My lady friends are in a pretty bad mood. A significant number are Malayali. No prizes for guessing it’s because KK Shailaja, popularly known as Shailaja Teacher, after a stunning performance as Kerala’s Health Minister through the Nipah and COVID-19 crises, after winning Assembly elections with a historic majority, was not included in the Cabinet while Pinarayi Vijayan began his second term as Chief Minister. 

My friend N said to her mother, “so?” Her mother giving the side eye said, “you mean the sidelining?” D informed that his girlfriend’s mother “is refusing to watch TV in disgust at The Sidelining”.  The Sidelining, said N, is a generational memory. Our other friend, J, has a good-and-mad grandmom who remembers The Sidelining of KR Gowri in 1987. After a stellar record and an election campaign promising to make her Kerala CM, she was sidelined for the post, in favour of an upper caste man. J’s mom remembers the sidelining of Susheela Gopalan in 1997, who lost the party vote for CM by one vote.