Monday, March 22, 2010
Culture Clash or Indecent Exposure?
I heard this story from a friend, who heard it from a friend, so you know by now that what I’m about to say is as distorted as can be. I used to love playingb the game “telephone” as a child, where 10 or more kids sat in a circle and one whispered a seemingly innocuous message in another’s ear and in the end when the message was said aloud by the last person, it had no resemblance to the original message. That aside, I hope I don’t do serious injustice to this story.
What supposedly happened is this: an older man, the father of a first generation Indian couple was walking in the neighborhood in a lungi. “What is a lungi?,” you may wonder. Imagine a long, rectangular unstitched piece of cloth that you can wrap yourself in from your waist through your ankles. That’s a lungi. Here’s a link for a more believable explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lungi. As you can see, there is no mechanism as such to tie it into place apart from deftness of the hand and, it functions very much like a wrap-skirt that blows open on a windy day.
So what’s the big deal, you may ask. Well, it is a big deal under the circumstances… In India, whether a man (usually men wear lungis, forgive the stereotype) wears anything underneath or not is subject to conjecture. I still have a somewhat vivid picture from my younger days, of a man on a bicycle wearing a lungi which parted in the middle with every turn of the pedal, exposing his privates. I passed by in a car, observing this spectacle only for a moment, horrified and amused at the same time, as only a teenager is in such situations. Regardless, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that image…
But I digress; in my story the older gentleman was reportedly wearing underwear. He was walking in his neighborhood – well, let’s give him the benefit of doubt, maybe not in his immediate neighborhood, wearing a lungi. He reportedly saw a young boy; maybe 8-10 years or so, presumably, and reportedly watched the antics of this child, while walking toward this child. I’m making this part up to fill in the details, which were vaguely conveyed to me in a state of opprobrium. Perhaps the child fell while on a bicycle or a skateboard or some such activity which gave our onlooker rise to concern. He reportedly approached the boy with alacrity, as a result of which the folds of his lungi gave way, to expose his underwear. Result? The older gentleman was sued in federal court for indecent exposure directed to children or a related law.
The rest of the details are really hazy, apart from the fact that this older gentleman was exposed to the workings of the US legal system and ultimately, the case was dismissed.
I still don’t know what to make of this story, or hypothetical, if you feel similar disbelief. I don’t know enough about what he was charged with to speculate if intent was required, or if it was a statutory crime. I don’t know the actions that resulted in the parents of the boy to file suit against this person and I don’t know why, if it was seemingly innocent, it didn’t clear up as a misunderstanding based on the unique cultural issues that it represented.
Regardless, I would not have imagined such a scenario in a million years, yet, apart from my initial shock, I wonder if it is not inevitable… People’s cultural differences have had little room to play out and show their true colors, in a broader, multi-cultural setting. I wonder if the irony of the whole situation is that this person felt comfortable enough in his neighborhood to be talking while wearing a lungi. What do you think?
What supposedly happened is this: an older man, the father of a first generation Indian couple was walking in the neighborhood in a lungi. “What is a lungi?,” you may wonder. Imagine a long, rectangular unstitched piece of cloth that you can wrap yourself in from your waist through your ankles. That’s a lungi. Here’s a link for a more believable explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lungi. As you can see, there is no mechanism as such to tie it into place apart from deftness of the hand and, it functions very much like a wrap-skirt that blows open on a windy day.
So what’s the big deal, you may ask. Well, it is a big deal under the circumstances… In India, whether a man (usually men wear lungis, forgive the stereotype) wears anything underneath or not is subject to conjecture. I still have a somewhat vivid picture from my younger days, of a man on a bicycle wearing a lungi which parted in the middle with every turn of the pedal, exposing his privates. I passed by in a car, observing this spectacle only for a moment, horrified and amused at the same time, as only a teenager is in such situations. Regardless, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that image…
But I digress; in my story the older gentleman was reportedly wearing underwear. He was walking in his neighborhood – well, let’s give him the benefit of doubt, maybe not in his immediate neighborhood, wearing a lungi. He reportedly saw a young boy; maybe 8-10 years or so, presumably, and reportedly watched the antics of this child, while walking toward this child. I’m making this part up to fill in the details, which were vaguely conveyed to me in a state of opprobrium. Perhaps the child fell while on a bicycle or a skateboard or some such activity which gave our onlooker rise to concern. He reportedly approached the boy with alacrity, as a result of which the folds of his lungi gave way, to expose his underwear. Result? The older gentleman was sued in federal court for indecent exposure directed to children or a related law.
The rest of the details are really hazy, apart from the fact that this older gentleman was exposed to the workings of the US legal system and ultimately, the case was dismissed.
I still don’t know what to make of this story, or hypothetical, if you feel similar disbelief. I don’t know enough about what he was charged with to speculate if intent was required, or if it was a statutory crime. I don’t know the actions that resulted in the parents of the boy to file suit against this person and I don’t know why, if it was seemingly innocent, it didn’t clear up as a misunderstanding based on the unique cultural issues that it represented.
Regardless, I would not have imagined such a scenario in a million years, yet, apart from my initial shock, I wonder if it is not inevitable… People’s cultural differences have had little room to play out and show their true colors, in a broader, multi-cultural setting. I wonder if the irony of the whole situation is that this person felt comfortable enough in his neighborhood to be talking while wearing a lungi. What do you think?
(Photo credits - from http://visionsandperceptions.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/lungi1.jpg)
