[Reader-list] Act of Leisure

[aasim khan]

I found your posting on the Act of Leisure very
interesting and I wish to put my inputs in this mail.
I would like to initiate a discussion about the very
definition of leisure itself because in my view it is
here that we can definitely find a link between the
idea of leisure and the controls (via surveillance, as
in the case with Taha at CC ) .The reason why I focus
my attention to the very basic definition of leisure
is because I feel that it is not just a performance
rather it is governed by very deep rooted concepts of
class,caste,religion,age etc etc. That is to say no
matter how carefree we might appear when we perform
this act we better not be careless for the results
could be very difficult.


I would cite an example that brings forward the lack
of definition which precedes the idea  of leisure
itself  and how it is very distinctly linked with the
mechanisms (such as increasing surveillance) which
exist to control it.


We all are aware of the recent incident involving two
students of a Delhi School, who were caught in The ACT
on an MMS msg send out by the guy himself to his
friends. There are several issues which have been
highlighted in the media but there seems to be
unanimity about the fact that what happened was BAD?
The school passed its moral verdict by suspending both
the students involved in the incident. My first point
is about the whole idea of MAKING OUT. Would something
like this (and there is no clear definition like a lot
of other leisure activities.) be considered an Act of
Leisure at all? For it seems to be a bit too Personal
a matter. Well What about making out in public spaces?
What about making out in schools where the
surveillance is very highly institutionalized. Some
parents might have justifiable complaint that making
out is unhygienic (Kids should not put dirty things in
their mouths!),most of them insist that it is immoral.
Just on what grounds. Is it not just a very good way
of learning about one’s sexuality? This form of
(extreme) leisure certainly is the raises extreme
repulsion and in tern oppression from the state as
well. The constant tyranny of cops in the parks and
other HOT SPOTS for people who want to make out!

Anyways moving on, this incident also involved the new
mms being misused. Well SMSing and MMSing seem to be
the fav. Leisure activities for a lot of people in
Dli.And we all are very well aware what sorts of SMS
jokes do the rounds on city’s million plus phones.
Just because this time it was a video (it was a sick
joke though!), it caught everyone by surprise. And now
we hear of some hotels banning MMS phones in their
lobbies fearing and using counter surveillance to stop
it! This maybe just the beginning of the ice berg
because several Mobile companies in Europe and US are
planning to give there customers a new service, PORN
on their MOBILE phones. And it is estimated to be a
million dollar industry, with a huge marketer among
the youth!

Anyways, this incident certainly brought a lot of
hypocrisy that exists in our city to the ront pages of
national newspapers. But long with that it raised an
alarm, esp. among the surveillancewallahs, about the
whole idea of leisure activities, be it SMS/MMS or
Making Out.


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