An actor and stand-up comedian, Vir Das stormed up some serious dust as he made his ‘I come from 2 India’ Monologue at the John f. Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C.
What did he say?
I took 6 min out of my life and went through the video. As Mr. Das rightly points out that it is an artist’s dream to perform live at Kennedy Centre in Washington and also how he chose his monologue specifically for this reason.
He talks about how kids wear masks while politicians hug each other without one, Women worshipped in the day and gang-raped at night, the divide over Bollywood on social media and unity in theatres, the under 30 population following the 75-year-old leaders with their archaic ideas, sly on unavailability of information on PM cares fund and so and so forth. Summing up in a few words: The duality of our nation.
Controversy?
Well, nothing that he mentioned was fiction. All of it is facts available in the public domain. Those of us who have been born and raised in India are not unaware of the broken promises of our leaders, the stereotypical and choking societal structures, the pathetic state of women, etc.
The social media warriors hard at work taking sides for and against are now a common phenomenon. They do little on the ground to bring change, convenient to sit in the comfort of our houses and defend or criticize a thought because eventually everybody is trapped in the never-ending cycle of self-survival.
Few said Vir Das shouldn’t have said such things in a foreign country and more so in such a prominent place.
So, was he loud?
I have seen and heard reality many times. We talk a lot these days, Social media has given us a wonderful medium to express freely our views and belief oftentimes ambiguously. In real life too, many of us have expressed disgust over the pathetic state of affairs but I am afraid our talks never moved to a solution and stayed at highlighting problems.
Mr. Vir Das was definitely loud enough to have his share of controversy and in the coming days, there would be more heat exchanged. For many it is the idea of India in their head is what is real and not the conditions on the ground, such people are often triggered when facing reality.
But is he loud enough for change? no. India will continue to ride the boat of duality for days to come similar to all its citizens. So, all of it is in vain? yes, if the same old rant is all we are interested in doing. We exercise our fundamental right to speech and expression but when do we have time to incorporate the values of our fundamental duties? but then who has time?
How can the change come? We don’t need to discuss that; we are okay with repeating the problems over and over and over.
