Barely a week ago everyone was biting on bits and spewing great balls of fire. Except for our young 'un brigade who would periodically and provocatively question our erstwhile leaders (viva Instagram!), the rest of the middle-agers sat on their derrieres and played armchair pacifists.
They will intellectually hold-forth, but not move from their comfort zones to do anything. Always... it's a plaintive cry of 'we are out-numbered', or the 'goose stepping brigade' will arrest us and so on and so forth.
Instead, they will argue, poke holes in your efforts and do ineffectual sloganeering in private cliques and in the safety of their homes. Sigh! We (the middle-age brigade) need to stop subscribing to a narrow vision and grow another pair of courage and conviction of course!
This week was filled with taking a leaf out of the books of people who work and give selflessly without wasting time on our pot-bellied and shameless 'men in white', who continue to twist and manipulate 'the narrative'.
Vote bank politics is still an effective tool even though we have lost count of the dead and dying. Will someone tell these opportunists that nobody cares, now more than ever, and the blood in everyone's veins is the same! Ask us... we have been arranging for blood and oxygen worldwide and believe me, it’s the same.
Those who 'divide et-impera' will always use outlandish justifications usually associated with religious beliefs, skin-colour etc.
But, at the end of the day, it always stems down to personal prejudices and bigotry which these mucilaginous 'kakistocracy' (governance by the worst people) use to their advantage. Beware of the ‘lockdown-lowdowns’!
Amidst all this hullaballoo 'Mother's Day' crept in and out. I had completely forgotten, and I was pleasantly surprised as flowers and sinfully decadent gooey chocolate cakes started arriving from my daughter in Mumbai and my son who managed to re-enter the city from Goa where he was stuck for over a month!
The notes they wrote me, had me prickly eyed. Somehow as we go through life picking up after them, empowering them, teaching them and sharing their highs and lows. You don’t know when, and against all odds (and the natural law of survival), these humans become more important than even yourself.
I remember as my husband nearly passed out when we were suffering through COVID-19, I couldn’t help him up. My son reached down and I instinctively stopped him because he was not infected. When does this change happen, when one puts the children above everything and everyone?
I have been their mentor, laugh buddy and general dogs-body throughout the last two trying years and assured them that come what may... 'main hoon na' (you can count on me).
Speaking to a host of mothers, I realized that we were 'moms' first, lockdown or not, and the onus of home-schooling, keeping the younger ones engaged, cooking, cleaning and dealing with the older kids fears and frustrations while keeping our careers on a back-burner, was mentally and physically exhausting.
Food consultant and writer Monika shared that she felt the most depressed being in isolation was when she couldn’t hold, comfort and interact with her young son. Notwithstanding her own racking illness it was her son who occupied her thoughts.
Ace doctor Sushila Suresh can impress you with her steely resolve and fantastic acumen. But, her thoughts and long distance advice was on hand 24/7 for her two daughters, one whom is a doctor herself.
My friend Afshan has my life-long admiration for bringing up her three daughters impeccably. A single mother who tragically lost her spouse early, her daughters are located all over the world as contributing adults.
The youngest Sahar runs, Bare Necessities, a zero-waste solutions company and is an author to boot! Afshan has before and after the lockdown played the role of a mother/parent to perfection. Mama Mia is right!
(The writer is an actor and funny girl)