Chitthi aayi hai

Dear Mr Sibal Irsquove been remembering you so much lately I thought Irsquod write you a letter I had a yen to talk to you about my parentsu00a0When I was a kid wersquod be transferred to a new base every few years This meant leaving best friends behind resulting in fullscale viraha feelings appropriate to youthu00a0So the first question before my schoolbag was off my shoulders each day was mdash meri koi chitthi Then the voluptuous immersion in a private cocoon would follow mdash rereading those fat pillows of letters full of innermost thoughts anger at our parents the world our keen adolescent conviction that the most unjust life had been meted out to us alone and so forthu00a0 Illustration u00a0Amit Bandre My parents would cast uneasy glances at this hectic nearerotic activity One can guess their thoughts mdash what was this that drew their child so far from them into an individual world Did seditious thoughts forbidden fantasies and dark plots about the future throb in those pages The answer Yes many These friendships and forays outside the family were of course the path to dissent with what was around me and eventually to adulthood Sensing this and tempted as he might have been my parents never opened or read the letters When letters were replaced by interminable phone conversations the uncertainty about what might be afoot never led to stealthy eavesdropping on the extension lineu00a0As children my dad had told us clearly mdash you never open other peoplersquos letters Theyrsquore personal Itrsquos private So now even if his principle might have been tested he had to stick to it right So he did even when dissent became the norm at home Perhaps he believed things would turn out for the best Despite this individual private activity his daughter would nevertheless emerge as a doctor with husband and a wardrobe full of pressed salwar kameezes No such luck alasu00a0Did all the privacy he afforded us have something to do with it Almost certainly Allowed to have many spaces without scrutiny I had the freedom to plot a rather different script than my parents might have liked But scrutiny never followed in all the time it took to figure things out And I think that helped with the figuring things out bit Mr Sibal if my dad could do it I reckon so can you and your government I reckon you can junk this ridiculous and wrongly parental plan to create a governmentrun 50member body empowered to oversee all Internet standard bodies and regulate all Internetrelated disputes sidelining any ldquoequal sayrdquo process with civil society that you are proposing to the UN I know that some parents decide everything unilaterally including their kidsrsquo spouses just like you guys have taken the proposal to the UN without any public discussion And I know the government is confused about the difference between public and private from the way they use public resources to help private profit and also allow private corporates to block public sites like Vimeo and send notices to bloggers like Vidyut Kale to take down her expose of the alleged financial hankypanky of Marine Solutions henceforth Sailgate from her blog wwwaamjantacom I know you think you are doing it for our good just like some peoplersquos parents beat up their kids for their own good You think in the end we will see you meant well and see the love behind the bullshit and censorship the father behind the fascismu00a0Thing is na Mr Sibal we canrsquot choose our parents But we do choose our government naReply soon Me 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