The Summer Selfies

Its summer time, everyone is on a chutti. The power corridors of the government are on a holiday where they are studying something inconsequential which will never be applied in Punjab. The Minister, his wife, daughter, and son in law the 2.3 kids, the secretary, and the personal assistant have flown away. Every banker, officer, doctor I know have all gone for the lucrative 5 night 6 day package to some other foreign locale. Mango people have all gone to Manali, Shimla and are causing traffic jams for ordinary commuters. Every day, Bookzilla pops up advertisements where rooms are available for Rest 500.

The aim admit under the stress of what will the mohalla wala say, or what will the society say is taking these holidays to ensure they can proudly say oh we went there, and proof is the immediate upload of pictures on Facebook.

Coming to that later, my karigars also went on a religious yatra to Baba Balak Nath ! The maid took off for some place in the hills, they certainly are enjoying more than me! Its been a catch 22 situation where she said she needed time off so she can relax and make herself free from tension. I immediately sent her with my blessing and a bribe so she may come back and I earned brownie points in this fashion.

I have not found any answer to this. However this affliction which is found where one gets one’s henpecked husband to take 18 pictures with the duck pout and hair framing perfectly, and the shades in place with the perfect nude make and shimmer – up and the right posturing is done is a disease. It has caught with everyone, children, mothers, and aunties, newly wed, and holiday goers in foreign locales. In fact, its become a trend to first shop for the holiday to wear the latest dresses, mini skirt s, minuscule shorts, and the other so called modern clothing! With flip-flops for one’s feet!

I mean what happened to comfortable clothing! I have friends who have taken pictures, which are then vetted by their wives who make sure it is making them look beautiful, pretty and then it is uploaded with a check in. And, heaven forbid you don’t have a Wi-Fi connection; the immediate validation by the check in is proof that you have actually gone for a holiday. It starts from the travel from hometown, from the airport where you post a check in along with a smart catchy one liner ensuring the maximum likes.

My sons think I have the same problem too, in fact the only difference is that it doesn’t bother whether I look good or not. This year at Manali , a couple fell and hurt themselves badly when trying to take a selfie ! They injured themselves rather badly. When I was travelling in Bhutan, I was guilty of a lot of these but at one place when we were climbing to reach to Tiger’s Nest, there were explicit instructions to not take selfies or take photographs on the path, as the other side was a sheer drop and a lady tourist from Thailand had lost her life in early March; just when she was taking a selfie with the panorama at the back.

Sometimes, these fads are dangerous and life threatening. My brother who is a Doctor calls them a serious affliction and also points out young kids especially girls who start posturing them selves with a tilt of their neck, injure themselves requiring a medical attention later.

Till then, we as a nation are led by a PM who is an expert in taking selfies and posting them on the social media, who am I to complain? I always live in hope for acche din.