Design: Aamir Khan
KARACHI: It is safe to say that the outbreak of COVID-19 was not easy on anyone. As countries across the world shut down and more and more people began preaching #stayathome, brown parents seemed to move in the opposite direction. Used to controlling everything in their surroundings, desi boomers turned into rebellious teenagers and commanded that their freedom is restored, especially because the older generation was more vulnerable to the virus and was therefore being asked to take extra precautions.
While many parents rose to the occasion, here are our top favourites. Let it be known, Cutacut asked a couple of people to share brown-parent experiences. The following are all stories about real people.
1. The all-male one-dish group
We have seen all kinds of memes about brown dads and their strange habits but the lockdown allowed some of us to witness fathers being even more unreasonable. The winner turned out to be the father-in-law who created a one-dish party group with his friends from the neighbourhood. Every couple of days, the men, who otherwise have nothing to do with cooking or parties, would meet up for a one-dish.
2. The introvert-turned-extrovert mom
Remember all the times we would beg our mothers to let us visit our friends under regular circumstances? And how it would usually take a lot of convincing to make her agree? Well, one mom who generally does not socialize a lot suddenly wanted to go out and meet her friends. During a pandemic.
Another mom who never liked going to the park before the pandemic was suddenly outside her community park, asking the authorities to open it.
3. The nani who kept sneaking out
As if parents weren’t hard enough to control, grandparents started putting up a fight as well. Top of the list has to be the nani who would sneak out of the house while others were sleeping and tell the family that she only went to the nearby pharmacy to get her meds (when she actually went out to a crowded place to buy…mangoes). The same nani also tried going to a mall but was sent back because of age restrictions.
4. Dyeing to shop
Talking about malls having age restrictions, a couple of parents actually dyed their white hair to look younger and be able to go grocery shopping at Carrefour.
5. The whole clan
It might be hard to supervise our elders one at a time, but when all of them get together? One can only imagine the damage. There is something special about desis and Eid parties. Specially during a pandemic. Now imagine a family throwing a party of 40 people under strict lockdown because obviously, ‘unko bura lag jayega’ makes more sense than ‘unko corona lag jayega’.
