Miles to go before I sleep......: gift pink chaddi to Mutalik on this valentine's day

This Valentine’s Day, in a move that is meant to leave Pramod Mutalik and his ilk red-faced, a campaign is on to gift them with carton loads of pink chaddis

A “consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women”, still seething under Pramod Mutalik’s moral policing and hectoring, will collect chaddis from across the country and courier them to the Sri Rama Sena’s Bangalore office by V-Day. This is the revenge of the urban woman, ‘pink undergarment’ her symbol of annoyance.

The ‘Pink Chaddi Campaign’ was kicked off on Febraury 5 to protest the Sena’s warning against celebrating Valentine’s Day and the attacks on women in Mangalore. Though it started off in the e-world among members of a social networking group, it has now taken a life of its own and is out on the streets.

Nisha Susan, a features writer with a magazine, started this blog with the idea that it could be a forum where people could express their concern and views — particulary the disgust they feel over the recent turn of events. “On Thursday, I had an impulse that we should do something. I planned this campaign and posted it on the blog. The next morning, there were more than 600 posts and now there are over 1,500 posts from all over the world, including small towns, the US, Singapore and of course, all Indian metros. There are people from all age groups, six-year-olds to senior citizens and a lot of men too,” said Nisha.

People have signed up to drop chaddis at collection points in their cities, which will be sent to Bangalore. Those who have signed up also plan to go to pubs with their partners or friends on V-Day. Most of the members don’t drink and some haven’t ever visited a pub, but the spirit is to band together against moral policing and curbs on women’s freedom.

“We are concerned that talking about them would give them unnecessary mileage, but at the same time, we can’t keep quiet. If we ignore them, some other group will also start these political manoeuvres. They are not fools. They are political manipulators and we should give them what they deserve,” added Nisha.

The group has been aptly named ‘the consortium of pubgoing, loose and forward women’ because that is how Sena wants to project them. The campaigners do not specify if the undergarment should be new, but people interested can drop ‘pink chaddis’ at the collection box.