India may be the homeland to the guide for sex, Kamasutra, but a public display of love like hugging and kissing a person is still a social taboo in India. In other words it is an un-do-able act that the society can't embrace regardless of how western we have become over the past few years. The ideology however, is certainly changing in the youth. Inspired by Hollywood or merely trying to get the kick of imitating a western method of showing your love, the way they think about kissing in general or public has been changing.
Talking of the history of the nation, our epic Mahabharata is one of the oldest books that described a complete mouth-to-mouth kiss. So the oldest recorded kiss should be at least 3000 years ago. But here we are today, modern and yet consider kissing too western a habit. It is also in appropriate in many ways to the people around you. The earlier consensus was that a public display of love was inappropriate and the physical intimacy could be restricted to private moments in the bedroom. Today it has crossed the bedroom level. People have started feeling that these moments are nothing to be embarrassed. They are not improper decorum either.
After 1990s when kissing scenes were allowed in the Indian movies, people started learning about kisses and were familiarized with the concept of it being something romantic rather than a taboo. This changing attitude also indicates a changing attitude to many other things that are considered inappropriate now. Love marriages are slowly being embraced in the society as opposed to them being the talk of the town or stories of eloped people in the past. The girl has her say, a veto power in fact, in deciding the bridegroom or the age of her marriage.
However, there are also certain things that we are not comfortable embracing. Not that we are less developed if we don't embrace the west. I am merely pointing out to the fact that we are comfortable with our own ways of expression in a few situations. For instance, we don't tell our mothers that we love them though we do so infinitely. We don't feel the need to let them know through words.
The sole aim of this article is to let the people know that a public display of love is in no way harming a person. If a person feels that he/she wants to convey their love, public or private shouldn't matter. If should, on the other hand, also not be forced just to make a public display. All that matters is the love with which you do it. Happy Valentine's Day.
(AW- Anil)
