Censorship in a new avatar

The English movie channels ( I am guessing all over the country) are afflicted by a strange need to censor cuss words. I guess that’s natural but their replacements are strange  (in the sub-titles ie).

Shit becomes crap

Arse (sometimes) becomes bum; other times it is left as it is.

Fuck is completely obliterated

Fuck You/ Fuck Off becomes Go to hell.

You (any objectionable word) is just left blank and beeped out.

All this was funny up to a point and I even felt bad for the HBO(India)’s editor when they decided to show The Departed at prime time.

But one incident last week to censorship to a new level I thought:

In the movie The Peacemaker, the terrorist, at one point, is saying : I am a Serb, a Croat and a Muslim.”

The sub- titles left out the “and a Muslim.”

And I kept wondering since when did Muslim become an offensive word? Or have I failed to catch up?

Post-modernist era?

Two girls sitting in my office pantry, discussing. I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying until I heard the magic phrase, Can you wear Westerns when your in-laws are around?

Girl 1: Can you wear western clothes when your in-laws are around?

Girl 2: I do wear it but not often when we are at their place.

Girl 1: Why?

Girl 2: She (the mother-in-law I assume) mentioned that  it is not a nice thing to wear such clothes around your father-in-law. I tried to wear capris instead of jeans but she asked me to change out of them.

Girl 1: In my case, I am not allowed at all to wear these clothes at my in-laws. Even suits (salwar-kameez) are not ok. They only want me to wear sarees. What is worse is her daughter — my husband’s sister — is allowed to wear jeans in the house. It’s just not fair.

Girl 2: Yeah.. it’s not.. mumbling into the conversation

I don’t know what to say.. as I heard this. My heart sank and I wanted to comfort them. Tell them not everyone thinks like their in-laws. People are definitely moving beyond  how things should be. Aren’t they

But I don’t know. With our regressive trend, it was a depressing end to their conversation.