So, Richard Gere kissed Shilpa Shetty in front of an anti-AIDS campaign crowd (watch; RealPlayer format).
Did you watch as he progressed, from kissing the hand, to embracing, to… whatever? And how long he stayed there? Do we need to rationalise the kind of feelings that may be induced when a man kisses a woman—in such a manner? Couldn’t it have stopped at the hug?
Was such an overt display necessary? As a gesture of what? Warmth? In a country where one woman is raped every hour every day, where harassment of women is rampant in public settings, and women are discriminated against (think: the recent menstrual-information-from-civil-servants folly)—where such public displays of “warmth” aren’t exactly the most welcome?
And even if you, I, Tom, Dick, or Harry didn’t know India so well, what relevance has this in an anti-AIDS campaign?
Ever heard of “the ends does not justify the means”?
While responses have been overrated and in some parts misguided, this whole ruckus could have been avoided anyway by exercising some decency and using some good ol’ brains.
But of course, Richard, you couldn’t buy those with MasterCard.
