Cussing to me was something I was always uncomfortable with. In my normal lingo, I hardly ever curse except when I am driving :). Even then my gaalis (curses) are pretty mild. I was more of a prude when younger looking down upon people who were excessively bad mouthed. Even my male friends I don’t recall cussed in the presence of us females. Though, it was an open secret that they used the choicest ones when in male company :).
Then later, I realized there was another dimension to cussing. It actually could be a harmless and a camaraderie thing. When I see hubby chatting up his old pals, the colorful language is not meant in a harmful way but as a mark of their intimacy. I realized that my objection was mostly to do with the intention behind the cuss. So, I became more tolerant of it and also enjoyed it in movies and serials. Yet, males cussing in front of unknown females is derogatory and rude.
Then I had kids, and it was important that they don’t pick up words at a young age which might shock onlookers :). So, both of us were careful with our language around them, me more so than hubby. But, seriously who was I kidding!
The other day, I was sitting and watching Ben 10 with Sid and I heard expletives there of the screw, f*** kind. He comes back home from the playground everyday, sometimes confused about the meaning of certain words and phrases, some of them I might not know the meanings of myself :). And Nat Geo was having a graphic program about bra sizes that Sid was watching with a lot of interest. Frankly, there was nothing objectionable in that program except for my old mindset :). But, I sat with him and watched the latter part with him. It really is so strange that I am modern about most things and yet conservative about many others. The point I am trying to make that even if I close my eyes, the times will continue to change. There is a fine line between teaching kids not to cuss in front of elders or women and asking them not to cuss at all. Because, it will happen sooner or later with the exposure they have today.
I am happy that these days in movies like “No one Killed Jessica” and “Delhi Belly,” the language used is colorful, real and in your face, you know the MC BC type of lingo. Since these are certified A, these are much better than the so-called family movies with all kinds of obscenity. I prefer the openness to the double entendres any day that Hindi movies are notorious for and the horribly vulgar songs that all kids are exposed to. I enjoyed “Delhi Belly” with its expletives and all, and I am certainly not apologizing for that.
Btw, yesterday I took my dog for vaccination to the vet accompanied by my sons. The dog was going crazy in the car; Sid and Gautam were yelling at the top of their voices trying to control him, and I was trying to avoid crazy drivers and the craziness in the back seat, so I cussed loudly many times. Sid was like mom, what did you say? I was like “dog.” No before that! And, I went red faced. F***. So there…
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