THE BIG "B" DEBATE

The media went to town with the words BIG NEWS. A former Prime Minister had used the "B" word. It was against the present Chief Minister. Reams of newsprint was spent on this while TV channels sermonised. Every bloke to whom the microphone was put to said that it was most derogatory, impolite, unparliamentary. Some said that the levels to which politics could stoop to itself was now beyond imagination. I too felt sad that things had come to this pass but...? No buts. Unequivocal criticism and condemnation is the only path to salvation I was counselled. My protestations were drowned in the din and my refuge remains in this blog and hence this piece.

The incident took me back to my childhood days. In a day I must have heard at least a dozen times persons referring to another as " A widow" or " A child of a widow" which was nothing but a descriptive expansion of the infamous "B" word. Even to this day it is a much in vogue. Similarly, the conductors in the buses would pull up the school children by addressing them in this manner. I had therefore grown more or less immune to this word by the time I reached high school little knowing the meaning. It was at best known to be a method of scolding someone which was not out of place in the little planet we inhabited.

Reaching high school meant we were grown up boys and sophistication was the order of the day. Our school was famed for ending sentences with the "ra" "da" as a machismo replacement to the feminine "yeah". Addressing your fellow mates by the "B" word was very much in vogue. I gradually picked up the habit of addressing my friends thus. After all peer pressure and pleasure was reigning supreme. The touch of class had to be exhibited. On one occasion, I was walking down the road alongwith a schoolmate who was a year senior to me. We were family friends. As we ambled along, the need to catch his attention invoked the B word. Much to my surprise he asked me whether I knew the meaning of the word. I confessed to him that let alone the meaning I was not even aware as to the spelling. I let it be known with an air of diffidence that boys needed to be boys. My senior merely asked me note the spelling of the word and check it out in the dictionary and tell him the next day as to whether my opinion remained the same. I felt that he was probably making much ado about nothing. On my return, I fished out the dictionary, leafed out the pages to reach the sanctimonious word. To my shock, I found it was an assault on the character of his mother rather than affable way of addressing a friend. The next day I apologised to him and dropped it from my vocabulary.

As days passed, I grew fond of novels which was sprinkled generously by the "F" and the "B" words. I read them but did not imbibe them. Years later, I find that in most languages the slang form of addressing another male is derogatory of the woman. All vernacular languages in India has this cult and today I find that it is so much an order of the day that a boy of ten and above cultivates this habit without even knowing what the word means. The usr of the term as a term of affection or displeasure is comprehended only by the tone or tenor of the delivery of the language. As he climbs the career ladder it is so well ingrained in him that removal of such literature from his vocabulary becomes a onerous task. The need to scold one's in laws, spouse, enemies is so immense that the presence of a child which would latch on to every syllable is given a go by. The language gets ingrained from a tender age. Another facet is the provocation in the enemy is so great for this word that the human psyche has tuned itself to a gauntlet.

Interestingly, many of the persons who felt that the term was denigrating were using the same term to describe the original culprit. It was beyond one's comprehension as to whether the word assumed denigrating proportions only in the voice of a public figure but was otherwise perfectly acceptable. The media would have done better to place the issue in proper perspective. There was no need to put **** marks and raise curiosity levels. Such instances should be used to analyse the root cause of the problem and also the way to remedy it. This would have made a larger difference to the public, polity and life at large. Would some media house travel around with their sneak cameras and tape conversations of persons of all walks of life using such terms and make an impact on all and make it a foul word in the true sense of the word rather than make it selectively unacceptable?