Surendar of Karupar Kootam - The intentional misinterpretation that backfired

Happened to see few titbits of the vulgar narration of Kandha Shashti Kavasam by Surendhar in Karupar Kootam youtube channel. This blog is not about theism or atheism because that is a personal affair of any individual which no one can or actually should not interfere with. I was just concerned about the interpretation, to be prompt, the misinterpretation of certain verses of the Kavasam. What the person quotes as vulgar is nothing but certain body organs that are less discussed generally while he has no problem with other verses on other body organs that are considered common. But the intentional misinterpretation backfired on him as he was booked for defamation and got arrested.

On seeing this perspective I remembered a Bollywood movie called ‘Aitraaz’ in which a court scene includes hero Akshay Kumar who actually files a sexual harassment case against his Boss’s wife Priyanka Chopra. Paresh Rawal is the advocate of Priyanka and to win the argument he tries to assassinate the character of Akshay by quoting a usual jolly act of him where he pats his female secretary everyday morning in office with whatever he has in his hand, say file or paper, etc. 

To make the situation embarrassing, Paresh poses the question to the secretary about where actually Akshay pats her daily. She utters the word ‘Bum’. When Paresh asks her to say it in Hindi she feels awkward and hesitates to say. Paresh then says a dialogue that “A word which she can say in English in the courtroom without much hesitation, but she feels so uncomfortable to utter the same word in her mother tongue is quite not understandable”. I have come across the same issue being faced by many, including myself that most of the words especially when it is about invisible body parts, we are a bit comfortable with its English version but not with our mother tongue. 

If we see the ratio of discomfort then it is high among the women compared to the men and that is why generally ladies do not discuss much the health issues associated with these organs which may result in fatal. We can see a lot of campaigns on breast cancer encouraging women to talk about it freely and get themselves diagnosed regularly. The menstrual cycle issues which are very common among most of the ladies that occur every month are also not openly discussed by the women. Only in recent times, we are able to see some changes in the mindset of the women to come forward to let out their problems frankly.

The alarming rise of child sexual abuse has made both the government and the public to agree to introduce sex education among the school going children and lots and lots of campaigns are conducted to teach ‘Good touch Bad touch’ among the students especially the kids of the elementary level where they are taught about the private bodies which they should keep secured from anyone touching them. The less aware they are they become more vulnerable to such harassment. When society is stepping forward in this way, the video portraying that talking about body parts as vulgar is actually pulling us backward. Beyond religion, I see it as an act of pathological social deviance that should be curbed at its very roots.