It is a blessing, almost , to be living in a corner of the world that is the very center of thew country yet so distant from the hush hush of the modern day society. It is therefore not surprising that all that we see on our television screens by virtue of TV channels from home and abroad amounts to moral heresy in our thought. A usual urban dweller in a metropolitan city of Pakistan would not mind women appearing in commercials with their belly buttons and cleavages clearly in the daylight. Nor does he/she mind, any longer, a young woman fondling in the arms of a man on their TV screens. Such is a change in the psyche of this nation. Young and their elders alike brave the onslaught undeterred and together. The show is on and objects are on display and everyone, who can, must have a look at the property at display irrespective of age and gender. We got TV and media but no one ever told us that programmes are rated to restrict viewership. There are programmes that mothers and their sons can't watch together on TV. And we have to enforce these restrictions on the family. But our mothers and our fathers are completely oblivious of their duty to restrict their children from watching rated programmes. There were times when airing of the B rated movies in the country made for newspaper space. Now all the stuff is right there on our TV screens and we do not mind it a tad bit. Such are the times we live in.
The change has come at no little cost. Infact an equal and opposite reactionary force is developing that has its origins in strict following and interpretation of religious scripture.
I could only help muster a knowing smile at a comment passed by our servant after his recent visit to the city of Lahore. He said that he could not stand the blatant "chumma chaati' that he witnessed while at a hang out place for the neo rich lahorites. He had gone to visit his son who works in Lahore. One of our servants decided to give way to a clean shaven upper lip in place of a heavy, pitch black mustache that it used to carry. He was ridiculed and ashamed into growing one back without any further delays.
I think we need to go slow and embrace modernization a bit more carefully. The roller coaster rides lead to a bad vertigo after we step out of the roller coaster.
The change has come at no little cost. Infact an equal and opposite reactionary force is developing that has its origins in strict following and interpretation of religious scripture.
I could only help muster a knowing smile at a comment passed by our servant after his recent visit to the city of Lahore. He said that he could not stand the blatant "chumma chaati' that he witnessed while at a hang out place for the neo rich lahorites. He had gone to visit his son who works in Lahore. One of our servants decided to give way to a clean shaven upper lip in place of a heavy, pitch black mustache that it used to carry. He was ridiculed and ashamed into growing one back without any further delays.
I think we need to go slow and embrace modernization a bit more carefully. The roller coaster rides lead to a bad vertigo after we step out of the roller coaster.
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