“Now let me get this straight, in this story a girl rejects the advances of a horny kid, presumably because of class differences, so when he manipulates her into kissing him, we are all supposed to applaud? this is a funny story? How weird and misogynist.”

You are not supposed to do anything. You may find it disgusting, but this is just a work of fiction. After all, in any kind of courtship or game-hunting, isnt there a bit of manipulation involved? Always? Do you always tell what you actually are. As an example, the majority of guys watch and like porn. But they will not say that to a girl when he is dating her. Your entire thought process revolves around the idea that a girl is always right and deserves the Snow White treatment. I do not blame you for that. But the prince, due to the class/caste thing emphasized above, in an Indian context, has to be a guy like Rocky Khanna, long hair, shaved chin, cute chocolatey smile, tight jeans, expensive cologne and a swanky BMW car. So when Rocky Khanna turns out to be a player, you merely dismiss him by calling him a jerk. Well who fell into that trap? Guess what, Rocky Khanna manipulated you too. But a streetside “aam aadmi”, like the protagonist in this piece, ill- dressed, unshaven, disheveled, non-english speaking and gauche, will never get the chance to play the hunter-gatherer game with you. So essentially your point here is that, it is good to be maniupulated by a Rocky Khanna, but its a nauseating thought to be manipulated by a streetside everyman. Some of the complaints on the Blank Noise Project blog resonate the same theme.

And this article is anything but misogynistic. Arnab’s sense of justice is quite impeccable. He has written a scathing criticism about the Mangalore incident (which it fully deserves), but he is not a blogger who will write a sissy type blogpost on why poor streetside Indian guys gawk or look shamelessly at a girl’s cleavage. If you really want to read the kind of Snow White stuff, then I can suggest a few blogs for you to read. So lets say that a blogger writes a stupid piece calling Sanjay Dutt a misogynist, interpreting his comment out of context, I am sure that you will like that. What you will not realize however, is that that blogger manipulated you too. He is merely target-pandering and trying to press some pyshchological buttons and trying to build a feminist following for his blog. Manipulation Manipulation! he he . But Arnab is an honest man. And it is that very reason which makes many people to love this blog.

@Rita above-

“Yet I too see a misogynist streak in the charcterisation of the girl who wears low rider jeans, has RDB as her favourite film (we do know of your opinions of the film, which are incidentally mine too) and is essentially an air-head. When she casts her eyes in shame and disgust at being married off to the local lech I feel my stomach churn.”

Why? Because you do not want to accept reality? Arent there air-heads and bimbos? The theme of the story demanded such a character, and hence it was crafted like that. I think you just took that description too personally. Past hurt perhaps! Was it mentioned anywhere in the piece that this is the description of all girls? Then why do you use the word misogynist? So next time you find your stomach churn when you hear some girl talking about being quote unquote manipulated, if there was no coercion involved, ask her to accept responsibility for her own decision making.

@Nirmal above-

“Your fanclub is too eager to please.
Was forwarded this link by a friend (bong of course) and read the post with increasing dismay.
Like some other guy said in response, it was creepy.
I really loved it that someone notices that there is a class war going on but you really picked the wrong example to bully your point. Choosing to play one victim against another isn’t funny.”

Increasing dismay! So how creepy was this? Good enough for a horror movie? But here is a question- who exactly is the victim here?

Start the “Ladli Laxmi Yojana” to protect and support the girl child in true Hindu tradition.

U can give this script to Aamir Khan for Jaane tu Ya Jaane Na part 2.