about sex. But primarily I don’t think that things have changed that much. As long as you are anonymous and you are writing about sex, it is okay, but when you step out and say this is who I am, and I am going to write about sex, there are not only eyebrows but a whole lot of other things raised to that,” says Jhoomur.
Alyque says, “I like what Dr Prakash Kothari said the other day. He is a sex expert and he said that India, Indian philosophy and Indian medicine is the only one, which says sex health is as important as body health. He says that it is the only country in the world that says that and yet our politicians seem to feel the opposite. When I launched the Kamasutra condom in1991, it created huge uproar and questions were asked in the Parliament. However, our simple reply was that if condoms are not about sex, what are they about? Are they about blowing balloons? Nevertheless, I agree that our attitude about sex is an issue with those old people who probably can’t do it anymore.”
Amrita asks Shobhaa, “You must have had conversations with your children that for instance your mother would not have had with you”.
Shobhaa says that there is far more openness and she celebrate that. “We have created those bridges so we know what they think. When i was a teenager, I don’t think my mother about my ideas. It is rare that I don’t know where my kids are or who their friends are,” says Shobhaa.
However, Alyque says that 99 per cent of parents would never discuss sex with their children because they are too embarrassed because their parents did not discuss it with them. “In fact husbands and wives don’t discuss sex. Forget about children,” he says.
Shobhaa says that education is extremely crucial. Sex goes with responsibility and that has to be the fundamental underlying message.
Jhoomur shares her experiences about people commenting on her blogs. She says that initially lot of people wrote anonymously and they were mostly men making lewd comments.
“There have been people writing and telling me like this woman who is 22-year-old who says she is abused and beaten by her boss in the MNC. There are umpteen number of books, movies, and yet the young girls are following a rule book of falling for someone or following the road to destruction. Aren’t we talking enough and why is it happening. I also doubt whether women are being encouraged to write about sex because people want to hear them or is it because it sells books,” asks Jhoomur
Shobhaa says,"I would not say that they are encouraged. I would say that people are more accepting because in the old days, everybody wanted to read about sex except that they did not necessarily want to sanction the right to a woman to write about her body or sexual experiences”.
She adds that men were never questioned about the content of their books or asked to explain but there was a thrill in people to know whether the book written by a woman had to do more with her own sexual experiences. “I feel that the gender divide is blurred to an extent and people are less judgemental when they are reading a book. They read it with more openness than what they did 20-years ago. However, Indian taboos about sex are something that is going to take another century to obliterate out,” adds Shobhaa.
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