No Smooching

The town of Pushkar made the news a few months ago when it arrested a foreign couple for kissing during their wedding.

This part of the country is conservative at its utmost. At the camel fair, long lists of do's and dont's -- which include things like no "smooching" and no hugging -- are posted throughout the fairgrounds.

And just in case you miss the signs, prominently positioned loudspeakers drone reminders in several languages throughout the day:

"MEN AND WOMEN ARE NOT ALLOWED TO EMBRACE IN PUBLIC!
PLEASE RECORD YOUR COMPLAINTS OF MISBEHAVIOR AGAINST UNTOWARD ELEMENTS TO THE FOREIGN REGISTRATION OFFICE.....MEN AND WOMEN ARE NOT ALLOWED TO EMBRACE IN PUBLIC....."

It definitely scared me into keeping my hands and my mouth to myself! But for a place that goes to so much trouble to ban embracing, there sure was a lot of it going on -- just not between men and women. The boys on the other hand, were all but crawling inside each other. Probably 60-70% of the males walking around at the fair (including many of the cops, at right) were walking with fingers intertwined with other males, or draped over each other, or in various other embracing poses. Funny, the things we condone, and prohibit.

The rules also didn't seem to apply to smooching between a man and his camel. ;o)

And this happy couple seemed completely oblivious to the rules. (They really were smooching, it wasn't just the angle at which I took this picture.)

Comments

[shannon clubb]

Just curious.... is it typical for the men to walk around fingers intwined and be straight or were they probably not?

[Basia]

Shannon - they are definitely not gay. I WISH being openly gay was this acceptable - on the contrary, homosexuality is officially illegal in India. The only thing worse than men-women embracing is being openly gay in public. They're straight boys. Or at least, they would call themselves that. Though based on some of the reports of sexual play among men that I hear about (see link in my blog entry for June 27, 2004, Displays of Affection), I would beg to differ...

[Maneesh Phatak]

Hi Basia, loved your blog. The picture with men holding hands is a very north India, Uttar Pradesh (state) and Bihar (state) phenomenon. Men hold hands in friendship/companionship or some such feeling but this does not mean that they are gay. People from other parts of India find this hand holding very strange too and takes some getting used to. For all you know both the men may be happily married/with fiancés back home.
There is another custom that I have not understood. Don't know whether you had a chance to observe it anywhere. Grown-up men with the nail of the little finger grown really long and painted a garish red or some fancy color. Sometimes even the toe nails painted a vivid color.