| Thursday, November 20, 2008 |
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the carter road promenade at night is a virtual beehive of lovebirds snuggling, canoodling and a little bit more. it's an unwritten rule there - everyone minds their own business. i've seen cops driving around watchfully but never seen them shoo anyone away, in fact the only time i've seen cops in action was last year when i and t had just started going out, and were sitting there chatting till really late at night, and they showed up to shoo us away.
it was sometime in 1999, we were sitting in the ambience library working on the planet m pitch late at night. mahesh, who was reading the papers, suddenly looked at me and said 'we take so many things for granted'. i knew he would elaborate on his own, so i didn't say anything until he did. 'we have cars to drive our girlfriends around in, homes to take them back to, money if we want to make out in a dark movie theater'.
he was reading an article on lovebirds being a 'bad influence' at marine drive and bandra bandstand, and thus being shooed away by cops. 'where do these guys go, man? most of bombay lives in a 120 sq. ft. shit hole with their parents and brothers and brothers' wives and kids and sisters. where's the space for newly weds to make out? how and where do they find the space to kiss before leaving for work? when do they hold hands without everyone looking? how the hell do they make love? they're so close, itching for some intimacy, but how, when, where? and these fucking cops won't let them be, because apparently some fucking minister's wife, who goes back home to her 3BHK in Bandra in a maruti baleno, thinks they're an eyesore'.
I nodded. it all made sense. everything he said always made sense.
'lets do a public service campaign telling people to let them be. proactive karte hain, release karne ka try karenge'. i nodded again.
it never happened, of course. mahesh and rajiv quit a couple of weeks later to join o&m and asked me to come with them, and though i really wanted to, i quit advertising to join the fatman.
9 years later and couples still canoodle in public places all over bombay. nothing has changed. the odd newspiece still shows up claiming it all to be indecent and some fucking activist who doesn't get any regularly calls for decency in public etc. guess he's never watched a parliament session in progress.
but wherever else the cops may show to hustle these space starved couples around, they've still left carter road alone. guess they somehow heard mahesh's argument.
that's what's great about a big idea. it never dies. |
posted by n.g. at 22:40
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Name: n. g.
Home: Bombay, India
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this fire is burning and its outta control its not a problem you can stop its rock and roll.
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