Have you ever experienced a kiss? No, I did not mean that affectionate kiss your mother would plant on your cheek. Not that one which your father would blessingly put on your forehead. What I mean is a real passionate thing,experienced on your lips,and that which only your true love could give you. It is the age-old and the most popular medium of showing affection between a couple. It finds its place even in great epics and ancient records and thus dates back its origin to times immemorial. Everywhere, it is seen as a means to express love and affection.
Well, not so in Kerala. We Keralites always had this reputation of being an innovative kind of people. We devised dozens of types of usages for each part of our own 'Kalpakavriksham',the Coconut tree. Recently,some of our politicians even proved that solar energy can also be put into avenues other than making electricity. This rich legacy of innovation has not ignored the act of kiss either. We showed it to the world that how kiss can be a means of protest. We showed how effectively it can be used as a medium of proclaiming personal freedom. And without hesitation, the whole country followed suit. The protest;innovative thanks to its unprecedented method;has now grown in its scale,contrary to even the wildest dreams of the organisers.
The 'Kiss of Love' campaign was a symbolic protest against the so called 'moral police' in the society, say the organisers. With the protest causing its ripples even at the national capital, it is time to ask some relevant questions. Has the movement achieved,or in any manner is in the process of achieving,its intended goal;that is,putting an end to 'moral policing'? Is 'Kiss of Love' still a crusade against 'moral policing'? Does this crusade has only one modus operandi,that is,kissing in public as a means to protest? Are there some plans for the organisers to do some fasting or 'dharna';which are proven democratic methods;to uproot this menace of moral policing?
The 'Kiss of Love' program went terribly off the track,the moment when the media hijacked it. Irrespective of the format,all kinds of media-print,visual,social and web-celebrated the event. News channels aired special coverages. Newspapers issued special stories. Social media teemed with content related to 'Kiss of Love'. Unfortunately,all the attention went to the method of protest and not to the cause of the protests. Even the organisers seemed to have forgotten the real purpose. The whole thing appeared to be a show off. Protesters only cared about kissing in public and thus 'proving their balls';it did not give out a threatening message of any kind to the menace of 'moral policing'. In other parts of the country,events in solidarity to 'Kiss of Love' were conducted and I do not think that it is because people there are so much aggrieved with the state of affairs in Kerala that they participated in those events. If not so,why is not there a single solidarity campaign supporting the cause of adivasis conducting 'Nilppu Samaram' in the same Kerala? Subsistence is of course a nobler cause than the menace of moral policing.
The 'Kiss of Love' protest was indeed a novel idea which had great potential to kickstart a societal renaissance of our age in our country. Its only and the fatal flaw was that its main objective got sidetracked giving way to wanton flamboyance. The ripples it has created has not yet been died and it still could impact the society in a positive manner;only if the organisers at the helm grows more focussed in their agenda and diversifies their course of action.
"If two kiss,the world changes", says Octavio Paz, a Mexican writer. Let the world change not by virtue of their kiss,but by virtue of their hearts' courage.
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