Is this really happening in India?

Actually, I feel that you are missing the difference between repression and respect and condemning some behavior that is simply respectful - of others and yourself. You think all those things should die? Well, I'm born and raised in the USA and I've watched this "culture" being influenced by "just" movies and the mess that we have here now is a direct result of older, respectful traditions being, not only tossed out, but condemned. You can be progressive and modern (if you're talking about technology, financial success and stability, competing with other nations, etc.) without sacrificing the good aspects of a culture. Here, we have no stability - marriage is a throw away item, children are not raised to respect authority nor to respect themselves and others, people criticize you if you do not support single women having children - I would never want to make life nasty or difficult for a single mother, but I'll never say that it's a good way to raise children either, an insignificant minority (3 to 5% of the population) has totally changed our marriage laws and are able to harass small businesses who don't support homosexuality right out of business in fact, you can be judged as having committed a crime if you speak out against it, and we have political leaders who no longer even observe the laws of our land or constitution and no one does anything about it. But heavens, yes, we're modern!

Just watch some of the American movies and wonder what it would be like to live in a culture where you hear parents talking to their children with a string of profanities or watching people who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs making stupid decisions in public and adversely affecting the lives of others who don't even know them. Then try to say something against the disrespectful treatment of others and you'll be told that everyone has the right to say anything they want or to act the way they want. If you are against abortions and say anything, you're called a "Christian" even if you aren't and it's now understood in this culture that being a "Christian" is a disgrace!

We used to have laws that TV needed to respect the "community standards" of the majority of communities where it was broadcast. But step by step Hollyweird kept "progressing" and using more profanity, showing more sex and nudity and then showing homosexuals in explicitly sexual scenes, and adding jokes to put down people who complained about any of those things. Those might be the community standards of Hollyweird, but they still are not the standards of your average community although that is changing because people continue to say, "Oh, don't be so old fashioned, it's just entertainment." So, if all our problems appeal to you, just keep trying to throw out all your standards and traditions. Obviously, I do see that there are or have been some very repressive standards in India, but it seems that little by little, they have been getting rid of those traditions that do not help the citizens of a nation - killing widows when their husbands die, having a caste system, having only arranged marriages that require dowries, etc. The fact that some of those traditions and beliefs, such as the caste system or any prejudicial beliefs, are dying slowly can hold back a nation. Poverty and lack of education will certainly damage a country, much more than arranged marriages or strict sexual standards! Just be very careful what you wish for. . .

Shauna & Ms. Phoebe, my God-given Happy Pill