The precursor:
As
Paraguay advanced to the quarterfinals of 2010 soccer world cup, Larissa
Riquelme- a 24-year old Paraguayan lingerie model- declared that she would run
naked through the streets "her body painted with the colors of
Paraguay", if Paraguay Won the soccer World Cup. Just before that the
legendary maverick soccer icon and coach of Argentina - Diego Maradona - had
also made a similar declaration. Unlike Paraguay, Argentina was among the
favorites. Both- Diego Maradona’s and Riquelme's- pledges to bare their bodies
ended in heartbreaks, as none of their countries lifted the coveted trophy. If
any one of their countries had won, there was a real possibility that the
victorious team’s fan would have honored their pledge. It goes without saying
that such acts are routine in the west, which is labeled as a more permissive
culture.
Advent of a local heroine in India:
This is the age of
globalization, so how can India be untouched with such global happenings!
Taking a leaf out of the above one of our lesser known local model- Poonam
Pandey- made similar declarations.
Justifying it with science:
Like
techno savvy IT professionals her approach was more intellectual. On the eve of
2011 Cricket World Cup she wrote to BCCI- Board of cricket controllers of
India- and sought their permission to pose in nude before the Indian team- if
they won the trophy. Anyone who is at all aware of Indian technicalities knows
that this would never be permitted, so at best this was a PR stunt. As soccer
or football is to Argentines and Paraguayans so is cricket to India.
Repeat of 1983 in 2011:
Lo
and behold! Under the charismatic leadership of MSD- Mahendra Singh Dhoni- India
actually became victorious and lifted the trophy! This was the second time
India won the Cricket World cup and the country was on fire! Cricket, which
already was the most popular sport in India, became the unofficial religion of
the subcontinent!
The
entire country went into a high. It also presented another opportunity for
Poonam to drag her stunts on and on. Now, Poonam repeated her offer and wanted
to go nude before the players so as to keep her promise and also to boost their
morale!
Undaunted, Poonam upped the ante!
She
sited psychological evidences for the same. She also submitted- through a
letter- that if Indian laws are not permitting the same, she would do the
exhibition in a foreign country, where such nudity is permitted. She suggested
Paris, which is very much suited for this purpose, more so as she proposed to do
this in a private lobby or in the players’ dressing room.
Again
anyone who knows, what public sentiments are in India and how BBCI has to
handle people’s sentiments, would tell that, the board couldn’t accept even
such an offer. Poonam and her advisers should also have known the same. So; is
Poonam’s posturing only meant for ‘exhibitionism’?
Perhaps
not, for it has appeared in the print media that she has already posed in nude
for some magazines. Yet, in light of the foregoing discussions it is apparent
that publicity is the leitmotif behind these declarations. Even if she cannot
be charged for ‘exhibitionism’, it remains to be seen whether she can be persecuted
against for ‘indecency’ or ‘vulgarity’. IMHO the best course would have been to
deny her any further publicity by simply ignoring her. May be that’s why Ricky
Martin said “Ignore the ignorant”.
Poonam would continue to feature in the news papers:
Somebody
has filed a case against her. Sometimes it is difficult not to think that she
has arranged to file such a case, which in Indian conditions would actually end
up giving her further publicity! Politicians and controversy seeking film
makers are known to have adopted this route, for publicity, in the past.
A
legal wrangling would provide a further excuse for the newspapers- both to
prominently flash her more revealing poses and to feed the gossip columns- to
increase their circulations! This would only give her and the yellow press a
further lease of life in the print and on the net. For, our legal system is
already choked and it can not bring her to justice, even if it’s clear that she
is only out to garner some publicity for her.
16
May 2012:
As
reported in Hindustan Times, Poonam has again offered to stripe for SRK-
Saharukh Khan- and his team KKR- Kolkota Knight Riders. Rationale for this
offer: to raise the motivation of team KKR after their last two losses in
IPL-5. KKR was at the top of the points table up till the two losses.
Poonam apparently loves to
post her with 'bikini' and 'without bikini' pics on Twitter and is so confident
of her body that she ridicules Bollywood beauties for not having the
perfect body to carry her favorite two-piece outfit!
The starlet-turned-actor
and the Kingfisher model is only 20 years old now and hence certainly she is
not a spent force. The trends suggest we'd keep on hearing about her rantings
on striping in the future also.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Tabloid/I-will-strip-for-SRK-Poonam-Pandey/Article1-856628.aspx
19
May 2012:
Now
Sunny Leone is not an unknown name in India. However for the sake of the
general audience, she is an Indian Origin Porn artist who obtained (?) Indian
citizenship recently. Sunny Leone feels herself to be very
conservative, considering that she works in hardly 1 adult movie, a year. This
gave an opportunity for our local heroine- Poonam Pandey- to take a dig at her
and in the process remain in the lime light of media glare.
These
controversies have actually paid off! Now Poonam has an offer to act in a
movie!
Source:
http://tdnpost.com/news/poonam-takes-a-dig-at-sunny-38480.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tdnpost+%28The+Daily+News+Post+India+-+tdnpost.com%29
What should be the priority for the courts?
Poonam's
crime- if at all proven in an Indian court- does not seem so grave compared to
the list of endless crimes of mega financial corruptions and cases where state
complicity has resulted in denying justice to hundreds of thousands of people.
A few such cases are: the Bhopal gas victims’ cases of 1984, the 1984 riot
victims’ cases of Delhi, the Bihar Fodder scam, the cases of riot victims of
Gujarat in 2002 and very recently those of 2G, Adarsh housing Scam and Mining
lease scam, where the state has been defrauded of billions of rupees. When such
grave cases can not be adjudicated for years and decades, it’s foolhardy to
think that Poonam’s case would be decided, any time sooner.
However
this offers an opportunity to examine the case of nudity threadbare! Lets
examine what encourages young nubile girls to bare their bodies and what goes
behind such exposes:
Nudity in cricket:
Cricket
has truly transformed India. It has already shown that it can bring about what
politicians have failed to do for last five decades- peace and bonhomie between
India and Pakistan!
It
holds a rational mirror in front of the ignorant obscurantist, when he demands
male cheer boys instead of cheer girls for male cricketers. The pun is: do such
perverts think that a majority of our male cricketers are homosexuals? The
recent outbursts of opportunistic politicians have forced many teams
to dress their cheer girls from top to toe and some have also gone for a much
cheaper alternative of Indian women clad in sari. But when it comes down
to performance, the difference in their acrobatic skills clearly
separates cheer girls from crooning women!
However, when the first such charge
of display of flesh was made against the cheer girls, what came almost involuntarily
to my mind was: do we go to see trapeze artistes in circus for their
curves or their swings! As beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, perhaps so
does vulgarity.
Last words:
Public
debate on nudity and use of women and girls for commercial advertisement is
already on. What those cheer girls should or should not wear is being discussed
not only in cities but also in the remote places and inaccessible villages of
India and abroad. It appears, we are - slowly yet firmly - verging onto the
so-called international stand, which can otherwise be termed as the humane
stand.
What
is heartening in all this is: cricket is really decimating boundaries- both
geographical and cultural. Do you need a proof? Well, now it’s only a matter of
time when we would resume cricketing ties with Pakistan. The religious
fundamentalists- be he a Hindu or a Muslim- would object to that and threaten
disruption but the craze for cricket would not listen to any and the
brotherhood of humanity would triumph.
Taliban,
who are yet to find suitable explanations for those viagra tablets in Osama Bin
Laden's hideout, would promptly denounce a resumption of cricketing ties with
India as Shiv-sena would in. However, in the depth of their hearts they'd
have already started fearing for a public out-lash. So, Taliban be aware
of the cheer girls!
(Word
count = 1490)
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