When the fates conspired

At home in Chennai, the TV is always on, background noise to drown the noise of the T nagar traffic. And for my parents, noise that is vital in an otherwise silent house with just the two of them. And so kolangal kolangal, la la la la it goes in the late evenings, and news headlines through most of the day, and assorted soaps and game shows, interrupted by thunderous voices announcing indiya tholaikatchiyil mudal muraiyaga – for the first time in the history of Indian television – and what? a movie released six months ago to be shown on Sunday afternoon. History of Indian TV, indeed. And what is with that thunderclouds and lightning announcement tone?

… As I write this, Barkha Dutt is asking the studio audience what they think about writing explicitly about sex on personal matters on blogs. And I have one eye on the TV, and my peripheral vision shows my mother deeply interested in what Meenakshi Madhavan is saying there, and someone in an armchairy analytical way is saying something about blogs being “self-affirming and empowering” – “holding forth to an audience…” (turns out she is a psychologist… sociologist?). Oh, never mind.

About when the fates conspired.

Last night on one such Tamil show, two “teams” sit opposite each other, women in their twenties and women in their forties. Mothers and daughters, perhaps. Definitely women from two different generations. I do not know what the discussion is all about – till one of that twenties says on the mike – I was always jealous of my mother while growing up – she was more beautiful… she had “more color” (local term for fairer). I kept cursing fate for being so dark And when I got married, my mother-in-law said, I hope your children do not take after you and take after your mother instead… But vidiyin vilaiyaattu (game played by fate?) and my children are also dark…

Thunderous applause from the audience… I wonder if the woman is happy – atleast my children are not growing up jealous of me?