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My cousin Nipa married exactly forty years ago. The husband’s clan has been loving, understanding and cooperative till date. But Nipa recalls, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard that her spouse Tapan’s parents, his two siblings besides two spinster aunts would accompany them The doting sasuma told Nipa “ I have long desired to visit Puri to have a darshan (glimpse) of Sri Jagannatha, en famille, but it never materialized. Now that you two are going, hope you don’t mind if we accompany you.” To save the situation she promptly said “ yes why not?” The lady was delighted and heaped benedictions on her.
Forty years later, not much seems to have changed. There is this doctor friend of mine who got hitched a few months ago. The couple planned to spend their honeymoon in the idyllic environs of Shillong, Meghalaya. However his mother kicked up a fuss. “ Through these 32 years babu (the son) has never traveled anywhere without me. With him away even for a little time, I will suffer from insomnia,” she concluded. The loving son forthwith roped her in. And Daddy too, since he would be helpless without mommy. Now, in what may seem a coincidence, the new bride’s parents were booked for a business trip abroad, almost at the same time. Naturally the ‘baby sister’ had no option but to latch onto the ‘big sister’ and her spouse. Soon after, a “middle aged” couple who happened to be family friends also decided to join the bandwagon.
The more the merrier goes the adage. At a cursory glance the picture seems to be rosy and fun-filled. However there were undercurrents of disappointment. Nipa reminisces, “We had to be alert and well-behaved all the time. There was no scope for letting down our guards, indulge in frivolities, PDA and all that kind of stuff.” She added as an afterthought “ my favourite swimsuit stayed put in the s suitcase.. i had no chance of wearing it.”
On her part, the doctor’s wife quips “ We had to devote all our attention to my sister, so that she would not feel neglected or jealous. We had a triple sharing room; while we sisters slept on the bed, the poor fellow slept on a mattress on the floor…”
To me, these seem outrageous. Preposterous to say the least. Why do grown-ups/ adults/guardians not realize that newly-wed youngsters need personal space, uninterrupted privacy; to indulge in sex and physical intimacies, to discover and understand one another. And most important of all, to plan and make babies. Yes I sound tad gross. Now Let me put it more brazenly: Parents of newly-weds appear to be in a tearing hurry to have grand babies. Humane. But the moot point is- if you don’t leave the couples alone, where will they make babies? On the living room couch?
Am a trained and experienced features writer with 30 plus years of experience .My favourite subjects are women's issues, food travel, art,culture ,literature et all.Am a true feminist at heart. An iconoclast read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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