Baoji naraaz hue

See the thing is na for us Punjabis scolding and being scolded is routine No scolding means no love We spend our holidays dodging tonguelashings from strong scary aunts and ducking the displeasure of sundry baojis and tayajis Even better than escaping this is if some other cousin can get scolded for a shenanigan you have jointly carried out while you escape scot free to chortle in the wings If caught in any act the scoldings will always involve some melodramatic utterances such as ldquobade par nikal aaye hain tumharerdquo ldquotum hotay kaun hordquo ldquoyeh mat samjho ke tum bade sayane ho gaye hordquo etc IllustrationAmit Bandre Thus the upstartishness of young people is underlined by older folks who are basically saying donrsquot try to act too smart because you think you are of the time I may be old but I still know a few things Girls often cry on discovery Boys become sullen They stand around silently while they are scolded post apprehension The air is full of the frustration of one who has thought he could get away with something and the satisfaction of the one who has prevented him Some canny older folks start by lulling you with praise and then give you a fatka when you think yoursquove got away This is what is meant by a double whammy The moment has an inherent comedy The older person is asserting an authority which is fast slipping and sometimes the younger person is letting them Therersquos some love here and a feeling of being cared for that feels safe and makes us feel like children again even though adulthood sucks and growing older isnrsquot easy Just for a minute both parties entertain the notion that things havenrsquot really changed At the same time the older party does know something the younger party doesnrsquot and the sullenness is a silent acknowledgement of that For a minute two dots on two parallel lines come into an equal space before spinning off into their separate orbits I am saying all this only to console Chetan Bhagat who recently got a scolding from writer and filmmaker Gulzar Hua aise ki Chetan bhaiya was the emcee at an event where Gulzar baoji was a panelist At some point Chetan bhaiya praised baojirsquos song Kajra Re saying ki it was a very good piece of poetry Bas then Gulzar baoji took the microphone and gave Chetan bhaiya the tumhotaykaunho treatment ldquoChetan I am glad that an author like you has liked the song ie lulling you with praise But I donrsquot think you have understood the poetry that you are trying to talk about here If you still insist I will recite two lines from the song Tell me the meaning of thoserdquo ldquoTeri baaton main kimam ki khusbu hain Tera aana bhi garmiyon ki lu hain Tell me the meaning the fatka the fatkardquo Like all cousins who thought they have gotten away with breaking the pickle jar while stealing the pickles that have not yet ripened Chetan bhaiya froze He demonstrated a blank look while Baoji continued to chide him for passing lsquoexpert commentsrsquo on things he knows nothing about ie bade par nikal aaye hain tumhare Thing is Chetan bhaiya appears to think lately that because his stuff ldquoworksrdquo which is apparently the only index of validity nowadays he gets to decide whatrsquos good But Gulzar baojirsquos stuff lsquoworksrsquo and is often lsquogoodrsquo also And baoji was kind of reminding bhaiya of that Bura mat maanna Chetan bhaiya sometimes elders do know a thing or two Paromita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at wwwparodevicom The views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paperu00a0