Keeping in (mis)step with the times

kolkata: the ill effects of films and television are talked about every now and then but an awareness of the danger does not seem to have grown and cheap entertainment on the screen, both small and big, continues to be the order of the day. and what has been the result? parents in kolkata who send their children for dancing lessons are now suggesting that they be taught how to shake their limbs in a manner which will fetch them money. in short they be taught the art of cabaret-style performances. bharatnatyam, kuchipudi, kathakali are out, can can is in. news of this shocking development in cultured kolkata was brought to viewers at an akash bangla news bulletin on sunday night by sudip shrimal of nehru children's museum. shrimal, of course, insisted that they paid no attention to such requests and, given his family background, he is not expected to. but more important is the fact that such requests are coming in a city known for its bhadralok, middle class culture. perhaps, this was only to be expected with the print media going ga ga over the opening of night clubs and pen-pushers gloating at the city becoming adult, at last. television serials also often give expression to such desires of adulthood and the unsaid message is, go west, shake your legs, enjoy the riches. the real west, of course, has other norms and the cabaret in any capital city is basically for the moneyed tourists. here, going by shrimal's words, the effort is to free the baiji from bow bazaar so that she can take over the city from baghbazar to ballygunge and even further. admittedly, those who make such requests are in a massive minority, but it needs to be remembered that any germ that enters the body is also a wee little thing. over to the germ of jingoism that is being sought to be injected into the nation's body. mercifully, it is being resisted in a big way. after the attempted attack on parliament house, this column had noted that the mood in new delhi was much more belligerent than in kolkata. that mood was evident in the star news programme we the people. last week, the same programme revealed a change in the mood as over 70 per cent of barkha dutt's audience said they did not support the scrapping of road and rail links with pakistan and nearly all said no to a war between the two countries. and in kolkata, appearing on a tara bangla programme, subhash mohanty, who has had interactions with pakistan's business world, wondered why new delhi is not prepared to find out what the kashmiris have to say about the status of the valley, thus recommending a referendum. if that is a shared opinion, then bengalis have come a long way forward from the days when talks of a referendum inevitably brought out the question, was there a referendum when our state was divided? so overall, that's the popular mood for the information of the pmo and the mea. with into-pak relations occupying a lot of space on various channels, one question perhaps needs to be asked. nobody is talking of the role of the united states in the region before the world became unipolar, a role which had a lot to do with the present scenario. is it because the learned participants have also come to look up to uncle sam as the headmaster who must be kept on the right side? talking of scenarios, akash bangla perhaps should not have gone to town with the happy life that afghan women are enjoying these days. only the other day, a delegation from kabul to the ganatantrik mahila samity conference had warned that their sisters would not be much better off even under a non-taliban government. they should know best.