Roast - Raw, Rare, Medium or Well Done?

I like what the team of AIB usually does. But I really loved what they could achieve with introducing Roast, for the first time, in a society like ours. It takes passion, will to start and end, ready to take a stand and perhaps a beating, fight, convince and ofcourse balls like “roasted” nuts, to conceptualise, create & present a phenomenon like “insult comedy, more so, in a society like ours. It is a miracle on how Team-AIB could convince people like Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh & Karan Johar to get involved and that too in a magnitude that they did. But what is almost impossible to think is their outrageous imagination to assume that they could pull off something like this, in a society like ours.

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Did I say, “in a society like ours” repeatedly? Yes, I did. And I would not even get to the so called traditional, old school, closed minded-last generation society. Frankly, in my mind, they are no different from people in my generation. We are exactly the same. And I say this with surety, because, I am part of the “society” I am referring to; living & breathing it. I have had no experience living in a village which has a khap panchayat, live instances of female foeticide or domestic violence in my family (hopefully!!) under influence of substance or family J.

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But I have grown up watching TV in a room full of people across ages, who would be whispering all sorts of adult stuff (much on the lines of AIB-Roast) among their peer group but looking away from the TV when a condom ad would come. I have grown up being witness to eve-teasing where 5 boys would be passing the most lewd comments (worse than AIB-Roast) towards a lonely lady with another 5 witnesses actually enjoying it (me included! L). On other occasions, if some of us did object to such a gang of boys, we would be threatened with even worse comments. Sometimes, policemen supporting “the gang”. I know of fathers cursing their wives in front of kids, abusing kids in front visitors (pretty much similar cuss words as in AIB) and in turn kids back chatting with their parents in similar fashion. Oh, and they are from so called, “well to do” families, much like who paid for a ticket to watch AIB-Roast, live.

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I live in a society, where women are being raped every day and roasted for the rest of their lives; where women, falsely accuse men of rape and violence and hold them under ransom & blackmail, roasting them for life. I live in a society which roasts “not so straight” human beings, every day at every given opportunity. I live in a society, where in the name of caste, bright and much more intellectual minds than “high castes”, are nipped in the bud. I am part of the society of the so clichéd, will hold my tool and piss in the open and be proud of it, but still cannot hold hands among friends, family or any place in public. I am part of the society which declares a human being as God, be it a cricketer or a movie star. Not to forget the many “sanyasis” who wear nothing but silk and eat only fruits, irrespective of the season. Aren’t we roasting our own self, every bloody day?

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I live in a society, where, women sympathise with women who were sexually harassed/raped but do not support the victim, saying “we only know one side of the story”. I believe, that’s even worse than all cuss words put together for the AIB-Roast show.

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Not that I have given up. Or that I am not fighting. I am doing my bit. And I have picked humour as my weapon. Which is why I support humour, blindly and unconditionally. Which is why I support AIB. Which is why I loved AIB-Roast. This is my bit.

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I strongly believe, screw whoever is in government, centre or state, or has promised “a clean & better place”; if most of us (everyone will be too much of humour!!), can do their bit right, India is perhaps, the best place to be in. We have been, unnecessarily and illogically, comparing our country with irrelevant parameters among other so called developed countries. With some effort, I too can produce enough “data” to counter most of the parameters (humour for some, I guess J). But, I would rather laugh it off – my ignorance and your intellect. Because, I don’t see a reason why should I not. I cannot convince, fully. I will not be convinced, ever. But I can laugh, fully & shamelessly. Because, I love a hearty laugh.

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Talking about love, a different kind of roast is coming up, Valentine’s Day. I pity outstation lovers, who are in a dilemma, whether to visit their valentine on 14^th Feb and if they would back in time to watch the India-Pakistan world cup cricket match. What would they do? Dekhenge, Hum Log. J J