When A Mere Flying Kiss Is a Felony to The Government

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 11 August 2023 "Jis Mulk Mein Aaye Din Aurat Ki Izzat Ki Dhajjiyaan Udti Hain, Usi Mulk Mein Ek Maamooli-Sa Bosa Logon Ko Naagvaar Guzarta Hai...." (In a country where a woman's modesty is of no consequence, a mere kiss is frowned upon...) From the letter of a female reader, published in an Urdu daily Poor Rahul Gandhi's innocuous flying kiss in the Parliament has become a felony to the current political dispensation. Mind you, he didn't even lip-lock! He just flew a kiss. When helpless women are raped and paraded naked in Manipur and elsewhere in India, all these 'puritans' choose to look askance but they cannot digest a kiss in the air. This is called sanctimony. Moreover, why a kiss, even if it happens to be emblematic, is looked down upon in the country of Kama Sutra? Kisses are always made a big issue in India. Almost a decade ago, a short young girl tried to kiss a correspondingly tall and debonair cricketer Irfan Pathan in Calcutta. It became a headline. Way back in 1982, when handsome Prince Charles came to India, a young and impulsive Padmini Kolhapure gave him a peck on the cheek and it became a news. Fortunately, there were no snooping news channels in those days! Then our very own Shabana Azmi kissed 'fatherly' Nelson Mandela and there was a great uproar. Many viewed it as an 'affront to Bhartiya Sanskriti!' In 2000, the irrepressible Sardar, our legendary Khushwant Singh, gave a 'grandfatherly' peck to the daughter of a Pakistani diplomat and the poor Khushwant was again called a 'sardar of smut.' Richard Gere smooching Shilpa Shetty became a national pastime a few years ago. People, envious of Gere's damn good luck, lambasted him. Indians seem to have some kind of prejudice or a mental block against the most natural gesture of showing love and appreciation for someone. But it's ironical that the ancient India made no bones about kissing, particularly public kissing. Megasthanese, the Greek traveller and scholar, who came to India during Gupta period, observed that the most spontaneous way to show happiness for an Indian was to kiss! "Even women kissed men and vice versa in ancient India without inhibitions, “wrote former Greek ambassador to India Vassilis Vitsaxis in his celebrated book "Plato and the Upanishads." Malang Vatsyayan, the love-guru and the doyen of love-making, called 'Adhar-Chumban' (lip-lock): "Not just an integral part of love-making, but also a perfect way to greet each other." Kissing is a spontaneous gesture of displaying closeness. Anthropologists and zoologists have found that even animals, with comparatively higher level of intelligence, kiss each other. When two dolphins meet, they kiss each other irrespective of whether male or female. Baboons, sperm whales and even rattle snakes kiss to show familiarity. Readers are aware of the true story of a lion in London Zoo, who would not eat till he saw his caretaker and kissed him. The lion stopped eating and died when his caretaker was shot dead by a crazy visitor. It's been clinically proven that the parents, esp. mothers, of hardcore criminals seldom kissed them during the time they were growing up. Just before his execution in a Texas jail a few years ago, Larry Smith told the jailor, 'I can't remember whether my parents ever hugged and kissed me when I was a child.' Life sans kisses is a dehumanising saga of losses and despair. 'Matri-Chumban, Sneha-Aalingan Shaishavesh Pramukham Aayaam Asti' (Mother's kisses and affectionate hugs are the main features of infancy), opined Chanakya as well as Vidur (the moralist in Mahabharat). The ancient India understood the import and importance of kissing and its far and wide canvas. We seem to have been better and much more level-headed humans in the past. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/flying-kiss-felony-government/d/130425 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism