Political drama has been quite distracting over the last few months, and we have been so engrossed in it that many disparate events and happenings unrelated to politics have failed to attract sufficient interest.
One such incident is that of two teen lovers attempting suicide in the metropolis by trying to drown themselves.
The girl survived this lethal escapade somehow, but her lover proved the veracity of his affection for his lady with his demise. It is not unreasonable to assume that the couple attempted this foolish act realising there were too many obstacles, social or familial, to their union.
The news of this failed affair stirred the whole country momentarily, as do all spicy love stories, but the excitement subsided quickly and we turned our attention again to the nonsensical political farce, unsurprisingly failing to recognise the gravity of this hackneyed love affair.
This unfortunate incident has accidentally managed to expose, quite conspicuously, a deep social malaise that has been developing for decades now. And we have been oblivious to it.
To perceive the presence of this cancerous social disorder, we need to recognise that the principal impetus which drove those teens to commit suicide was that their understanding of life was not only sophomoric, their personal philosophy suffered from the presence of aberrantly unrealistic views.
The question that immediately arises is who or what moulded their plastic minds in such a grotesquely wrong fashion? How were they deported to fictitious lands of fantasy away from the real world? Most importantly, how did a completely unrealistic view of relationships develop among them?
This seemingly puzzling question has a simple answer. The media, especially television, cinema, and the internet have been playing a cumulatively damaging role in obliterating moral values and replacing ethical codes with immoral and amoral principles.
The Bollywood movies have been, for decades now, portraying relationships between men and women and exaggerating the emotions involved to an appalling degree, principally focusing on the somatic aspect of it in a licentious way.
The continuously exacerbating decadence in these movies has been affecting our youth severely. The most disturbing part is that immoral acts such as extramarital affairs are delineated in a condonable fashion.
In fact, the central figures of these movies are often overtly exercising their libertine spirits. One particular number from a recent movie had a chorus line which reads: “I cannot stop flirting (with ladies) because I am a slave to my instincts.”
An alarming part of depiction of immorality as an approvable peccadillo like this is recognised when it is considered how influential the Indian movies are in our country.
Dramas which do not have a story revolving around the relationships of men and women are hardly ever produced. Very few music videos actually bother exploring themes other than affairs and love stories.
Teenagers are naturally curious about sexuality and the opposite sex. Since our elders and parents have lost the control and influence they once used to have over the young, our children learn about these things from Bollywood movies.
Since these movies have very little to do with reality, our youths end up learning not only wrong lessons, but things which are extremely deleterious and psychologically damaging. Egotism, hedonism, and materialism are three things one cannot fail to learn from watching movies these days.
Most social problems are of such gargantuan magnitude in Bangladesh these days, that it often becomes impossible to think of a suitable plan of addressing them. In this case, the solution lies in parents and elders comprehending the importance of guiding their offspring.
We are all interested in turning our children into doctors and engineers, but whether they become good people or not has somehow become immaterial to us. This trend must not continue if we want to see a positive change.
