Dear Taimur, I Am Sorry We Are A Nation Of Snoopers!

Dear Taimur Ali Khan

I just got to know what you had gone to the park and that you looked sulky today .Yesterday I was told you looked cheerful. I also got to know that you were wearing a ‘trendy’ tee shirt—and never mind if you can’t recognize the ‘t’ of trendy—and that your shoes were in perfect sync with the colour of your eyes.

One day when you grow up I will ask you , of what relevance are your clothes and facial expression to the state of the nation. I know kal tumhara hai. Lekin yaar kal toh aane do. Already the paparazzi hounds you . I wonder what goes through your tiny head when you see all those popping flashbulbs and the paps shouting, ‘Hello, Taimur.’ Already you have started posing for the cameras, just as AbRam did before you.

Oh, didn’t I tell you about AbRam Bhaiyya? Your mom’s favourite co-star Shah Rukh Khan’s son AbRam who until you came along, was the paparazzi’s most beloved poppet. Now AbRam is overshadowed by you, as you might be too in the near future by another star-kid on the block. I hope and pray it happens soon because my heart breaks to see your childhood innocence being dunked in oodles of unwanted attention.

This is no way for a child to grow up. I hope the baton of innocence-besieged passes on to some other star-kid soon.

Until then, bear with the glare.

Yours affectionately

Subhash K Jha