Father's Day, Covid, rain, gender roles, politics

So I don’t regard Father’s Day as anything very special to celebrate, but for once it felt good to see that from Google to The Telegraph t2, they have all decided that, to be just about politically correct, they should make a fuss about it, at least this year.

(I started the sentence with a meaningless ‘so’ just to see what it looks and sounds like, since it is currently all the rage among teenagers worldwide – and yes, it’s completely stupid, not ‘cool’,  just as I thought: if any of my young students are reading this, beware).

I watched the movie called Fatherhood which has just been put up (or ‘dropped’ if you like) on Netflix. It helped me re-live those glorious years when Pupu was growing up, and it’s mostly silly mush, and it turned out fine in the end because the director wanted it to, but, to all who have just become fathers or are going to be soon, one quiet word of advice from a father with long hindsight: don’t overdo the ‘The world exists to please you… you are uniquely special … I am dedicated single mindedly to the task of making you feel right and good all the time’ stuff. It doesn’t do much to build up their psyches healthily, and eventually hurts them more than if they had been brought up to know, from a very early age, that the world does not revolve around them. A bit of hardship and self-reliance (both mental and physical) and taking responsibility and acquaintance with some of the badness and unfairness in the world and knowledge of whatever little badness exists within themselves cannot do them harm. If you really have their long-term interest at heart, I mean to say. Personally I believe I have done fairly above average as a father, but remember, I have closely watched thousands growing up, and I can’t say that most doting fathers I see are doing very well.

By now, as with every other family, almost everyone in mine has had a brush with Covid. Both sadly and mercifully, only a cousin my own age has died so far, and she had advanced cancer anyway. I hope, if anybody else has to be taken, it will be me, and may the young ones be spared.

We have been having a very rainy June. These last few days, it’s been overcast all day, and rather than the air conditioner going full blast, I have actually had to turn off the overhead fan at night. It’s probably a big depression passing over us, and once it clears up, I am afraid to think how muggy it’s going to be in July (but hilsa is going to be a lot cheaper than usual for some time, I hear!) That’s when I am planning to reopen classes once more, ready to shut them down for a while again if the numbers start shooting up a few months down the line. That’s the way we shall probably be going on for another long year…

One thing about the marketplaces in my town that has struck me as odd for a long time is that, while many fish vendors are women, hardly any vegetable seller is. I think it’s more or less the same everywhere, even in the big cities. Is it just a coincidence or an accident that has become stereotyped, or does anyone know any specific reason why?

Observing and musing upon the way our governments have been (mal-) functioning and bickering (states and Centre) over the last few years, I think I can say a few things without prejudice. It is said that the cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. From that point of view, I wish that three things would happen sooner or later: a) that people would vote much more on the basis of what the government has actually done for them that directly and intimately affects their lives, rather than going by glorious promises of one or other kind of utopia; b) that elected representatives of the people at all levels, MPs and MLAs included, can be recalled by the voters at any time, depending on their perceived performance or non-performance as public servants (as I hear they can be in some countries), and c) that India become a much more federal polity, leaving most of the powers of day to day governance in the hands of state governments. Given how vast our state populations are (some of them are much bigger than many countries!) and how diverse the peoples, I think, given the incessant and increasing tensions and conflicts between the state- and Union governments, that is the only way to keep many bits and pieces of what we still know as India from flying apart. I worry very much that that is a distinct possibility now, and anything but unimaginable; it happened to the Maurya and Mughal empires when they tried to tighten the screws too hard, and something as big and powerful as the Soviet Union not only collapsed but vanished from the map, remember.

Good to see that I have had 750,000+ page views by now. The million views milestone is now almost within sight!