This is becoming too much. I agree for centuries there has been gender discrimination but the pendulum seems to be swinging the other extreme. This 'woke-ism", feminism, women's liberation, Nari-shakti is all good, but are they not stretching it too far ?
Do men not have any role in this society ? Men seem to be slowly becoming appendages to women, if one goes by the coverage in the media. The latest "Economist" has an interesting story under the headline "The age of the grandma".
The story is about how the population of grandparents worldwide is growing rapidly. By some estimate, the number of grandparents today is 1.5 Billion compared to just 0.5 Billion in 1960. It says by the year 2050, number of grandparents would be more than the number of children below the age of 15.
I understand simple English that grandparents means a grandfather and a grandmother. Yet the headline recognises grandma only. I told this to my wife Mangalam and we had a heated argument over it this morning.
Here is an extract of the conversation :
J Bhoothalingam (JB) : Here is an interesting story in the latest Economist. You must read it. It says with people living longer and families becoming smaller, the proportion of grandparents to children is rising rapidly.
Mangalam (MB) : You don't need a foreign magazine to tell us that. That we are seeing all around. I was one of the 15 grand children on the maternal side..I can't even count on the paternal side. Now if Jan has a kid and because his wife is also an only child, there will be 4 grandparents for that kid..The whole.equation has changed in 2 generations.
JB: But I have a problem with the article. It says "The evidence suggests children do better with grandparental help—which usually, in practice, means from grandmothers." The whole article says how kids that have grand mothers around do better in life and also women are able to go to work if their mothers are around to do child care when the children are small. This increases the family income.
MB : Is that not true ? What is your problem ?
JB : Do grandfathers mean nothing at all ?
MB : What do grandpas do besides spoiling their grandchildren with toys and chocolates ?
JB : Our son Jan was quite fond of his thatha. He used to look forward to his visit. He used to listen to all the stories and all the visits they made to the local parks and museums together
MB : It was a nice escape for him from his studies. He used to tell me secretly that he had got bored of all the stories his thatha told him. He said he had heard many stories more than once.
JB : OK.. Thathas cannot do some of the baby sitting work as well as the grandma.. But they can guide them in their studies , escort them for some classes or atleast leave and bring them from the bus stops.
MB : All that the grandmas can also do. Don't you remember after your father guided Jan in some Maths how he got confused and made many silly mistakes in his Class 3 final exams ?
JB: So you are with the Economist people. Grandmas are only useful and grandpas are just useless.
MB : Are they not saying that is backed by research ?
JB : Mannangkatti research. These women journalists twist everything in their favour.
I have written a shorter version of this letter to the Economist because they do not publish long letters. Unless I express it in full, I will remain agitated. I hope you will carry this letter. I am not a grandpa, but my heart beats for all the grandpas. By giving the headline " The age of the grandma", the magazine is doing a great injustice to all thegrandfathers.
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