Blogasode - 1
*Concider the monologue is by Anupam Kher, read it in his
voice*
In its early days, twitter and facebook were just among
other desi social websites like desimartini, ibibo, funmaza etc. , basically
another website to add the known and flirt with the unknown. Youth met and
mingled on these to pass their time, but one very day...
*Curtain opens*
*sounds of a group shouting “Jai Shree Ram! Jai Shree Ram!”*
*lights on*
*A group of women come center stage laughing & enjoying .
Suddenly, a group of men come running from the opposite direction and start
bashing them. Then every woman coming gets a royal treatment of pulling beastly from
hair, throwing them swivelling on the ground and kicking boots in stomach
mercilessly etc. while they cry and ask repeatedly why are they getting beaten?
And trying to escape, whilst a reporters recording it all.*
*lights off, noise fades down slowly, leaving a single, loud
scream of a woman crying for mercy, gets louder and vanishes.*
*silence*
*curtains closes*
2009 Mangalore, Sri Ram Sena beats up women in a pub calling
them the termites of Indian culture who are spoiling the society and the
upcoming generation.
There was anger in the youth, but
discussing it with parents was useless because according to them going to pub
and consuming liquor is a bad thing. And, even though they condemn the incident
from their heart, they will never advocate for the bashed up kids as it will
give an impression to their own children that they are okay with them going to
pub, which they don’t want.
Youth discussed it. The discussion
travelled from a distressed minds to canteens, to group discussions and finally
to facebook. As the news spread, the anger grew exponentially, but it was aimless, till Namita Malhotra channelised it by creating a facebook page called “Consortium
of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women”. The aim was to tell the cheap politicians
that they can’t use the youth to bring laurels to their dirty politics. The youth is united
& connected and will strike back to teach you a lesson. People joined the campaign on facebook in huge
numbers. A scattered youth on the internet finally got united for the cause.
*curtain opens*
*a party’s office, a hall, people talking to each other and
an elderly man sitting on the table discussing something with some people in
suit*
*a party member comes in with a box*
“Sir, courier.”
*On the nod of the elderly man, party member keeps it on the
table and leaves as he was busy in the discussion*
“Chai!” he commands.
*In few minutes, a kid of about 10 year old, in old dirty
loose shirt and nicker, brings chai. Takes out the glass of chai from an old
& bent steel glass holder and keeps it near the courier box which reminded
the elderly person to open the courier box*
*He opens the courier while the kid gives chai to other
people.*
“WHAT IS THIS?!” He shouts.
*With his index finger & thumb and with a disgusting
face expression he carefully picks out a bright pink thong from its string out
of the box, to which the chai wala kid starts laughing loudly and people
sitting on the table join chaiwala*
*Half the people of the room go red in embarrassment and the
other half red in anger, then the suited people and the chaiwala forcefully control
their laughter, chuckling.*
“Sir, courier!” Comes a loud sound from the door
*and the suited people burst into laughter again with the chaiwala, this time uncontrollably*
Over 500 pink panties were delivered to the office of “Shri
Ram Sena” as a protest against the goondaism they displayed at the pub in the
name of moral policing. For the cowardly act of beating women in groups by Shri Ram Sena, this time the symbol was not the "Bangles" as it seemed they are ok with bangles. They needed a much blunt message this time. Hence, the "Pink Chaddi".
The “Pink Chaddi” campaign became very popular and
mainstream media gave it a good coverage resulting in preventive custody of about
140 members of Shri Ram Sena(Including the senior leader Pramod Muthalik), so that they may not create any mayhem in the
city at the Valentine’s day.
Youth
now had the power to think collectively, exchange ideas and act accordingly,
and were good at it. This event was no less Gandhian as it shook the souls of
the target, conveyed the message and obviously with non-violence. Indian Social Media unknowingly took a step towards a
journey that they themselves never knew will judder the heaviest thrones of the
Indian politics so conspicuously.
“Twitter Bhagya Vidhata: Milestones in the evolution of
Indian Social media” is a series of blog-episodes or “Blogasodes” of the most relevant
and popular events happened in the history of Indian Social Media that shaped it into what
a huge power it is today. Events
mentioned are in the vicinity of reality and slightly dramatized keeping the
entertainment of the reader in concideration. The motive of the blog is not to
hurt anyone’s feelings. Criticism and feedback is requested in the comments
section.
Blogasode -1: Pink
chaddi campaign
