The News Minute | July 23, 2014 | 3.50 pm IST
A parent’s open written letter to Yo Yo Honey Singh, for making “choli ke peeche” sound like a bhajan has been doing the rounds on social media.
Written as an open letter to Punjabi rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh, Sandipan Sharma’s piece was published in Hindustan Times and has been shared 6,871 times on Facebook and has been liked by 8,106 people.
Judging by the comments, the article has sparked a discussion on parenting with many people criticising Sharma for holding Singh responsible for ruining the childhood innocence of an entire generation. The parent gets trolled for believing that children were innocent before Honey Singh came along to educate them about aspects of adult life, etc.
Sharma argues that Singh’s music "Innocence is one of the privileges of childhood. Not so long ago, parents, teachers and guardians would do everything possible to ensure that children do not lose it before the time is right. Clearly, the approach was flawed."
He writes: “With your techno-babble, you are creating a generation of youngsters and children who would never know that anything other than what you create could be music, anything more than what you write could be poetry and anything except you croon could be singing.”
“By bringing choicest abuses right into our homes, through your songs, you have saved us from the embarrassment of explaining to kids the meaning and métier of India's street-language. Now that they are so used to hearing them in your songs, kids can easily go out in the mad, bad world without getting an aural shock. Perhaps, they are even capable of shooting a few back.”
Let's start with the first gem of comments:
Keshav Chugh said: A moment of silence for the parents who think their children were innocent before they heard Honey Singh's music.
Others, like Adit Patnaik were more vocal. In a comment posted on HT’s Facebook page, Patnaik said: “This is the most stupid thing I have read in a while..I am not a fan of honey Singh myself but to blame him for your own carelessness is just plain stupid, If you as a parent cannot even monitor what your 5 year old listens to how do you expect to give him a decent upbringing ? Every 10 year old kid these days has access to Internet...they could be watching porn all day for all you know..it's your job as parents to control this instead of putting the blame on others...use parental control on TV...don't give your 10 year old kid a cellphone...it's your kid...it's your responsibility...stop the bs”
Chahat Thakkar said: “I don't know why I get the essence of a Bengali Mother worrying about her kids in the whole article. Its ok, chill out. You are talking about something that was 20 years ago. Grow up and relax. Your parents banished you from singing / hearing / watching choli k pichhe and khatiya and now you are doing the same to your kids; whats the difference ? Only the singers, music and lyrics changed; parenting remained the same. ... Even if Honey singh did not exist, your childern would not listen to the very songs you are trying to feed them. Brains have evolved and so does your brain should too.”
Some who posted as Pistol Smith says: “There are a thousand other things which comes under good parenting.
Whose responsible for making a child learn and grow up to follow age old family customs like dowry,caste etc whose responsible when those "worried" parents lie in front of their kids,whose responsible when those "worried" parents smoke and drink in front of their own kids,whose responsible when those "worried" parents treat the childs grandparents shabbily for xyz reason in their full view..."
And Smith goes on some more in this vein, and later adds: "Dont tell me that a random singers songs are acutely responsible for the degradation of todays youth. Becoz thats total BS. No one is asking to live like an ostrich but when u find fault in others one has to be squeaky clean themselves and singers like honey singh are not the problem, the SOCIETY which we have created ourselves is the problem.
Had all been saints and monks in our society we would not have been discussing this thread about crassness in songs in the first place.”
Of course, there were some like RuNing Rampage who expressed solidarity with Shamra: "HAHAHAHAHA..........
Finally who specks my language. Thank You Sir for your letter. Be a parent maybe then you all will get what this man is going through.”
Then there were gems of pure humour. A man named Vinit More was just plain irritated with Singh. He posted this image:
Well, lets end this discussion on a philosophical note. Parishkrit Roy’s image spoke more than a thousand words:
