Dear Karan Johar, Please Don’t Do This To Your Children

Dear  Karan Johar,

Why are  you  subjecting  your adorable twins  to the  Taimur yardstick  of  unseasonable stardom ? Why are  you bombarding the  public domain with  videos where they are  tutored to  say cute things like , Amitabh Bachchan will save us from the virus(rolling  of  the eyes)  and  your little  daughter tells  you not to have a burgher as it will make  you fat(giggles).

Karan,they are  just 2. I mean  2 two-year olds . Let them grow naturally.As it is , they are  under  constant scrutiny from  the paparazzi. When now during the lockdown they have a chance to just be themselves in your spacious home , playing  laughing  bonding with each  other, you   run around behind them with a  camera  constantly asking them to be funny  for  the social media.

You are making your children selfconscious!

Papa,  don’t be the paps. Let Roohi and Yash(we should not even be mentioning their names in public) have a normal  life , a  life freed  of  the responsibility  of posing all the time. One of your close friends told me  you buy your twins  the  most expensive designer clothes from  abroad. Just because they can afford your lavish lifestyle  you must not let them think desi is chee-chee, that  clothes which don’t have a designer label are  for the  poor.

I say this,  because  I’ve heard  children  from the  film industry  talk like this. A  star father had  once  told me that his  star-daughter  thought all dark-skinned people were  house helps. He seemed  very  amused by his darling daughter’s  naivete.But the  time to be naïve  is now up . Children , no matter where  they come from must know  there is a reality  beyond the one that they are used  to in their  posh habitats.

Send  them  out into the world, Karan. Let Roohi and Yash experience  the  real world. I am not saying they  should be made to wear rough  khadi clothes, given one meal a day and made to attend the local government school. No!  But  I am saying they should  not feel that the  wonderful glamorous fancy oyster  that you inhabit is the  only living reality.

Be  their  anti-virus. Protect Roohi and  Yash like all  parents  do. But in this case , I think they need  to be  protected from you and  your designer world. Othewise their first  question as a grownup would   be, ‘Dadda, when can we borrow your clothes?’

Yours

Subhash K Jha