What the fuck!

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In an age where scams occupy the powerful, outrage preoccupies the powerless, rape is fun and games for the frustrated, it has become mandatory to express our frustration with – WHAT THE FUCK!

The F word is undeniably the most explosive bomb that expresses more than any existing word in our lexicon. A knight in shining armour that comes to our rescue when our vocabulary falls short. What a fucking good job it does to give vent to our disgust! What’s more, this pint sized word is more versatile than most of our Bollywood actors with faux accents. Use it liberally to ask that pesky Romeo to fuck off! Tell your boss that you don’t give a fuck about what he thinks of your “non-performance”. Express incredulity with “what the fuck!” when you get your annual bonus, resign with your middle finger pointing northwards and stomp off with a “fuck you”!

Damn, that felt good!

Profanities have existed longer than L K Advani and his ambition to become India’s PM. While swear words like damn you, holy shit, go to hell have lost their sting and evolved as the last resort for the timid. The f word has held its sway and is now part of our everyday vocabulary.

Don’t be shocked if I tell you it originated in Germany way back in the 15th century. Yes, eff is older than our forefathers but still as alluring as the new hot new tenant in our locality.

I think a lot has to do with the taboo status it enjoys in our society that still considers sex as dirty. So dirty that it is used as a leverage to commit unspeakable violence against women and shame them. Any reference to it invites censure from the government which makes it even more exciting for the uninformed mind. So, mannequins are asked to cover-up, women are asked to stay at home and cook and young girls are made to feel ashamed of their sexuality, while the male with his out of control libido is anointed with the “poor me” status.

Come to think of it, almost every profanity insinuates illicit sexual congress with our near and dear ones. And all of them by some weird coincidence happen to be women! You want to insult a man with the vilest of abuse – call him a mother fucker, sister fucker, bastard, son of a bitch… What better way to humiliate him than shame the women of his house! And it’s invariably speculations about her dubious sexual habits that are meant to shame her the most.

For some unfathomable reason, the strong headed, ambitious, no nonsense woman is invariable dismissed as a bitch. As a woman it makes you wonder why the greatest hostility is reserved for women!

Sex is an abuse when it is used to rob a child of his/her childhood, destroy a woman’s sense of self-worth and terrorize, exploit and subjugate the defenseless. But to express incredulity and rage at the inept, corrupt and the foolish, I’m sure we can do better than SOB, mother fucker and their sundry derivatives!

In this age of the politically correct, aren’t terms like bigot, racist, rapist, homophobe, fanatic, sexist more insulting than sex-obsessed cuss words! Isn’t it sad to see the three lettered word that nurtures and exhilarates, mutate into a four-lettered one?

I understand swearing is almost a universal constant in most people’s lives - a primitive defense mechanism against helpless rage. It gives us an emotional release. Rather mumble profanities and get rid of the negativity than nurture it into a festering wound.

But while most of us may not be able to control our rage, we can certainly choose our words with care. Imagine calling some idiotic prick who smashed your car, your brother-in-law (saale)?  Or hearing a six year old scream "fuck you" because that's what he learnt from his parents!

And if you are still not willing to give up on the Germans, try their beers and sausages instead. They do a damn good job of it.