The other night I attended a comedy show. It was a sultry evening, the bar was packed, drinks were spilled and the comic (name withheld, because you know, he is a new guy, pretty funny, just starting of, terrified), kept stopping at regular intervals and asking the audience if they were were okay with what he was saying.
"Please let me know, haan, if any of you are offended by anything? Cool? Cool?"
I mean, to hell with Article 19 and Freedom of Speech and all these shenanigans of constitutional law. Heckler's veto — or even one single opinion of one single miffed member of the audience a day, keeps freedom of expression at bay.
In consequence, however, this creates an array of difficulties for comedians (remember Munawar Faruqui, AIB etc?), artists (remember the controversial Goddess Kaali poster, the row over the kissing scene in The Unsuitable Boy?), and well...women, especially those who have the audacity to say what they want to say and wear what they want to wear? No, I am not talking about the Karnataka High Court's Hijab verdict — not this time, at least.
I am talking about an assistant professor at a University in Kolkata, who was recently allegedly compelled to quit her job (with getting kicked out being the other option) because she had, in the past, dared to upload some photographs that someone found "objectionable" on her personal Instagram account.