The kiss that shocked India and aggravated everyone else

I am a bit embarassed by the ceaseless publicity following Richard Gere's kiss to Shilpa Shetty. The sad part is the incident was borne from a good cause. A very good cause in India. Gere and Shetty (UK's winner of the reality show Celebrity Big Brother) were appearing at an AIDs awareness rally in front of New Delhi truck drivers. While he dipped her, ala a scene from Shall We Dance, he planted a kiss on her cheek, mind you! Now several things come into play here. Apparently Indian lorry drivers are notorious for their sexual promiscuity, ergo the AIDs awareness campaign. Secondly, for those of you unfamiliar with India and her sexual deportment rules, kissing is not allowed in public. This means no smooching in movies, on TV or by the general public. Now I can attest to the fact that I have indeed kissed my male relatives in public in India. My grandfather, my uncles and so on. Of course I did not dip them but how would you expect a 5 foot 2 girl do manage such a feat? And let me tell you, I did NOT get hauled into the local precinct for indecent behavior.

Gere hasn't fared as well. He has officially been charged indecent public conduct under sections 292, 293 and 294 of Indian penal code. If found guilty he could face up to 6 years of imprisonment. And the recipient of the kiss? She's under a restraining order. You know this makes me wonder how slow the Indian news scene must be faring at this time. Nothing better to feed on than this? Given the public's lust for celebrity-related news, makes me think we should harness this phenomenon. Sales from news such as this should be donated to dire causes that never seem to generate such fervor - such as AIDs, protecting farmland and rain forests, curtailing urban sprawl and combatting global warming. And to the land that hosts over a billion citizens? To a land that's over populated from what guess what? Sex. To the land that gave the world its most treasured sex manual of all time, the Kama Sutra. Shame on you.