Winter Rant

I am not going to be the most popular person around because of this post. I, nonetheless, invite constructive feedback and discussions that are rooted in facts and responsible behavior. But, if after reading this post you feel a deep hatred towards me or it makes you want to spit on me; please move on, ignore me and do not let me ruin the peace in your life.

So the Indian Rupee (INR) is in free fall these last few days. Today, about 68 Rupees make a US Dollar. Less than a month ago that figure was around 60. And about a year ago it was 50. It is a matter of great concern after all. A nation of more than a billion people is showing signs of poor economic health.

Like with any grave and imminent disaster there have been numerous debates, discussions and comments floating around the web with many counterpoints, retorts and backlashes. But the one backlash that struck me most was the mass addle-minded response to one Indian novelist’s tweet that equated the current plight of the INR to that of a rape victim. Now to be fair, every Indian nowadays is slightly touchy on the subject of rape, given that the country has been made starkly aware of two incidents of brutal gang-rape, in two of its major cities: Mumbai and Delhi and both taking place within the last nine months.Everyone is naturally upset and angry. So, perhaps the usage of the word “rape” was poorly timed. But to create such a big ruckus about it that it resulted in the deletion of the tweet is slightly mind-boggling to me.

It so happens that an older meaning of the word “rape” is to “to seize and take away by force.” To that end, the usage is not entirely wrong; the Rupee is tanking after all and if that is your objection then you need a reality check. Then there is this idea in English literature called personification, where you give inanimate objects qualities of human beings. My point being that in terms of reality, language style and grammar the tweet was not all wrong.

So all that really irritated a lot people was the use of the word “rape”? I saw one response which read in part:

“Joke about the rupee, never about rape […]”

Mind you, such comments are coming from a people that declared a certain Bollywood movie a box office success despite the repeated use of a rape-based joke in different contexts and settings. It seemed pretty hilarious coming from a movie that everyone, kids and adults alike, enjoyed; so much so, that it became one of the most popular dialogues from that movie, and the movie by the way had a lot of good things about it in general! How can we be so selective in our causes?

Here is a question to those who feel agitated by the aforementioned remarks: What happened to the fundamental right of speech? For a country that is tolerant enough to accommodate every major religion in the world today, more than 2,000 ethnic groups and about 1,652 languages and dialects, we sure get nit-picky and touchy about certain things that people say. Here is one advice if you do not like the words coming out of someone/thing: move on and be peaceful.

If anything this tweet should have roiled us Indians into a movement, demanding an explanation from our leaders about the current plight of the Rupee and why they did not prevent it. That is exactly what we did in the recent past; and not just against rape but against things like murder and corruption; and while we may not have solved those problems, i am glad that many of us (if not all) cared enough to swing into a movement against them. I am not suggesting that the two, i.e. rape and the falling of the Rupee, are the same. And i am in no form advocating the use of the word “rape” in each and every inane context. However, i am saying that the consequences of a weakening economy for India could have an impact that is so gut wrenching, on about 17% of this world’s population, that it might start to look just as horrifying.