“Ek ladka aur ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte!”, thundered Mohnish Bahl in Maine Pyaar Kiya, as he went on to mouth the most ridiculous line of dialogue in the history of Indian cinema, even as an innocent Bhagyashree clutched tight to a pre-pubescent Salman Khan. You can watch the scene here:
Once you get past the insufferable late-80’s costumes, Salman’s emaciated cum constipated structure and jarring music, you realise that nothing much has changed since 1989.
16 years later, PK Abu Rabb, the Kerala Education Minister, has echoed similar sentiments. Rabb says he disapproves of boys and girls sharing a bench in schools and colleges. Rabb supports gender segregation and insists that boys and girls sitting together, is against Kerala’s culture. He also adds that parents approve of his views.
This is interesting because even I have noticed that schools and colleges discourage boys and girls from sitting together. But I always thought that was because these educational institutions, being temples of higher learning, were progressive and wanted to support their homosexual students by making boys more comfortable in the company of other boys and leaving the girls alone.
