Slapping it off!!

You may abhor it, you make condemn it, you may agree with it, some of you may even consider metting out the same to perhaps a 'deserving' individual...but the SLAP cannot be ignored. The humble slap, 'thappad' in hindi has definitely become something of a force to reckon with. Celebs (read filmstars, politicians) it is heard are now asking for protection from people and even the media, lest the 'slap' or the slapper finds way to the slappee...(we hereby call the face of the one being slapped as the slappee!!:)). So here's the news, the SLAP it seems is here to stay!

If the fag end of last year belonged to Sharad Pawar getting one across his left cheek, 2012 belongs to King Khan's who metted out the punch to the husband of his supposed friend, Farah Khan. Of course there were other localised slaps that did get into local newspapers on page 2, like the one in Bangalore where an IAS officer's wife slapped a woman police inspector because the inspector decided to stop the said lady from entering a celebrity cricket match without a legitimate pass, to another incident where a supposed 'well-connected' individual in Mumbai slapped a cop after a bar brawl. But these slaps 'mein woh waali baat kahaan?'

Like me you may wonder why SRK had to resort to a slap to shut Shirish Kunder up, the fate of his Tees Maar Khan was quite the 'tamacha' enough! But here's the plus point for slappee Kunder, atleast now everyone knows who he is...if earlier there were a few who didnt like the guy, now there are some more who dislike the fellow even more owing to his films!! The slappee attains a new identity as the slappee of 'so and so' thus Harvinder Singh is now popularly known as the 'guy who slapped Sharad Pawar'!

Often the slappee gets 'official' condemnation on the slap but "andar ki baat" is that aam junta amongst themselves say, 'accha hua! kaafi acting too smart kar raha tha!' Take for instance the Harbhajan Singh and Sreesanth altercation after an IPL match, slappee Sreesanth's 'hard luck' comment brought forth the punch from the sardar even as many nodded, sagely muttering, 'who asked Sreesanth to get all aggressive and meddle with Bhajji especially after his team was trumped!' 

Indian television a couple of years ago saw the 'slap' spark off a gender row...over should a man slap a woman on television in a reality series. Dadagiri, allegedly the 'meanest' reality show on Indian television had a male contestant slap the female, after she slapped him, in a bid to rile the guy. So the slappee in this case retaliated and also became the slapper. Later however the male contestant was beaten by the crew for slapping a female.

While the 'kahaani' of the slap continues unabatedly, I am yet to see someone who follows Gandhiji's advice of offering the other cheek, that would surely make news now wouldnt it? Meanwhile till the next slap, you can always regale yourself with the repeated 'tammaccha' on our daily soaps...