Dodaddlydo

Fathers’ day went by recently (ya I know I am kinda late have been up to some new and weird stuff as always and Pune rains are so soporific) so FD happened and off course with it happened the onslaught of wishes on Watsapp, Fb, Instagram , Twitter and our other SN buddies. (SN- Social networking- I have been told by a teen in my complex to use short forms like this- the exact words been “Aunty (aaarrrgghhh) short forms will make you sound cool”). Ooohh I just used brackets within my brackets, guess the good old drafting patents and agreements habit just won’t go. Straying eons away from the point to be made is another remnant habit from my drafting days, hope you guys are still reading.


So the onslaught ya, there are three kinds of people vis-à-vis these ‘days’, the PDA (‘Public Display of Affection’ for the uninitiated amongst you) ones who take to SNs for declaring their paternal/maternal/romantic/feline/equine/canine/otherals/otherines love, the ‘Lets Keep It Personal’ (LKIP) types who pick up the phone and call up to wish, the ‘Naysayers’ the kind who don’t believe in such days. There may be other intermediary types as well. Well the more the types the better that’s what keeps our society interesting! Anthropology would get so boring if we all start thinking the same way or having the same opinions.  What my issue is, is that we are not satisfied just belonging to these types, we have these eternal and unquenchable need to judge and criticize the people from other types. This is not just restricted to the topic at hand regarding celebrating days but for every topic under the sun, be it national, international issues, society issues, shoe issues, gutter issues, dog issues, potty issues, every personal choice; we as mankind just don’t get the concept of ‘Agreeing To Disagree’.


As far as celebrating days is concerned, the SN followers would say we like PDA what is wrong with it? It’s the age of SN so if we weren’t meant to voice our emotions on it why was it even created. The LKIP kinds on the other end would mock at this lot and say such things should be personal and if you wanna wish your special ones do it personally or over the phone why do you need to display your emotions on a public forum. The naysayers would be like why the heck are such days celebrated! We should not have days to declare our love and each day should be celebrated, such defined days are nothing but a marketing gimmick and its just herd mentality to wish on such days. Now I am not sitting on the judge’s chair here to analyze which of these groups is right or wrong. These are opinions, individual opinions which as a human being everyone has a right to have. It’s a different thing to voice your opinion even have a healthy debate about contrary views.  But noooo aren’t we a flawed lot we just can’t have our opinion and shut up there is this incessant need to shove our opinions in others faces and down their throats, God forbid if they don’t agree with us we just end up alienating them. Again pppssstt ever heard of AGREEING TO DISAGREE!


My opinion (off course I would give one and it is the most correct opinion and you have to have to agree or with me or wild bats will chew off your nose!), vis a vis celebrating such days is yes one should shower love on ones parents, mates, partners, teachers, cats, dogs, bats…..on a daily basis, its obviously not right to beat the shit out of your wife daily and send her roses on valentine’s day, or been the nagging wife taunting your husband daily and putting up a loveydovey post on the anniversary, or forgetting your parents even exist and sending ecards on fathers and mothers day. However that doesn’t mean celebrating such days is wrong in itself. I see such days as reasons for reconnecting, for expressing yourself, for well celebrating. It would surely irritate the hell out of my parents if I call them up every day and repeat how grateful I am to them and all….I mean c’mon its not a sooraj barjatiya film…we have tons to deal with everyday there is the daily wear and tear and it is just plain artificial to keep on voicing one’s feelings regarding anyone every single day. So yes you keep the love alive call up your parents, keep in touch with your mates, respect and love your partners, share responsibilities regularly, feed your cats and dogs and bats but when such predefined days come up one can go out of their way and put up that fb post or send that ecard or the red rose and white lilies bouquet or write up a poem or simply call or meet the persons concerned. What is so wrong in having reasons to celebrate right? And how one decides to celebrate and express oneself is purely a personal matter which maybe shaped by that person’s upbringing, social context, schedules or his/her base personality.


As far as the claim of all these been westernized concepts is concerned well even jeans are westernized so are we all gonna switch to salwars and dhotis?!?! As far as the parties involved get some joy out of it, some notion of connectivity out of it, I don’t see it as an evil western concept come down to kill our sanskaars. (Aloknath may disagree, but let’s declare a national kanyadaan day for him). Then off course are the amchi bhumi amcha bana people who will go around thrashing like an angry Hulk on these days again reasoning it out to be sanskaron ka katal. We can have a National Thrashing Day for them, you know where we can built up a toy city for them maybe inside Filmcity and where they can merrily go and thrash stuff, beat up mannequins, throw stones at set up cafes, you know just a positive vent to all their angst.


So the point is, ‘To Do The Day or Not To Do The Day’ is as personal a choice as to use an Indian toilet or a commode, none of these choices need to be interfered with!

Happy Doodads Day Baba!(P.S.- Doodad is the Urban dictionary word for Dad, you know just to sound cool :p)

-Sneha Karle