What do you think ‘One-night stand’ means to you?
Is it just your well-planned or accidental first-time experience about sex?
Is it just a casual sex that you often do like brushing your teeth daily (of course, ‘daily’ in the sense ‘not daily’!)?
Is it just a condition set by your friend to prove your loyalty and commitment in friendship to him/her?
Is it a step number one to start your new relationship with the person you love?
Is it a last and deciding step in your process of consummating your physical and psychological bondage with the person you love or the person with whom you wish to be settled forever?
Whatever your reason might be but one thing is purely certain that the meaning of ‘one-night stand’ is really not ‘one-night stand’ as this one night (that we usually say) has a strong and inherent possibility to get extended to many nights in future. ‘One-night stand’ is tempting, murky, and hazy in itself. ‘One-night stand’ can be understood (or may be misunderstood) in different ways by different people. Some may call it evil, some may call it good, some may term it outlandish, some may lend it an aura of sacredness and holiness (as if it were something truly pure and pristine), some may brush it off as ‘freaky and funny’ and some may even take it as the worst and the most heinous crime ever done on earth. So, we can say that the term ‘one-night stand’ is not what we usually believe i.e ‘first-time sex with a person who is totally stranger’. To most of us ‘one-night stand’ means ‘indulging in sexual encounter with someone (known or unknown/familiar or stranger) without having any previous experience of it in one or the other way’.
With the rapid and tremendous change in today’s religious, cultural, and social ethics, it can be seen that ‘one-night stand’ of yesterday has become ‘multi-nights stand’ of today. It has become common nowadays – as if it is an inevitable part of our culture. One or the other day we hear such and such stuff through our friends related to ‘one-night stand’ and we all know that it has been gaining momentum day by day. What does it mean then? Does it imply that ‘one-night’ stand is gaining the approval of the majority? Does it imply a ‘mad or hormonal rush’ on the part of our youth owing to the unhealthy influence of mass media – TV, magazines, internet, smart phones, newspapers, etc? Does it imply shattering of psychological chains as imposed forcefully by our so called conservative Indian class full of half-baked intellectuals like orthodox parents and blindly ignorant religious people?
Reason may be anything. However, one thing should not be forgotten at all that the real debate is not about the ‘worthfulness’ or the ‘worthlessness’ of ‘one-night stand’, the real debate, in fact, is about whether our teens, adolescents, and young people have been properly and wholesomely educated by our parents, teachers, and intellectual members of society? Whether our future citizens have been biologically, religiously, psychologically, and socially updated or not?
You may further ask whether one should indulge in ‘one-night stand’ or not and in reply I can share two possibilities with you. Firstly, it is a common factor nowadays and so one should not take it as something horrible and grave sin on earth. If one starts taking it as something serious then it would develop poison of guilt in one’s mind and we all know what ‘guilt-stained mind’ can do to our psyche. Secondly, it is a serious and significant issue that our young people may face sooner or later in life and which they should not take lightly as it sets the theme and the stage for one’s up and coming professional and social life.
Narinderpal Singh
Blogger (lifepotter.com)