OF PRINCES AND BARBERS AND SINGERS AND MOCHIS...

Is political correctness going too far now-a-days?

First there was Prince Harry who was hauled over the coals a couple of years ago for wearing a nazi uniform at a fancy dress party, and then he was recently censured for jokingly calling his friend a Paki (who apparently did not find it offensive if you watch the video) and then in the latest twist he is being sent for some bullshit “Cultural Class” for telling a coloured comedian that he “did not sound like a black chap.

Then a couple of months ago when Madhuri Dixit’s comeback movie was just about to be released some crazy ass filed a PIL saying the title song demeaned Mochis (Just for calling them mochis. They probably want to be known as Shoesmiths)

Then came Jodha Akbar when some other ‘historians’ complained that Jodha was actually Akbar’s daughter-in-law not wife.

And now poor SRK has had to buy lots of masking tape cause some other buffoons have objected to the word Barber in the movie Billo Barber.

Miley Cyrus (or Hanna Montana depending on how you know her) had barely gotten over that photoshoot where she showed her bare back and now she and her friends are in trouble in the states because in a private (please note private) photo she and her friends are seen making slant eyes which ofcourse somehow offends the Asians. (The sole asian in the group is incidentally making big eyes which by the same logic should logically offend someone somewhere atleast)

What is wrong with the world?


Are we suddenly so vulnerable that we believe such silly nonsense can harm us?
As a friend’s wife Monira, said so succinctly over the weekend,


“If every small thing, someone else says, offends your principles then your principles were never quite strong to begin with”

And who are the ones objecting???

The problem is not with the use of the word, it is how it is used that can be offensive.


Now take the word Nigger.



The word by itself is not offensive (otherwise the niggers themselves would not use it freely among themselves or in the Hip-Hop-Rap world) its how it is used that makes it offensive.



I have a South African friend who I jokingly refer to as Nigger and who in turn doesn’t hesitate to call me Chinky. We both know that we don’t mean any malice and hence there is no ill-will among us.

The whole reason the whole ruckus is raised is actually for some hollow publicity and the moolah that inevitable follows.

Aaja Nachle’s music released atlest 2-3 months before the movie yet the asses waited till the day before the release to object. Ditto with Jodha-Akbar (even though in this case the direct descendant of Johda, HRH Maharani Padmini Kumari of Jaipur was consulted and okayed the movie)




And I, for the life of me cannot fathom what is offensive about Barber?

If Harry wore a Nazi uniform for a fancy dress party so what? It is a fancy dress party isn’t it?

And if that black ass found Harry’s comments offensive then he should have had the guts to immediately say “Your Highness, that is highly inappropriate and offensive to me.”


And if he was too overawed by royalty to feel indignant at that precise moment then he should have atleast complained about it the same day or within the week.




However a few months later he decides to express his “outpouring of pain and anguish” to the tabloid, The News Of The World (with the 200,000 pounds fee no doubt helping him embalm his offended heart).


And in the latest twist, Stephen K Amos, the comedian at the centre of the latest row over Prince Harry and race, has tried to calm the outrage over the issue and joked the furore "is ruining my chances of an OBE”.



Suddenly he is worried about some award he may get.

I have many black friends and though one cannot generalize, they are most often than not, proud, honourable and above all fair guys.

Maybe Harry was correct about Stephen.



Maybe he did NOT sound like a black chap.


Till Next Time



Ciao



Vish