The Hindu Business Line : Lurid news, libidinous ads

IT IS steaming hot in Kerala these days and it is not because of the weather. Competing with `hartals' for headline space are sex scandals of various hues. With one sex scandal after the other tumbling out of the State cupboard, not a day goes by without some new development that keeps the media pot boiling. Though not known to be a permissive society, Kerala now seems to be acquiring the reputation of becoming India's answer to Bangkok.

And as if the latest sex scandal are not enough, many of the old cases are being raised again, some to settle political scores. Thus, the eight-year-old ice-cream parlour case wherein trafficking in minor women was unearthed in Calicut is making news once again. Then, the Kiliroor case is back in the media glare with the recent death of the young victim, without naming any culprits. And, soon, it may be time to exhume the Suryanelli case.

Truly, a State that boasts of high human rights indices and good social, especially gender, indicators is caught with its mundu down.

Not that other parts of the country are not deviating from the straight and narrow. Rapes of minors and other acts of bestiality keep rocking one or the other part of the country, but in terms of sheer intensity of public gaze, Kerala outscores most States by a long margin.

If it is news of sexscapades that drives public imagination in Kerala, it is public gaze of another kind in Mumbai these days as `creative' libidinous advertisements take off where news ends. On any given day one can find at least two dozen such advertisements in some of the leading English dailies in the business capital openly soliciting custom thinly-veiled under such heads of Beauty Parlours, Health Clubs and Physical Fitness.

From `mind blowing', `soft touch' and `electrifying' to `red hot' body massage that is exciting and relaxing, these advertisements go esoteric, suggesting that `hot is cool' and that it may be time to `stop your hunt'. All of them provide bona fide landline telephone numbers and some even home service.

If some of these `total solutions providers' assure young, elite, decent and hygienic service, others stress on the glamorous, beautiful and gorgeous. Even as `Indian beauty' vies for column-centimetre space with European, Russian and Turkish, one is no longer sure whether Kerala is as `hot' a place as made out to be.

Clearly, the difference lies in the fact that flesh trade does not make news unlike in Kerala. At the end of the day, there may be only a thin line that separates news from advertisements, as one travels from the lurid to the ridiculous.