We have all sorts of canines in Chennai. Great Danes, Labs, Dalmatians, Pekinese, Chihuahuas, Rajapalayams, Combais, etc etc. Pedigreed ones, and mongrels too. Indigenous as well as imported breeds. And some in between.We a have fair variety of felines too. Cool cats and Pussycats, kittens in Kollywood or Mollywood or whatever wood it is called, Lions, Tigers and all sorts of indigenous and non-native felines at the zoo. We also used to have Liberation Tigers who mostly liberated hapless women of their gold ornaments and homes of whatever objects of value including in some instances, in a well known West Madras area, water pumps - water pumps! Water pumps? When your cause is noble nothing is too cheap if acquired in furtherance of that cause. Then we have Tigers of all sorts of description belonging to political movements with membership ranging from just one to a few millions and of questionable relevance. These are usually headed by people with military titles like Captain, Havaldar, Corporal etc. Those with titles involving higher ranks are not directly involved in feline causes but are known to conveniently support some.
However Chennai is Cougar-unfriendly country.
Many Chennai men have leonine names: Balasingham (young lion), Sundarsingh (handsome lion), Narasimhan (man-lion), Duraisingham (lion lord), or Rajasingh (lion king). Some of these gentlemen are wealthy and live the life of a male lion: life of leisure where all the hard work is done by the females, with the males doing what they do best. Like male lions they have a pride of loins (not a typo). Sugar daddies, you might call them. To paraphrase Jane Austen, a man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a mistress. The younger they are the more they are preferred. The concept of "chinna Veedu" (literally the small home or, the other woman's home) is a well established and accepted one in this society. Having almost disappeared in the 60's and 70's, it has made a surprising come back amongst the newly and insanely rich, like the political and business classes.
The idea of a wealthy old man taking on a young mistress is quite well accepted. The lucky ones even got to be wives. Traditionally, unfortunate young women with poor or no marital prospects were offered to much older widowers in marriage. In this culture there is no situation more dire for a young woman than remaining unmarried, nothing is a greater burden for parents than their daughter being a spinster. A girl is like a hot coal in the hands of the parents - to be gotten rid of as quickly as possible. Anyhow.
Things are not symmetrical, though - the scales are not equally tilted in favour of the women. While sugar daddy-ism is accepted Cougar Women are not accepted. The idea of a Chennai Cougar is inconceivable -even the zoos don't keep any.
I have to illustrate this a recent incident: my wife, my father and I were out visiting one day. My father is nearing 90 and is beginning to look it although he had been blessed for long with the handsome looks of a much younger man. Alas, the ravages of time, in abeyance till now, are upon him with a vengeance now. To cut a long story short, he looks his age now. I seem to be destined to be like him. My wife is prematurely grey after a battle with a life threatening illness and the side effects of the so-called cures for it. She met a lady in the course of our visiting and introduced herself and also me and my father, pointing in our general direction (we were seated next to each other). The lady repeatedly - and I mean repeatedly - suggested to my wife that surely she meant that the "older" man was her husband. Even after being assured that it was the younger-looking man who was the husband, and that the older man was the father-in-law, she looked as if she found the whole thing fishy and drifted off to catch up with someone else.The funny thing was the woman was willing to accept that a man in his nineties could have a much younger woman for a wife but a woman cannot have a younger (looking) husband. She wasn't a woman steeped in tradition: she travels alone, stays alone in hotels during her travels and so on.
The tradition of sugar-daddyism is alive and well in Chennai. My wife's own grandfather married - the second time - a young woman who was just as old as his eldest son. Each family has some such stories. Politicos feel the need to maintain liaisons with much younger starlets as do male stars themselves. A celebrated male star has a history of moving in with ever younger women. A certain late sugar daddy bequeathed a future political leader on this state.
Amrita Singh is non-existent in Tamil Nadu; Candy (of V.C.Shukhla fame) is not.
However Chennai is Cougar-unfriendly country.
Many Chennai men have leonine names: Balasingham (young lion), Sundarsingh (handsome lion), Narasimhan (man-lion), Duraisingham (lion lord), or Rajasingh (lion king). Some of these gentlemen are wealthy and live the life of a male lion: life of leisure where all the hard work is done by the females, with the males doing what they do best. Like male lions they have a pride of loins (not a typo). Sugar daddies, you might call them. To paraphrase Jane Austen, a man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a mistress. The younger they are the more they are preferred. The concept of "chinna Veedu" (literally the small home or, the other woman's home) is a well established and accepted one in this society. Having almost disappeared in the 60's and 70's, it has made a surprising come back amongst the newly and insanely rich, like the political and business classes.
The idea of a wealthy old man taking on a young mistress is quite well accepted. The lucky ones even got to be wives. Traditionally, unfortunate young women with poor or no marital prospects were offered to much older widowers in marriage. In this culture there is no situation more dire for a young woman than remaining unmarried, nothing is a greater burden for parents than their daughter being a spinster. A girl is like a hot coal in the hands of the parents - to be gotten rid of as quickly as possible. Anyhow.
Things are not symmetrical, though - the scales are not equally tilted in favour of the women. While sugar daddy-ism is accepted Cougar Women are not accepted. The idea of a Chennai Cougar is inconceivable -even the zoos don't keep any.
I have to illustrate this a recent incident: my wife, my father and I were out visiting one day. My father is nearing 90 and is beginning to look it although he had been blessed for long with the handsome looks of a much younger man. Alas, the ravages of time, in abeyance till now, are upon him with a vengeance now. To cut a long story short, he looks his age now. I seem to be destined to be like him. My wife is prematurely grey after a battle with a life threatening illness and the side effects of the so-called cures for it. She met a lady in the course of our visiting and introduced herself and also me and my father, pointing in our general direction (we were seated next to each other). The lady repeatedly - and I mean repeatedly - suggested to my wife that surely she meant that the "older" man was her husband. Even after being assured that it was the younger-looking man who was the husband, and that the older man was the father-in-law, she looked as if she found the whole thing fishy and drifted off to catch up with someone else.The funny thing was the woman was willing to accept that a man in his nineties could have a much younger woman for a wife but a woman cannot have a younger (looking) husband. She wasn't a woman steeped in tradition: she travels alone, stays alone in hotels during her travels and so on.
The tradition of sugar-daddyism is alive and well in Chennai. My wife's own grandfather married - the second time - a young woman who was just as old as his eldest son. Each family has some such stories. Politicos feel the need to maintain liaisons with much younger starlets as do male stars themselves. A celebrated male star has a history of moving in with ever younger women. A certain late sugar daddy bequeathed a future political leader on this state.
Amrita Singh is non-existent in Tamil Nadu; Candy (of V.C.Shukhla fame) is not.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.