Skip to main content

Can I marry the person I love?

Durga Vahini poster
"Can I marry the person I love"? my daughter confronted me with the question.

 "Well," I fumbled.  What could I answer?  In the pre-Modi days I would have said something like, "Can I talk to him before I give an answer?  What kind of a person is he? Good enough to look after you?"  But in the Modi days I stand more confounded than Ann Frank's father was when Ann's nubile sister was asked to submit herself to the Nazis.

 "What well?" she demanded. This is the problem with today's generation.  They want immediate answers like instant coffee.  Or chai or instant conversions.

 I'm old.  I don't wear the bottoms of my trousers folded.  I don't dye my hair.  I don't shave my beard just like my Prime Minister.

 "Darling," I put on the best tone I could muster.  Not master, of course.  Only Mr Modi is the master now.

 "You have to get the permission from Durga Vahini, not me," I said candidly avoiding the ums and errs.

"What's Durga Yoni?" she asked.

 "Gosh!" I said to myself.  "Don't you watch the TV?  The Durga Yoni, I mean Durga Vahini, has asked Kareena Kapoor to divorce her husband and return home.  Ghar Vapsi, they call it."

 "What the f**k does that mean?"

 "I don't know, dear," I opened my palms helplessly.  We now live in a country ruled by an emperor whose organs decide who will love whom and marry whom.

 She spat out and walked away.

 What am I to do? Old man with shrivelling veins?  I want to help my daughter.  But I want to be a patriot too.


PS. I have no children.  Given the situation in India, I'm glad.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Amrita SabatJanuary 8, 2015 at 7:07 PM

    OMG! Mindblowing post Sir!

    But I have a qn- has Kareena Kapoor converted to Muslim or has she just assumed the title 'Khan'?! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 8, 2015 at 7:13 PM

      She has not converted, Amrita. There is no conversion in the high class circles. All conversion takes place in low classes. That's why I posted this. I'm curious how the PM will handle this. He is unleashing the monsters beyond his control. I pity him.

      Delete
  2. Saru SinghalJanuary 8, 2015 at 7:25 PM

    I can summarise the state of our country in one word - pathetic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. NajmunJanuary 8, 2015 at 8:19 PM

    This is the worst case scenerio! What could be worse than this, I can't wait for Modi days to be over now :/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 8, 2015 at 8:45 PM

      In a way, it's good. They are targetting somebody important and not just the Dalits who can be bought for a few dollars donated to the BJP from Indian Americans.

      Delete
  4. Vinay NagarajuJanuary 8, 2015 at 8:22 PM

    Funny thing, I wrote a post on the same topic today :) .

    Well to be honest, I really do not know what Modi's true perspective towards this is. I do agree that there are traces of strong association in the past and if they are present in the present too, they are well hidden ;).. Either ways, I can unequivocally say that it is extremely wrong to drive religion into personal choice, it kinda defeats the whole purpose of religion..

    ReplyDelete
  5. ManiparnaJanuary 9, 2015 at 1:18 AM

    Things are getting worse...religion is individual choice, so is marriage. State has no right to interfere in such matters...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 9, 2015 at 9:44 AM

      Let's hope that the activists will understand it. Perhaps this is not so much about understanding as about wielding power.

      Delete
  6. KalpanaJanuary 9, 2015 at 8:23 AM

    Well said! This whole thing is ridiculous - wrong on so many levels. Overzealous idiots interfering in people's personal lives with no idea of nuances. Such uneducated and blinkered thinking is disturbing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. IndraniJanuary 9, 2015 at 10:07 AM

    Ridiculous!
    I like the humorous way you have put it across.

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJanuary 9, 2015 at 5:23 PM

    If govt would have been optimistic they could ve used 3 khans as ambassadors for promoting secularism and make india a unique place in world. As shah rukh. Aamir. Saif all married without caring of religion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 9, 2015 at 6:22 PM

      True, inter-religious marriages should be encouraged by the govt and other agencies so that communal harmony strengthens in the country.

      Delete
  9. UnknownJanuary 14, 2015 at 11:21 PM

    This is shameful. Rather, it is ridiculous. Are Indians walking back in time?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aayesha S HakimJanuary 18, 2015 at 1:23 PM

    Pathetic state. Nice post, sir :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu Book Review Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse Author: Lubna Shibu Publisher: Book Leaf , 2024 Pages: 23 Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people. I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I ask...
8 comments
Read more

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...
12 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
15 comments
Read more

The Triumph of Godse

Book Discussion Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi in order to save Hindus from emasculation. Gandhi was making Hindu men effeminate, incapable of retaliation. Revenge and violence are required of brave men, according to Godse. Gandhi stripped the Hindu men of their bravery and transmuted them into “sheep and goats,” Godse wrote in an article titled ‘Non-resisting tendency accomplished easily by animals.’ Gandhi had to die in order to salvage the manliness of the Hindu men. This argument that formed the foundation of Godse’s self-defence after Gandhi’s assassination was later modified by Narendra Modi et al as: “ Hindu khatre mein hai ,” Hindus are in danger. So Godse has reincarnated now.   Godse’s hatred of non-Hindus has now become the driving force of Hindutva in India. It arose primarily because of the hurt that Godse’s love for his religious community was hurt. His Hindu sentiments were hurt, in other words. Gandhi, Godse, and the minority question is the theme of the...
5 comments
Read more