Pollachi. The very name conjures up images of breathtaking visuals of scenic beauty that many a celluloid flick has captured for posterity. Alas, no longer. It conjures up images now of everything that is depraved and degrading of our proud Tamil culture. And our politicians who never tire of talking of it from every platform, particularly, during election time, would do well to stop reminding us of the hoary Tamil pride. Lest it remind us of our dismal present.
The happenings in Pollachi, as the underbelly, is now above, in a bare all display of the despicable fall in Tamilian cultural ethos construct that we have been so proudly wearing on our sleeves. We now hang our heads in shame - each one of us. For all that has gone on in our midst is not despite us .We are all part of the fall in the lofty standards.
The scenic beauty of Pollachi has been replaced by the scenes of beauties being disrobed a la Draupadi by not one Dushassana but a long line of them from every walk of life. This could not have gone on without political patronage and police blessing. So many of our sisters have been mauled and maimed for life by our fellow beings. Are they beings?
They are not even gangsters or hoodlums. Worse than the vilest of animals. Animals cannot make a choice. So at one level, it would be insulting to our animals too.
There are no choicest epithets to truthfully allude to them, except in the vernacular, which is off limits for a family daily as this.
What Tamil pride are we subscribing to? Or espousing? Or seeking to uphold? Or is this the new norm? That we may please leave the past to history where it belongs, and not any more drag them along. Andals, Avvaiyars, Kannagis et al. Oh! Good lord spare us from these rascals or are we jumping the gun for we live in Kaliyugam times and we may not yet have seen the pits.
Just as Madam Nirmala Devi, she of the alleged 'fixer' fame with connections in high places, was let out on bail, after 10 months of incarceration, we have the Pollachi spectacle playing.
It seems to be a never ending traumatic serial akin to the inane and culturally disorienting serials on the holy channels - protectors of our famed Sangam Tamil.
Blood is boiling. And when one realises it is impotent rage, it is truly appalling.
The venerable late, lamented President Abdul Kalam famously said, “I love Israeli media for a reason. Open their products, you can read a whole host of positive news. Yes, there is a lot going around which is violence infested. But the citizens can retain their sanity being updated on all that is good that is happening no matter the negativities”. He was asking our media not to pull wool over our eyes. But not focus too much on Pollachis.
Ilangai Jayaraj, the Sri Lankan Tamil scholar, noted for his Kamba Ramayana expositions has a hypothesis, which hits the nail on the head. “Do not mistake me for saying it like it is. I dread the prospect of opening the newspapers in Tamil Nadu, which is most of the time. What hits me hard is the whole host of news reports that a minor girl aged 5 years was brutally raped by a 60 year; a lady teacher hacked to death by a student; a drunkard husband killing his wife for refusing to give him money for his daily fill and one can go on and on. And when the public reads it or watches/hears such news on channels or web sites, what is striking is the vividness in the description driving home the voyeuristic and prurient instincts manifold. Is this what Kamban, Valluvan, Ilangovadigal and Subramania Bharathi eulogised in their masterpieces. I am sorry. TN was and must be better than this, if they have the least bit of pride still left in their genes.”
The status of development of a society and nation is wholly dependent on the status accorded to women. Not as property and chattel to be trifled with. With the kind of titillating and lewd storylines we have, and women as objects, in cinemas and serials- young minds cannot be immune to impact and influence.
Let us not kill the messengers or purveyors of news. “Medium is the message”, said Marshall McLuhan. Three institutions come uppermost to the mind when we talk of the fall in standards - of anything Tamilian. Sorry. We need to be brutally honest, if we are to vent our spleen for our own well being .
Politics, Kollywood and Tamil idiot box channels, Oodangangal included, closest to Tamilian’s mind and heart.
The cultural bar they have set is so low, that the younger generation in this digital age has an information overload, of such debauched mind and kind. It is now ‘anything goes’. Morals have gone out of the window. Teachers spanking students is a human rights violation visiting gurus with orders to pay compensation.
Parents have to put up with licentiousness lest they are seen as Pazhaya Panchagam (old worldly). Asking children not to elope is against liberal values. What are we doing with / to the next generation?
The younger generation is far better informed and far smarter than us. But are they grounded in the core values they need to be ingrained in? Or is it a mad man's rant? Being defiant and lecherous is not exercise of freedom of choice. It is sure passage to doomsday. The result is there for us to see. Good old days recall is no nostalgic harangue.
Surely, the perpetrators of such heinous crimes were not born into families which ‘trained’ them to do what they have accomplished.
It is the environment poisoned by what they see and hear 24x7 accentuated or exacerbated by what is on offer on social media platforms for free- be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter et al.
It has emboldened them to go ahead to do what they are now accused of being guilty of. It is all par for the course. And add the slow, winding and grinding ways of the compromised criminal justice system, do they need to care?
It is time for us to stand up as one and be counted. The temples of learning, schools and colleges, must have compulsory moral and civil education on where we came from and the highest traditions we belong to. Even if we cannot enhance the standards, which we surely do not seem capable of, with what we are endowed with, can we at least refrain from lowering the standards on a daily basis.
Can we afford to fall below the unending depths we have been sucked into? The future generation will surely pay a price if we have not already paid one. At the very least, we owe this to the millenials and younger lot.
Judiciary surely has a critical role. David Souter the retired US Supreme Court Justice puts it beautifully, “No matter how smart you are, if society lets its moral compass go haywire, we will have no culture left to cultivate”.
