Headphones have become a must these
days. No, not because you can’t hear anything clearly anymore. Nor there is any
disturbance in the background. However, the things that you may want to hear
can be disturbing. If others listen what you are listening to, eyebrows will be
raised and you don’t want to be judged for the content that you are watching.
In today’s era of web-series, using cuss words without any censors has given
entertainment the raw and realistic representation that it needs. Hence, the
need for headphones has risen more than ever.
When entertainment in form of
web-series was unknown to me, I remember watching Roadies on MTV or English
movies and series on television with frequent beeps at places where it would
get uncomfortable to watch with the family around. Any viewer could make out the
derogatory or objectionable words from the actors’ lip movements. Maybe a
hesitant little step to maintain the originality of the content! If I have to
play devil’s advocate, I think that swear words do not always have to sound
violent or offensive. They give you fits of laughter and sometimes can be
embarrassing as well, if they are articulated in a casual manner. And we
Indians feel the sense of familiarity and solidarity with Hindi expletives in
particular. As a result, some dialogues and scenes in Sacred Games and Mirzapur
gained popularity, apart from the content they showed. As a Narcos
fan, I loved Wagner Moura’s performance as Pablo Escobar. His Spanish
expletives and emphasis on each syllable with evident hatred for his enemies
made him look like a formidable protagonist-cum-antagonist.
When I was learning German, I took
interest in its slang expressions as well, to understand how the language
changed its forms as human emotions varied. Gradually the German movies and
series acquainted me to some ‘Schimpfwörter’ or swear words commonly used, ‘Scheiße!’
being most common and innocent one. In one of my classes when we were
discussing about ‘Schimpfwörter’, we came to know that swear words evolved too,
with immigrants entering Germany from various nations. I wondered the number of
ways in which we carry our heritage like food, culture and even expletives!
Swear words are not limited to any
particular class in a society. They are found in books as well, to convey the
situation or environment better. Sometimes the portrayal of a place or the
people living there cannot be convincing unless a real picture is shown, albeit
with cuss words. And reality, though savage, is something that we long to watch
or read because we want to peep into the real world. We swear when we have a
reason to be angry with someone or something. But when it comes to music, which
is supposed to be soothing and refreshing, cuss words or vulgarity in the songs
having no solid context, seem totally unnecessary and look like a means to be
a popular hum among listeners. The sentiments associated with expletives are
eventually dissolved in the process and soon these words become a part of daily
language, though we may not utter them at certain places or in company of some
people. Suddenly cuss words and expressions start sounding ‘cool’ to us.
Another amusing thing about
expletives is that they are used differently by men and women. Indian men tend
to utter Hindi expletives more, in their raw and original form, whether while
having casual talks with friends or colleagues or even when there are arguments.
Expletives are very common and come out
very smoothly in any normal discussion between some men, especially when drinks
act as appendage and sobriety is given a break for some time. When women are
around, some men tend to get conscious and avoid saying any beep word, trying
to act all suave. I have experienced this in some cases when my male friends or
colleagues uttered cuss words in a matter-of-factly way and then immediately
realized and apologized for having said them in front of me. I shrugged that
off thinking it as a way to express certain emotions. For women, abusing in
English makes them sound womanly. Men have a united stand when it comes to
hurling abuses- they stick to regional language. But disparity can be seen
among women, especially in local trains. Women traveling by first class
compartment act sophisticated and hence you may hear English abuses in most
cases. On the other hand, women in the second class compartment vent out their
anger with a regional touch, sometimes beating out men in the abusing
competition. What follows is a melee between several women, almost looking like
a riot on the road. In spite of this, some heads turn when they hear a woman
using expletives; they think it is very untoward or tomboyish. Wait, aren’t we
living in a society where women and men are treated equals? It’s quite ironical
that swear words have a restricted use only to men, when in fact some of these
words are associated with women.
