09 March 2013, 10:21 AM IST
Renunciation seems to have become the mantra of the Nehru-Gandhi clan. First, Rahul's mom, Soniaji, famously renounced the prime minister's gaddi in favour of Manmohan Singh. Now, Rahul has done a double whammy. He's reportedly said that he might not only renounce PM-ship (who's he going to get as his Manmohan stand-in? the question is already being asked) but that he'll go one better and also renounce the institution of matrimony and remain single.
Why this vow of bachelorhood, if not celibacy? Apparently it's because Rahul believes that, if he were to get married, his conjugal state would inevitably result in his fathering children, whom he would then, out of natural paternalistic instincts, set up in positions of political power, thus perpetuating the dynastic line of succession in the Congress party. So, Rahul plans to remain unmarried – and childless – all for the sake of intra-party democracy.
A noble thought. And like all too many noble thoughts, it suffers from what might be called fuzzy logic. Hasn't anyone told Rahul baba that, in this day and age of the post-modern Kama Sutra, the equation that marriage equals kids is as outdated as what used to be known as the 'missionary position' in the vocabulary of sexual discourse?
In 21st century India, as in other parts of the world, there is growing sub-species of what are called DINKs – an acronym that stands for double income, no kids. DINKs are, literally, a breed apart, in that though married, they have chosen not to breed.
Married couples today elect not to have children for any number of reasons. Some might decide not to have kids because they feel that Mother Earth is already far too overburdened by human population and don't wish to add to the load for environmental reasons. Others might opt not to have progeny out of economic or societal considerations. Then there are people who are just temperamentally child-allergic. Like the comedian WC Fields who, when asked how he liked children, replied: "Boiled". I don't know if he was married. But otherwise he would have made an ideal DINK. How can DINKs voluntarily give up the joys of parenthood? And the answer is: very easily indeed.
What are the joys of parenthood? First there is the joy of shared sleepless nights devoted to giving the infant its mandatory three-hourly feeds. There is the joy of changing dirty diapers, of listening to screaming tantrums, of playing amateur nurse for mumps, measles, skinned knees, acne, adolescent angst, and the myriad other ills that juvenile flesh is heir to.
There is the joy of joining the stampede of getting admission into nursery school, big school, university (in America, or here in India only?). There is the joy of board exams, and endless tutorial fees, and capitation fees. Then there's the joy of finding a suitable 'life partner' for the now-grown-up brat (make sure the janam patris match, but the gotras aren't the same). And then there's the joy of seeing all these joys repeated for the next generation of parents.
DINKs forsake all these joys. To console themselves, the poor things go instead on holiday cruises in the Caribbean (what to do with all that extra money that didn't get spent on Pampers and capitation fees?), take up golf or learn Gangnam-style horse dancing, attend wine-appreciation classes or throw rave parties where everyone freaks out to 1960s and 1970s Golden Oldies from Bollywood. Yaahhooo!
One way or the other, DINKs learn to put up with their childless lives. I know. Because I'm half a DINK myself. The other half being Bunny, to whom I've been married for over 40 years, blissfully sans bal-bachche.
Heck, Rahul. Give it a shot. If I could do it, so can you. No kidding.
jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
C’mon Rahul – marriage isn’t kid stuff
Dengan url
http://osteoporosista.blogspot.com/2013/03/camon-rahul-marriage-isnat-kid-stuff.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
C’mon Rahul – marriage isn’t kid stuff
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
C’mon Rahul – marriage isn’t kid stuff
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar