Rated R for content

One of the biggest worries I had about watching TV as a child was the sudden, unexpected, never-discussed, so-called taboo things that would pop up and be the cause of much embarrassment to myself as well as my parents. You know what I'm talking about. Those ubiquitous ads on condoms and birth control pills and sanitary napkins that we all knew existed but would refrain from making it a topic of discussion at the dinner table. The things that would make me turn red in the face and wish I could be in another room instantly. And may be my parents felt the same way but we'd all sit there staring at the TV screen and pretending it was just another ad for light bulbs or Titan watches. And then once it was over everyone would start talking about something totally irrelevant.

And the way we would react was partly determined by the stage in our life when we were exposed to these things. For example there is the not-knowing-anything-innocent-kid stage. Like my cousin who at the age of 7 took a particular fancy to the jingle of a Mala-D advertisement, that required exercising a totalitarian sisterly rule to keep him from constantly breaking out into Zara si sabdhani zindagi bhar aasani. That was followed by the not-so-sure-but-bet-it's-naughty stage, where one had the strongest desire to probe and ask questions but knew better than ask the parents. Which meant a lot of speculations and discussions in school about certain ads that one wasn't really sure of. And that of course provided the basis for a whole bunch of secrets that we were willing to carry to our graves than ask the parents for a clearer picture. And then just like that we knew. About puberty, boys and yes, sex. And suddenly everything made sense. And thus provided new room for embarrassment. Because now not only did you know what the ads were trying to tell you, everyone in the room knew that you knew. And that led to a lot of delicate moments while watching the Saturday night movie on Doordarshan.

And the same went for movies. Well when we were kids it was restricted to the ones from Hollywood. I would dread the moment when the hero would start kissing the heroine. Because we all knew what would happen next. The couple would end up in bed. So first there was the stage when even a kiss could cause mild discomfiture. And that also included the old classic kiss, the hard and long smack on the lips, no groping or tongue action kind. But those were the really old movies and the hero and heroine would continue their activities someplace other than in front of the camera and would not cause too much of a problem for me. But then the stars started getting bolder. And the kisses started getting more explorative. And they'd always show the couple between the sheets the next morning. And sometimes also show a little skin. Now that is what we started calling the "love scene" or "bed scene". And boy did that cause problems. For the kids, as well as the parents. As we all pretended that we did not notice or realize what was happening. So I tried my utmost to stay away from watching a Hollywood movie with the family. Just to be on the safe side. Hindi movies were fine. Because the most anyone would do was run around trees and sing and dance and maybe hold hands. Until that changed too. The heroines started getting bolder, the hero did not think twice about grabbing and kissing the heroine in full view of the camera and then horror of horrors they even put in "bed scenes". So it was curtains for watching movies with the family. Any movie!

So was I glad when I moved out of parental control. I can watch anything I want. Any movie. As much TV as I want. Without the squirming and discomfort and the fear of being embarrassed. And that feels great. However I still have to be a little careful about picking movies when the folks come visiting. Because although the ratings on the movie are for people to decide whether their kids can watch a particular movie, for me it is the decision of whether my parents are allowed to watch the movie with me.