Mom’s worry, child’s dream, nation’s curse

Courtesy: MorgueFile

I have a dream! Yes, even I – a laywoman – do have one. I see our teenager flying out soon from the comfy cocoon we are nurturing her in now. And I can’t wait to see her return to India – her home country she’s fascinated with.

I’m so blessed to have become a parent in the 21^st century. Am grateful to the Divine that our daughter has a world that’s so advanced and bubbling with opportunities for her to live her dreams.

And my country is rearing to go. India’s energy is infectious that I can’t rest in peace.

What if I can’t persuade my child to give up on her skirts and crop tops?

The economy is booming… if not now, it will shortly be, by the time our girl steps out to make a life on her own. Am thankful to our government that is relentlessly working to offer youngsters the best life and means of livelihood.

And yes, no matter in which corner of India my girl chooses to settle in, I will feel her, touch her and hug her. In the tech world another 5 years is an eon when Skype will be obsolete and rocket science will become household mantra. The healthy competition between Facebook and Google will sure ensure that to parents like me!

How privileged am I, unlike my parents, who had to initially wait for a fortnight for the monthly mail to fall in their post-box and then yell into the receiver to hear me. How lucky am I that my child has a plethora of a spread to carve out a career from. She will graduate at a time, when MNCs and world-renowned firms would have all settled in her hometown and she would not have to bribe authorities for passport verification. 

What if she's caught reading ‘fanatic unaccepted’ series?

All she needs to do is hone her talents and sharpen her skills and enjoy life. Like my parents told me then – all you need to worry about is study and get good grades. And when I achieved that they knocked every door of our community distributing home-made sweets, before settling in to post university forms. 

When my girl makes me proud I’ll tweet her scores and register her name in all top universities sitting in the washroom in my PJS.

But unlike my parents who waved me moisty-eyed good-byes, I don’t have the nerve to let her go away from me. All my parents had to do was collect their nerves to see me bloom. But I have to collect the nerves of my fellowmen, take their consent, check their ideologies and train my girl to fit-in. 

How do I explain to my child that she would 'fit-in'?

What if I can’t persuade my child to give up on her skirts and crop tops? What if I can’t succeed in asking her to give up non-veg? How do I explain to a teen to stop hanging out with friends and forget sleep overs? What if she gets on social media and post her paintings? How do I censure the artist in her? She enjoys Divergent, Hunger Games and the ilk now. But I have no idea of what she will like next. What if the books are not ‘fanatic accepted’ series…?

How do I explain to my child that she would have to change and ‘fit-in’ if she were to stay alone in her home country – a land about which she loves hearing stories about. Her favourite tea-time topic is my childhood and student days in India. And she can’t wait to outdo me by being an independent girl.

But I fret. I am afraid. I am lost. I am ashamed.

Keep your undies on, I was told and I...

This morning while I was busy lazying in the varenda enjoying the rain, my mom hurriedly came and sat beside me. “What is that book Appu is reading. Have you seen her, she talks to herself, laughs loudly and sits thinking and smiling to herself. Go look. She’s still in bed, not brushed as yet, not had her milk, she’s talking to her book.”

Standing by the door, I saw my girl fall over the pillow and laugh. Shaking her head and exclaiming “Oh! my Goodness!” Catching me notice her, she sat up and said, “Can you believe this Mamma, Thomas is asking Brenda to keep her undies on!”

It was a glue-in-my-throat moment. Utterly confused, I blurted, “Who’s that naughty character in there?”

“Oh Mamma, you are so funny,” she replied as she got up to give me her customary hug before heading to the washroom with her toothbrush.

“She’s gone to brush? At last. What craze is this?” My mother walked in pouring fuel to the blaze inside me.

I rushed to my bedroom. The husband was on his mobile. Clueless, I paced the room.

He raised his brows, in query.

“What is she reading?” I thundered.

“Who”, he asked perplexed.

“Your daughter.”

“How will I know. You are the one buying her books…”

“Yeah, I’m the one...”

 “What’s bothering you,” he asked picking up his laptop now and checking his report sheets, making me completely lose it.

“Keep your undies on, she says.”

“So.” He was as cool as only he can be, concentrating on the papers before him.

“What so? Do you even know what it means!!” I didn’t know why I was annoyed.

Now he looked up. Totally with me, with that mischevious smile in his eyes.

“Shut up!”

He simply threw his palms wide and shrug. “Okay. Your command your wish.”

“What?”

“Whatever that phrase is.”

“We have an issue on hand…” I attempted again, annoyed with his approach, when he gestured me to sit down. “See, he said pointing to the screen. He had Googled, meanwhile. “Keep your panties on; Keep your undergarments on…” 

He read aloud, “It’s slang usage. It means composure. It means keep your calm.”

“Okay now?” he asked, getting back to his work. “I have to send an urgent report. Until then keep your’s on.”

Like a deflated tyre, I shriveled in shame.  

“Hope you didn’t say anything unwanted to her,” he asked throwing a side glance.

“I think I did but then…” before I could complete our li’l girl walked in and stopped in her tracks, “What happened Mamma? Why do you look like you have klunk on your face?”

“Wh…w..at on my face?”

“Poop! Don’t you know that?”

“Can you please speak normal English.”

“Oh my Goodness! This is normal English in ‘MazeRunner’.

The books that kept my girl busy during the holidays

“Stop reading those crap books of yours. Don’t you have anything better…”

“Okayies, okayies, chill Mamma, keep your undies on!”

“I said stop it, will you”

“Papa,” she whispered, “What happened?” she asked snuggling beside him.

“Mamma got up with a migraine. Leave her alone!” He whispered back.

Chetan Bhagat’s dream for us

All of us have dreams. But how many of us have dreams for our country? India’s Bollywood [script]writer has one. I’ve read all of Chetan Bhagat’s books, simply because I’m in awe at his courage to throw away a lucrative job to follow his heart. Period.

Now I salute him. He’s taken yet another risk of stepping out of his forte – fiction. Has he landed on his feet?

Well, he’s testing the waters himself. His cautiousness is glaringly evident throughout the book. He misses no opportunity to say that he is no expert of what he is speaking and that the ideas and solutions are merely his opinion. “The essays are by no means perfect; they can at times be too simple or idealistic,” he clarifies.

So somewhere within, does he feel the literary world has not accepted him? I remember watching a chat show on one of the channels where he was snubbed by the veteran Tavleen Singh. She said something on these lines… I’ve not read your books. If I remember right, he didn’t reply. I wondered, then, why he was making a mockery of himself in public.

Not anymore.

Chetan Baghat took to writing because, he says, he has a dream for India. Sounds pompous, isn’t it? He didn’t want to be a typical “armchair NRI advisor”, he adds. Now that’s some confidence. He goes on to say that he has so much love from his readers “that other writers cannot even imagine it”. Would you call this arrogance? Well, then here’s the rest…”However, I don’t get literary praise. It’s okay…” he adds. A man with his head on his shoulders; A person who knows where he stands? Definitely!

Similarly, he’s clear about why India is in the ‘mess’ that it is. His essays on politics, society and youth clearly reflect the reasons. He believes only the youth in India can change the country if they change their mindset and elect the right people to lead the nation. Therefore, all his solutions to the various issues plaguing the country involve youth - who want love and money.

He urges the current generation to leave a country that the youth of today will be proud of. “The next generation may say this was a time of turmoil, but let them not say that we sat doing nothing.”

Corruption, education, secularism are his pet topics. To begin with, Indian education system should be revamped. It is “turning out servile, course material slaves,” he believes.

Also that India lacks community values unlike the US. He urges all to do away with caste-based politics and voting, which is the prime cause for all ills in India unlike the US. Send the right people to Parliament, he pleads.

Comparison to America at regular intervals is discomforting. Why emulate only the US? I guess, when a considerable proportion of desis still hold an American trip as the ultimate status symbol, he can be pardoned.

His desperation makes him mince no words as he bravely takes on the rich and famous. He rips apart Kingfisher, the BCCI and the real estate mafia, giving some stark calculations [the investment banker raises its head] and offering valid solutions to help the country prosper and for youth to retain faith in their homeland.

He even nudges human emotions by discussing terror attacks. But a few of his solutions to social ills are trivialized. If Bollywood movies could change over the last three decades, our mindset about serious issues can also change, he opines. I can’t digest this one.

Similarly, his take on Lerds [liberal arts students] versus nerds, and an open letter to Sonia Gandhi does not sit well with the theme of the book. And the two short stories included are way too childish, to say the least.

But that is absolutely forgivable – this is his first non-fiction work.

“What Young India Wants” is an honest book! The mention of his own suicide attempt is ample proof of his intentions. “Don’t fix history, please look at the future,” says it!

So what’s the writer’s ‘Great Indian Dream’? That every citizen should work hard, prosper and succeed through innovation and hard work and once successful, every citizen should give back to the society that made him or her what he or she is.

Let’s stop being typical Indians. Stop being cynical! Read the issues the book raises and his suggestions. You may agree or disagree with him, but as he says, have your own opinion.

Isn’t that the beginning of any change?

Hats off! Chetan Baghat!

[Picture Courtesy: Book cover - www.flipkart.com; Profile: www.chetanbhagat.com]