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Of Romeos and Juliets in public places: Hindustan Times
London, June 13: The sight of a couple kissing and cuddling some time to such a high erotic degree that people around them get embarrassed has often made one think why do they choose a public place rather than indulging in intimacies in the privacy of their homes.
London, June 13: The sight of a couple kissing and cuddling some time to such a high erotic degree that people around them get embarrassed has often made one think why do they choose a public place rather than indulging in intimacies in the privacy of their homes.
I have feared for my safety and other like me whenever a couple got entwined while going up an escalator at tube stations. What if they trip and hurt others while tumbling down. But now the mystery of such romantic spectacles one is forced to witness in public has somewhat been resolved.
Lack of money and high cost of living has forced many young ones to stay at their parents' homes longer. So, when its sunny like it is in London now-a-days and parks are full of young couples kissing oblivious to the world do not envy or stomp past them thinking, " for Heaven's sake can't you do that at home?" A lot of twenty-somethings actually can't.
Unable to own a property, they move back to their mum and dad. A recent survey has found that 3.5 million Britons aged 18 to 24 still live with their parents. This may not sound strange to us Indians but in the west this phenomenon is worrying.
Once a lady wife of a retired Lord Chief Justice said to me in a very concerned voice that her 22-year-old son was a darling boy, normal and all that but she was getting worried that he had not mentioned when he would move out. I had reflected back to the feelings of Indian parents when their children set up their own establishments.
But coming back to the mystery of love in public, the survey has found that independence from parental apron strings has become a luxury many young cannot simply afford now. Such returnees to parents are being called home-bounders or boomerangers, whatever that may mean.
About 57 per cent of the young here live with parents, compared with 90 per cent in both Italy and Spain and 60 per cent in Germany and France. The real problem, as I perceive is, that the nuclear family is quite liberal but sex is still an issue. Parents do not like the idea of seeing a stranger on the breakfast table. Mums here are more understanding, most young couples say, but dads turn stalkers.
A liberal-thinker in Spain has suggested that couples be given discounted coupons for a room in a hotel. In Italy, a mayor has suggested the opening of an official Love Car Park. But in London, laws are getting stricter, so if you see a couple kissing on a bench in a park do not think it is a Romeo and Juliet situation. Feel sad for them.
Unable to own a property, they move back to their mum and dad. A recent survey has found that 3.5 million Britons aged 18 to 24 still live with their parents. This may not sound strange to us Indians but in the west this phenomenon is worrying.
Once a lady wife of a retired Lord Chief Justice said to me in a very concerned voice that her 22-year-old son was a darling boy, normal and all that but she was getting worried that he had not mentioned when he would move out. I had reflected back to the feelings of Indian parents when their children set up their own establishments.
But coming back to the mystery of love in public, the survey has found that independence from parental apron strings has become a luxury many young cannot simply afford now. Such returnees to parents are being called home-bounders or boomerangers, whatever that may mean.
About 57 per cent of the young here live with parents, compared with 90 per cent in both Italy and Spain and 60 per cent in Germany and France. The real problem, as I perceive is, that the nuclear family is quite liberal but sex is still an issue. Parents do not like the idea of seeing a stranger on the breakfast table. Mums here are more understanding, most young couples say, but dads turn stalkers.
A liberal-thinker in Spain has suggested that couples be given discounted coupons for a room in a hotel. In Italy, a mayor has suggested the opening of an official Love Car Park. But in London, laws are getting stricter, so if you see a couple kissing on a bench in a park do not think it is a Romeo and Juliet situation. Feel sad for them.