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Gentlemen are requested; servants are commanded, to keep off the grass.

- A sign in a London Park in 19th century.

Funny, I have to be ‘writing’ about the freedom of speech. I am doing so because if I speak this out, people will identify and bump me off as another fundamentalist….some day I am late from office.

Two recent incidents have caught my attention and believe me it is not Kiruba going to Amsterdam or Arnab Ray (the GreatBong) getting 400+ comments for a single post. For those that don’t know them…I consider these two people as my greatest blog enemies. I need to have enemies, to be competitive. So much so, I want all Ouchmytoe readers to visit Kiruba’s & Arnab’s and thank them for such funny articles you get on Ouchmytoe.

Now, for the one real incident which concerns me - Taslima Nasreen’s second exile.

My advice to Taslima would be to start writing a travelogue as soon as possible. At the rate at which she is being moved from State to State, very soon she will be able to publish a book titled: “India Exposed – 28 States & Seven Union Territories.” My only hope is she doesn’t mention the word ‘Islam’ in the book.

I am divided in my concern for Taslima Nasreen. In the early 90s, when I was young (and so was Taslima) I would have laid down my life for her. If you don’t believe me, take a look at her photograph from the 90s….isn’t she a sweetheart?

But today, being a married man (with two women in his life!) I asked myself: “Did my Taslima do the right thing?”

For long I didn’t get the right answer. After all, who was I to comment on what was wrong and what was right?

Here is a conversation I overheard between two of my colleagues at the Cafeteria. I didn’t join them in the conversation because that would have meant abandoning my chair positioned between Sunandini Basu & Tinky Toinkers – two of my pretty (but married!) colleagues –

Krishnamurthy: When somebody’s voice has the power to reach the public…one should be careful about what is being said.

Naeem: Does that mean celebrities can’t have freedom of speech?

Krishnamurthy: They can. But they can’t say everything that a common man can say.

Naeem: So, the celebrities can’t have freedom of speech?

Krishnamurthy: They have the freedom of speech. But as they said in Spiderman II, with powers of celebrity-dom come bigger responsibilities.

Naeem: Are you saying that Taslima shouldn’t have written about Islam the way she did?

Krishnamurthy: She definitely shouldn’t have. Taslima is the culprit.

Naeem: But I fought with my father when he blamed Taslima for writing ill about Islam.

Krishnamurthy: You did? Why?

Naeem: By writing ill about such a magnificent truth of life, Taslima showed that she didn’t know anything about Islam.

Krishnamurthy: I agree.

Naeem: Yeah…so why don’t we just laugh Taslima away and give her space to grow up and realize her folly?

Naeem’s suggestion hit me hard. That’s why, when my baby girl spit on me last evening, I didn’t spit back (which I usually do). Instead, I gave her some space to grow up…and start calling me: “Daddy!”

Shucks…this definitely isn’t Ouchmytoe style. Since when did we start having such serious articles in here? Hmm…let me guess, since the Chivas Regal Scotch Whiskey got over?

Looking for Funny Articles?

# Every photograph has a story to tell
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# How Indian wives take their husbands for a ride
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