An Open Letter to Richard Gere ...

[Guest guest]

[While in India on April 15 promoting AIDS awareness, Hollywood actor

Richard Gere and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty reenacted a scene

from Gere's recent film " Shall We Dance " (originally played with

actress Jennifer Lopez). In the course of the dance, Gere planted

three kisses on Shetty's cheek.

 

Poonam Chand Bhandari, a local advocate, saw a news video of the event

and filed obscenity charges, claiming Gere's kisses were " an outrage

against Shetty's modesty and an affront to Indian culture. " An arrest

warrant for Gere issued, drawing harsh criticism in the country, with

some lawyers saying it had no legal merit. Shetty claimed the kisses

were no big deal, but she and Gere were burned in effigy anyway.

 

" It was a natural cute and loving impromptu gesture by Gere which was

blown out of proportion due to improper projection by the

gossip-hungry television media, " said Shetty's PR man, Dale Bhagawar.

" It is really surprising that three pecks on Shilpa Shetty's cheeks

can cause such an uproar especially in the land of Kamasutra. "

 

Last week, the following editorial (read to the end; the first two

paragraphs set up a twist) appeared in the Hindustan Times:]

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO RICHARD GERE

 

Dear Mr Gere,

 

On behalf of the Indian people I regret to inform you that your offer

to apologise for violating the modesty of an Indian lady is rejected!

 

We, the people of India, do not accept such acts of lewdness and open

display of affection in public. What you did was morally wrong and

socially unacceptable in India and has hurt the feelings of every Indian.

 

Let me demonstrate to you the enormity of your error. Even Vatsayana,

in his epic Kamasutra, has not dared to depict any kissing scenes. He

explains and depicts various positions for sexual intercourse but none

for kissing. Likewise, our temples all over and Khajuraho in

particular depict explicit sexual scenes but none of male and female

forms are ever shown kissing each other. This kind of intimacy is

simply not acceptable. That is why you will never see men and women

kiss each other in India.

 

We are proud that we do not engage in visible exhibition of our

affection. We have other ways of showing our caring love and affection

and respect for women. Mostly, we show our respect for women by raping

them. At times it is done in groups of several men which is our way of

paying tribute to the strength of the female form that it requires

enormous effort by men to subdue.

 

We also love and respect our women enough that we force them to get a

handsome dowry from their parents at the time of wedding and then

throughout her life. This is done to ensure that she is able to lead a

comfortable life. If for whatever reasons, the parents are unable to

fund the dowry requirements, we normally tend to kill our brides by

burning them or pushing them from the roof a tall building or force

them to commit suicide to save them from discomfort and guilt that she

was unable to provide a comfortable life to her husband and his

parents and his uncles and aunts and his nephews and nieces etc.

 

Mr Gere, in India, the female form is equated with Devi i.e. goddess.

We very firmly believe in this and that is why we have no hesitation

in piling her with all responsibilities, hard work and hardships. In

many parts of our country, when a man dies, his wife is expected and

made to self immolate only to save her from the guilt of not having

been able to protect and save her husband despite of her being a form

of goddess.

 

I hope it has become abundantly clear to you that we care and respect

our women enough that we cannot accept your immoral behaviour. Had you

proceeded to rape Ms Shetty (with a condom on, of course, in line with

your prevention of AIDS advocacy), we would probably not have found

the act as offensive.

 

While you would be in trouble with the law, the people of India would

have not had any issue with you as this is a common occurrence for them.

 

I hope you have learnt your lesson and in the future rape an Indian

woman before engaging in heinous act of kissing her in public. We

could be in trouble with law in both cases but at least if you rape

her, people will not say that you are inhuman, insensitive and immoral.

 

Moreover, in case you do commit a rape, the law is likely to take a

while to catch up with you because unlike kissing in public there are

so many rapes happening everyday. And then you are likely to get off

on a technicality.

 

Sudhir M is a common man from the streets of India and can be reached

at sm789.

 

Disclaimer

 

All views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of

the surfer and do not necessarily represent those of HindustanTimes.com.

 

SOURCE: The Hindustan Times

URL: http://tinyurl.com/3c4d3p

[Guest guest]

, " Devi Bhakta "

<devi_bhakta wrote:

>

> [While in India on April 15 promoting AIDS awareness, Hollywood

actor Richard Gere and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty reenacted a

scene from Gere's recent film " Shall We Dance " (originally played

withactress Jennifer Lopez). In the course of the dance, Gere planted

three kisses on Shetty's cheek.

>

> Poonam Chand Bhandari, a local advocate, saw a news video of the

event and filed obscenity charges, claiming Gere's kisses were " an

outrage against Shetty's modesty and an affront to Indian culture. "

An arrest warrant for Gere issued, drawing harsh criticism in the

country, with some lawyers saying it had no legal merit. Shetty

claimed the kisses were no big deal, but she and Gere were burned in

effigy anyway.

>

> " It was a natural cute and loving impromptu gesture by Gere which

was blown out of proportion due to improper projection by the

gossip-hungry television media, " said Shetty's PR man, Dale Bhagawar.

" It is really surprising that three pecks on Shilpa Shetty's cheeks

can cause such an uproar especially in the land of Kamasutra. "

 

 

All these are hypocrisy !

 

Did you see the many " Obscene " act in the bollywood Movies. I was

having dinner with an elderly indian couple yesterday and

coincidentally discussing about this Richard Gere and Sherpa S

Issue. The elderly lady remarked : " could you believe it, in the

Tamil movie, the actor kissing the actress chin, neck, then down to

her chest almost her breast....not to mention the actress dressing,

her breast almost pop out for others to see "

 

So why arent they not issuing arrest warrrants to all these

actor/actress? Do you know why, because its indian planting kisses

to another indian, so its okay. For a foreigner esp white man, its

obscene. GosH!

[Guest guest]

This perspective had been voiced by many in the newspaper I

read. " Before filing suits on others, why dont we clean up our

cinemas? " was the question asked by a few members of the public in

the Letters to the Editor section of the magazine regarding

shilpa/gere issue.

 

So it is not that a foreigner kisses an Indian for the general Indian

public. They know pretty well what is happening - just money,

popularity.

 

Please do not estimate the general public of India, because of

hypocratic incidents like these.

 

When I was younger, used to watch a lots of " English movies " meaning

hollywood ones, on the VCR. So, someone commented to my mom, " Oh

those English movies, yuck...your sons will be distracted...(or

howover one puts it) " (meaning kissing scenes). So my mom replied

(well, my mom is not a keen fan of tamil movies either), " Well,

English movies are a lot better than the tamil movies. At least it is

accepted in their culture to wear shorter clothes and kiss in the

public. Look at the actresses in the Tamil movies, clothes they wear

hide nothing. At least I am happy my sons are not watching those

movies. " That shut up the other person. :-)

 

, " NMadasamy " <nmadasamy

wrote:

 

 

> All these are hypocrisy !

>

> Did you see the many " Obscene " act in the bollywood Movies. I was

> having dinner with an elderly indian couple yesterday and

> coincidentally discussing about this Richard Gere and Sherpa S

> Issue. The elderly lady remarked : " could you believe it, in the

> Tamil movie, the actor kissing the actress chin, neck, then down to

> her chest almost her breast....not to mention the actress dressing,

> her breast almost pop out for others to see "

>

> So why arent they not issuing arrest warrrants to all these

> actor/actress? Do you know why, because its indian planting kisses

> to another indian, so its okay. For a foreigner esp white man, its

> obscene. GosH!

>