(Dedicated to all my single male cousins, Sahil, Shahleen, Preet, Harpreet, etc… who have fell victim to the antics of a certain Uncle Lovely Singh)
If you are hoping that this post has something to with movie entailing a lesbian relationship between a certain Isha Koppikar and Amrita Arora, I am sorry to disappoint you. Although I hate to admit it, but I am wary of writing anything which would make my parents feel too uncomfortable.
I find family reunions an unavoidable ordeal. You meet up relatives, best avoided even in best of occasions, but the presence of a certain Lovely Uncle makes it all the more unbearable. The uncomfortably tight hug, the garishly multi-colored clothes (and a turban to match!) and a booming voice that invariable rings loud with-“Aur puttar, koyee girlfriend banayee?” I loosely shake my head and shrug my shoulders while he continues with “……a boy like you must have a lot of experience”. I sheepishly make a quick getaway leaving my parents with faces flushed with embarrassment to face the cackle of amused relatives. All my single male cousins face the same tune when they happen to bang into Lovely Uncle despite their best attempts to avoid him. But with the girls, it’s a whole different story… Concerns about studies and careers leave little time for such trivial and taboo questions. It seems as if us being in relationships is as much a symbol of our ‘virility’, as their not being in one is a demonstration of their ‘virginity’.
The first few lines of Pride and Prejudice set in Victorian England embodies this attitude by way of, “It’s a truth universally acknowledged that any single man in possession of a fortune is in want of a wife”.In the last 150 years so much has changed by means of advancements in science and technology, yet society continues to carry and further old notions of expected male and female behavior. I wonder how Charlotte Bronte would take stock of a metrosexual man, a homosexual women and a transsexual it (no pun intended!).
Live-in relationships, Single parents, wife swapping are concepts which have seeped into our culture, and have been immortalized both in cinema and modern metropolitan society. It is high time that we come to terms with these intrusions rather than dreaming of the Utopian Hindu society that the Shiv Sainiks and RSS moral police seek to realize. In an era of globalization, consumerism and choice, people like Lovely Uncle have to come to terms with changing gender equations. But, if they refuse to walk with the times and continue to pester you with intentionally embarrassing questions, look them straight in the eye, wear a composed unruffled look and reply, “Uncle, I am gay”.
If you are hoping that this post has something to with movie entailing a lesbian relationship between a certain Isha Koppikar and Amrita Arora, I am sorry to disappoint you. Although I hate to admit it, but I am wary of writing anything which would make my parents feel too uncomfortable.
I find family reunions an unavoidable ordeal. You meet up relatives, best avoided even in best of occasions, but the presence of a certain Lovely Uncle makes it all the more unbearable. The uncomfortably tight hug, the garishly multi-colored clothes (and a turban to match!) and a booming voice that invariable rings loud with-“Aur puttar, koyee girlfriend banayee?” I loosely shake my head and shrug my shoulders while he continues with “……a boy like you must have a lot of experience”. I sheepishly make a quick getaway leaving my parents with faces flushed with embarrassment to face the cackle of amused relatives. All my single male cousins face the same tune when they happen to bang into Lovely Uncle despite their best attempts to avoid him. But with the girls, it’s a whole different story… Concerns about studies and careers leave little time for such trivial and taboo questions. It seems as if us being in relationships is as much a symbol of our ‘virility’, as their not being in one is a demonstration of their ‘virginity’.
The first few lines of Pride and Prejudice set in Victorian England embodies this attitude by way of, “It’s a truth universally acknowledged that any single man in possession of a fortune is in want of a wife”.In the last 150 years so much has changed by means of advancements in science and technology, yet society continues to carry and further old notions of expected male and female behavior. I wonder how Charlotte Bronte would take stock of a metrosexual man, a homosexual women and a transsexual it (no pun intended!).
Live-in relationships, Single parents, wife swapping are concepts which have seeped into our culture, and have been immortalized both in cinema and modern metropolitan society. It is high time that we come to terms with these intrusions rather than dreaming of the Utopian Hindu society that the Shiv Sainiks and RSS moral police seek to realize. In an era of globalization, consumerism and choice, people like Lovely Uncle have to come to terms with changing gender equations. But, if they refuse to walk with the times and continue to pester you with intentionally embarrassing questions, look them straight in the eye, wear a composed unruffled look and reply, “Uncle, I am gay”.
2 comments:
way to go aman ...u the best......!!!!!!!!!
u r just amazing aman....this article has really been succesful in tickling my funny bone.....im still laughing while writing this...
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