1. How do we counter soft power without using hard hands?
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Suddenly her face twitched in anger. I couldn't guess why. We were sitting in Subway and munching our favorite sub-of-the-day and doing what we love to do - being with each other. And then all of a sudden! I was blank for a moment.
- What happened?
- Listen to the lyrics.
I do not like western music and my ears are not used to their lyrics. But even I couldn't miss that word - F***. In the song being played, the singer wanted to f*** the woman he was singing for.
Those who know me won't have any problem in guessing what must have happened after that. In no time I found myself standing up and snapping my left-hand fingers and ordering them to stop that nonsense "NOW".
They stopped that nonsense "now". But my peace of mind had gone by then.
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A few days later, a visit to a Levi-Strauss showroom exposed me to another hyper-western atmosphere - which consisted of topless models on the wall posters, F-Tv models parading half-naked on the TVs, and maniquins with their nipples popping out of their clothes.
I fail to understand why somebody must open his fly to sell something as simple as jeans. Needless to say, I found that atmosphere vulgar and distasteful. But more than that, I found it ridiculously out-of-place. "Why these people - these models and these maniquins - have been brought to half-Muslim, and full-orthodox, Hyderabad?", I wondered.
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The instances are multifold, but the question is singular- How do I confront soft power without resorting to rudeness/crudeness?
Though I hate the methods adopted by the fundamentalists like RSS and Sena, I do share their angst. It is easy to hate the fundamentalists since they are loud and crude. They make noise and wake you up. They alienate you from them and their cause. But not all our enemies are idiots like them. In fact, most of them are not - they lull us to sleep by soft hands and then...
To begin with, it's hard to see the soft power - the silent, the slow, the subtle, and the sophisticated power - the cultural power, and it's harder to hate it. Its apparent innocence and innocuousness only makes it more effective in its execution. The cultural weapons inflict cultural wounds (and cultural wounds don't even bleed) and the victims die a cultural death; a quiet, unconscious, cultural death.
"I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation." - Lord Macaulay (British Parliament, 1835)
I do not want to sound paranoid and xenophobic. We have to be open and outgoing. But we can not allow ourselves to be driven by others. So hate we must no matter how hard it is to hate the soft power.
Or may be we can love ourselves rather than hating them. After all, cultural power can not be defeated by brute physical force.
2. Our daughter - a perfect blend of traditional and modern values.
That's a matrimony cliché - which amuses me often, and sometimes irritates me to no end. Worst - it reminds me of hypocrisy at its best - a hideous woman (in a hideous movie) wearing short skirt and singing "Om Jai Jagadish Hare" in front of the most hideous man who has ever walked on silver screen.
Let's skip that horrible experience. Let me ask you a few questions. Let us see if we even understand the meaning of the words that we speak beyond what is superficial and what is kitschy.
What does tradition mean for us? To what extent it pervades our thought, our behavior, our decision-making process in our everyday life? Or is it just another word, just another idea, just another ideal, which is only to be worshiped in temples but not to be welcomed in homes? How many of us know or even try to know what is tradition beyond wearing ethnic clothes and lighting candles on Diwali?
What makes modern modern? How many of us know (or even try to know) what is modernity beyond what they show in M-Tv? Is it just an urban phenomenon, or something more? Does it have values only? Or does it have anti-values as well? Is it an alternative or is it a socioeconomic imperative?
Both wage a war in our minds to occupy our mental space. Do we ever stop and think about the areas of conflict between tradition and modernity, if there exists any? Perhaps those who claim to have blended the two successfully might explain how they achieved the reconciliation. Or did that happen automatically, unconsciously?
3. We should try everything*.
And everything* typically consists of things they sell in discs and pubs. As far as I know, urban India is not famous for producing rock climbers. Correct me* if I am wrong, but I have been to many cities and I have not met too many rock climbers.
*Spare me if you are one of those suckers who believe that reality shows like M-Tv Roadies are really real.
What's all this fuss over trying? What's there to try anyway in doing something that doesn't need any effort? Do you see any effort involved in drinking? I do not. I see indulgence.
Well, all you dudes and dudettes, wake up and splash your face with cool water - and remember - there is nothing bold in shedding clothes, and there is nothing to try in gulping tequila shots. Any jerk can do that. And every jerk does that.
Perhaps taste would be a better word there - we should taste everything*, if only the lack of taste would not have been so evident in the context we are talking about.
