Roadies , a programme on MTV, is watchable mainly for the unpredictable course it charters and for the highly entertaining twins, Raghu Ram and Rajeev Laxman, with unblinking owlish stares and king sized egos who mercilessly interview the candidates who want to be a ‘Roadie’.
One must watch this programme to see these twins act out as nineteenth century psychoanalysts - reading out from a candidate’s form and yelling at them and telling as to why they wrote an answer in a particular way or rant about the kind of a person the candidate actually is. Unfortunately one feels disappointed when one catches glimpsesof ‘archaic patriarchal old men’ beneath the veneer of modernity of shaved heads, pierced ears and jeans of the twins. Some glimpses are
...the frequent indulgingof angry expletives (without the literal frothing of the mouth) so similar to that of archaic patriarchal old men when they saw something or heard something which they did not like.
...’You are like a rickshaw wallah who beats his wife’, says one twin to a candidate. Such an archaic old daddy response! The fact isone doesn’t have to be a rickshaw wallah to beat one’s wife. Domestic violenceis pervasive in our society, prevalent in all classes and increasing.
...’Suicide is stupid’, says one twin to a young woman from Kolkatta who admitted that she had attempted suicide. A harmful ‘archaic old daddy’ response especially when the youth today live with suicidal ideation in an environment where not all the young people in India have access to food or shelter or education and employment. Depression and suicidal thoughts go hand in hand. India is one of the countries which bear the ignominy of having the largest number of young people who have killed themselves. There are no public service messages by the government of India to prevent suicides or help young people seek professional help when they are undergoing Depression as there is for HIV/AIDS –despite the fact that there are more people with depression than HIV/AIDS.
The Archaic Old Daddy Twins need be careful while speaking in aprogramme which is watched by millions of young Indians. There is nothing ‘stupid’about attempting suicide just as there is nothing ‘stupid’ about having HIV/AIDS.