Why so Abusive?

The first time I noticed abusive language in a book was Suketu Mehta’s ‘Maximum City.’ The author used the colloquial references to mothers and sisters in an attempt to create a genuine refection of the city culture. It felt quite a creative and original thing to do. Pretty cool. So felt a group of my friends who had recently discovered their roots in the vernacular. Especially the girls. There were sessions where folks would take turns to read out passages from the book. Why should boys have all the fun? Girls can abuse too. I mean the hardcore gender and genital specific abuses. Ever since then this genre of abuses has become unisex. It has lost its original offending stab and has become an uber cool figure of speech.

Anyhow, feminism was promoted to a new level of revolution. Girls felt gritty and boys were amused by the shock factor. One of my female friend, who would often hitch a ride with me, took upon herself the responsibility to abuse any traffic-bully who would dare to offend me while driving. I wasn’t sure if that was her way to pay back for the favor or a means to practice her ever-growing vocabulary in real life scenarios.

The Hindi abuses became a social phenomenon. Most felt they were moving closer to their roots – of native culture and the basic animal instinct. This was an urban phenomena. Because the rural crowd didn’t ever need to go back to the roots. As they never drifted away. The urban lot however always seems to take the long road home. Mostly via the US. It was the ‘F’ word that burst out of our TV screens and gave a big-F to the masses by sticking chocolate ice-cream up our noses. The big-F would’ve vanished unnoticed and we would’ve never understood what really hit us if it wasn’t for the ban on the advertisement. The ban actually rang the bell, we became curious, and the rest is history.

Life became f***ing cool! We started borrowing slang from our usually cultural icon – the west. Till someone wandered off to the ‘real’ India and decided to be what we ‘really’ are, the way we are, I mean exactly how Almighty made us – biologically. Life became big time ch***apa.

Recently I read a book that describes the real India. Not the India that the world witnessed through the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire. But the India that is hopelessly deep rooted in its own misery. A discussion on the author’s description of this India demands a separate literary review that I can’t yet afford to express. But, the description of this India’s vernacular is certainly elaborate, extensive, and not at all meant for the faint-hearted. This was about the down-market India. There is another India that coexists – the upwardly mobile urban lot. I read a book about that as well. All of it’s progressive, liberated characters embellish their lingo with the roots from the other India. The f***ing dudes now borrow identity from closer home and have been rechristened to ch***yas.

All these years of civilization that tried to train us to be rational beings are gradually being undone. We are going back to the roots and proudly and shamelessly being the animals that we were meant to be. Life is coming to a full circle.