Times have changed

A typical household in Mylapore wakes up to the smell of freshly brewed filter coffee, voice MS Subbalakshmi rendering Suprabatham and the crisp newsprint with crunchy headlines in the doorway. Mine was no different from any other household in Mylapore, the orthodox DNA was chaste and intact.

For grandpa it was Leo filter coffee, for grandma it was MS Suprabatham and for dad it was the "Mount Road Mahavishnu" (MRM) and this routine had become a part of the family tradition and anybody who got between them and their morning ritual was considered a "Mahapaavi" and it is always attributed to "Kalee". On a clinical note can we call this morning ritual an obsessive compulsive disorder or on a frivolous note can we call it a Mylapore morning fetish?

I was not a trying change from MS to Madonna and annoy my granny, I was not trying to switch over from coffee to cappuccino and disappoint my grandpa, but all I was trying to do was to get TOI into my house. This was like bringing home a girl from another community and asking for Ravioli in the house of Rava upuma. In Bhagavad Geeta parlance this is "Varna sangraham". Is it really so? Isn't Athithi devoh bavah a part of our DNA?

Dad was being a typical "Mylapore Mama" with blinders on and spewing expletives like chewed pan when I mentioned about subscribing to TOI. It is not difficult to sell the newspaper to "Mylapore Mamis", a few freebies and there they fall. I was able to entice my mother with the idea of Rs 1 a day and the free travel bag. Grandparents were always by my side – we were both fighting against a common enemy, their son and my dad.

My dad testified that his brain was nurtured (neutered?) from reading MRM over 50 years, it was unacceptable to let the Mumbaikar in my house. Call it the breach the tradition, crossing of the Lekshman Rekha, or Conversion at home all this happened after a lot of drama and with the blessings of the home minister cum finance minister, my Amma (mother). Yes, the Mumbaikar was in the house with jubilation, but with a condition, The MRM would be the paper of the house and he will decorate the living room but TOI can exist only in my room.

For a closeted culture that has only had filter coffee, heard only MS Subbalakshmi and read the Mount Road Mahavishnu any substitute was a terrible curse. Here I was defacing a pure Brahminical Mylapore house hold. Every time I picked up the newspaper he would look at me as though I have crossed the boundaries of morality and chastity. Are these applicable to newspapers too? Well I had no other option but to prove that TOI was re-virginized.

Who said untouchability was a passé? It was openly practiced by this "Mylapore Mama". Is it the font of wisdom or fault of wisdom that kept my father loyal to MRM? He would pick up the MRM newspaper with love but treat TOI like an orphan, leaving it unattended at the doorstep. My TOI was treated like a pariah in this brahminical house hold. If given an option dad would have even asked the newspaper boy to drop the paper at the back door, and let it enter the same way my servant maid came into the house.

Are options more a hindrance than help in life? I slowly made it a part of the Mylapore household ritual to sit in front of my dad spreading the sheets of TOI and reading news loudly and intermittently inviting my mother to look at the newspaper. Is "Change" a dreadful word? How different is it from conversion? Is it a crime to open the window to get some fresh air in the conventional household? Here I was willing to try something new in this conservative household.

Was it enticement or surreptitious conversion that was happening in the house? This story continued for the next three months and the man was annoyed with my loud reading and advised me to get back into my room with the newspaper. But occasionally his ears would go up like an Alsatian when I read loudly to my mother.

Who wants to embrace change in this world? We all want to world to change for us, right? Embracing change though said easily is all internal and has been the toughest challenge ever for mankind and it always happens over a period of time like evolution. My father was no exception, but he was evolving unconsciously. Though he was not ready to swap the main course for a snack, but he was willingly read the Mumbaikar in his free time.

Is evolution growing new taste buds? By now the Pariah in the house was touched, read and slowly discussed during the family hour. This was a great victory for me, but I purposefully decided to let this go unnoticed.

Does comparison create a healthy conflict or does it alter perceptions? Tamilians are choosey and take time to accept Mumbaikars, wasn’t that the case with Jyothika, Kushboo, Simran etc? But once they’ve accepted they go to the extent of building temples. Before we realized dad and I were qualitatively assessing the news value in both the newspaper. It was over three months with the new entrant and she was no more the new daughter-in-law who stayed in the back quarters, she was willfully accepted at the breakfast table and she was serving the main course with all pride and no prejudice. Yes, Darwinism was working! Was it for my father or for TOI?

In religious parlance the end of unholy Aadi month ousted both Musharaff and The Mount Road Mahavishnu.The new Mumbaikar daughter-in-law adorned the throne in the living room and the chaste Mylapore DNA was mutated for good, and the MRM got downgraded to "Ex". Times have changed…