The April 7th issue of the outlook magazine seems to celebrate porn in myriad manners. Both overt and covert. While they have put Sunny Leone on a Centre Spread bringing her profession and persona to public acceptance, an indepth elaborate commentary around the innate intimate consensual or forceful escapades of the author of 'Alchemy of Desire' has been woven. The intent of highlighting this piece as a cover story is hard to decipher.
Accentuating the legitimization and large scale social acceptance of pornography seems to be a reasonable journalistic objective, but the crafting of a grand theatrical narrative around the sensuous stupor of a celebrated journalist and writer venerated by a network of Delhi's influential cultural elite opens up several pressing, pertinent and potent questions of serious nature.
The narrative gets all the more obnoxious and nauseating when the craftsman of the invokes his dialectics by introducing the open kisses and hugs and expression of love from the father Tejpal to the daughter Cara in a pre-dominant public space - the entrance of a fast track court - alongside with the emphatic assertion of undergoing a consensual sexual act between an employer Tejpal with an employee again in a dominant public space - the elevator of a hotel.
The full page snap of a caring daugher pleading her victimized father to relax adds much more to the visual gimmickry. The due mention of the older daughter gifting the novel 'Jailbird' is probably done with a purpose, the purpose of trivializing the severity of the episode by the invocation of another dutiful daughter succintly absoving her father or at least abrogating the appalling nature of the charges pressed against him.
The craftsman seems to duly undrstand the mind of a 'rightist' society which values family ties reasonably well. If the two young daughters are by the side of a person accused of outraging the modesty of a woman of his daughter's age, he is bound to garner due public sympathy amidst which a lot can be managed and justified.
Accentuating the legitimization and large scale social acceptance of pornography seems to be a reasonable journalistic objective, but the crafting of a grand theatrical narrative around the sensuous stupor of a celebrated journalist and writer venerated by a network of Delhi's influential cultural elite opens up several pressing, pertinent and potent questions of serious nature.
The narrative gets all the more obnoxious and nauseating when the craftsman of the invokes his dialectics by introducing the open kisses and hugs and expression of love from the father Tejpal to the daughter Cara in a pre-dominant public space - the entrance of a fast track court - alongside with the emphatic assertion of undergoing a consensual sexual act between an employer Tejpal with an employee again in a dominant public space - the elevator of a hotel.
The full page snap of a caring daugher pleading her victimized father to relax adds much more to the visual gimmickry. The due mention of the older daughter gifting the novel 'Jailbird' is probably done with a purpose, the purpose of trivializing the severity of the episode by the invocation of another dutiful daughter succintly absoving her father or at least abrogating the appalling nature of the charges pressed against him.
The craftsman seems to duly undrstand the mind of a 'rightist' society which values family ties reasonably well. If the two young daughters are by the side of a person accused of outraging the modesty of a woman of his daughter's age, he is bound to garner due public sympathy amidst which a lot can be managed and justified.
The narrative is further built on the far cry of the accused/victim - the celebrated investigative journalist - to examine the CCTV footage to know the truth.
Interestingly the overemphasis on the core abstract value of truth is done without any sense of a framework of right or wrong which probably doesn't exist in the worldview of these guardians of public thought and conduct.
The narrative goes on further to absolve the accused by invoking his wife with the reasoning that her husband's sexual escapade with a lady of her daughter's age and proximity was just consensual.
The trajectory of the narrative infers as if this is a normal conduct amidst the network of Delhi's influential cultural elite who patronises the accused. Is this rationalization the intent of the craftsman?
The narrative gets sinister when it in a spree of refined rounded resonating string of words assassinates the 'character' of the Young Woman who chose to report the conduct of his boss.
The choice of the phrases, 'delicate mental state', 'consumed by the intense fear', 'turning of the noise against her', 'her way of life', 'her character would be on trial', 'details of her past are already in the air', can be certainly be taken up as a open candid threat by way of this celebrated pieced published in a national news magazine suo moto by the trial court.
The craftsman goes further to report the dichotomic 'medical condition' of the Young Woman's father.
Seems like all tricks of the textbook are underplay to destroy the credibility of the complainant.
Interestingly, after having defamed the Young Woman himself by way of aforementioned illustrations, the craftsman plays with the comprehension of the reader by inserting a paragraph which reads 'Tejpal is in the fast track court in Panjim to impress upon it that contrary to the claims of the Prosecution, his agents are not the ones who are defaming the Young Woman.'
Now invoking the basic principles of reasoning either the craftsman of the narrative is an agent of the celebrated journalist condemned in a perpetually lit basement cell containing a corner toilet being shared with half-a-dozen inmates; or the aforesaid exhortations of intimidation are an ode to the veneration of the Young Woman.
The narrative gets further interesting when the craftsman toggles between the demand of 'pens and scribbling pads' with that of the 'CCTV footage'. Whether the footage would exonerate the accused or a long drawn intertwined narrative like the one being examined here compounded by technical court gimmicks would, needs to be seen as time would unravel.
The gory analysis of the supposed inconsistencies between the Young Woman's statements and that of the CCTV tapes as narrated by the craftsman are skipped out here as this examination is not intended to be 'in search of one goldmine enterprise that always seemed just within the grasp' of the celebrated journalist who has had been fervently craving for pens and scribbling pads in the Vasco cell.
The craftsman has used all his intellectual prowess and linguistic skulduggery to make it a incoherent reading aimed at convincing the readers through a web of confusing paragraphs though it has all the elements of an arousing real life porn reporting. Though this does seem to be the core intent of this 6 pager scribble.
The craftsman chisels out his defense further by introducing another dichotomy that either the rapist was foolish or a drunken flirt.
While closing his piece, the craftsman tries to restore his integrity by giving a chance to the Young Woman that the inconsistencies between her statements and the hard truth of the video footage might be the consequences of lapses in memory something witnessed even by the craftsman himself.
The celebrated jounalist gets his little triumph by getting pens and scribbling pads. The craftsman leaves the reader with a parting thought that whether aw would get triumph over a 10 year tenure in prison as well.
The inconsistencies of intent and integrity of Manu Joseph seem to be glaring and goading enough. His attempt to erect a multifaceted intellectual defense justifying and decelerating the gravity of the conduct of Tejpal can be accommodated in an atmosphere where the likes of Sunny Leones are being projected as national stars. Afterall what's wrong in indulging in consensual frolics with a junior lady of a daughter's age and proximity? It might be an acceptable tradition amongst the network of Delhi's influential cultural elite which patronises journalists and writers of 'Alchemy of Desire' fame and derides a conventional conservative rightist society.
However the one paragraph containing explicit threat and intimidation to the Young Woman can land up the craftsman into trouble.
By his very overdoing of the rounded dialectics, he has openly admitted to be an agent of Tejpal dutifully engaged in defaming the Young Woman, something which this entire narrative is a glaring testimony of.
The Outlook magazine should be wary of sanitizing such pieces of overt intimidation and threat.
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