Of choices and shakti

An old fashioned ad charms, but it is women's lib that is more heartening.

What I've liked
It's old-fashioned, it's charming and it glows with an ingenuity that is rare in today's world where "subtlety" can best be described as a word that only exists in grandpa's dictionary. The TVC that I am referring to is for Bru coffee.

The storyline is quite simple "" a young wife has just discovered that she is expecting. And instead of taking up any of the vast communication choices that she has before her (mobile phones, SMSes and what not!), she chooses to hint, and not tell, her husband by pouring some coffee into a tiny little cup! The act was so surprisingly sweet that I couldn't but help feel relieved that the age of innocence is still alive and well somewhere!

Despite all the reality shows, the "in-your-face" gyrations on almost every single channel and movie screen across the country (not to mention the explicit MMSes doing the rounds) someone somewhere still believes in the beauty of the understatement.

There used to be a time in the seventies and the eighties when most of the ads had a similar construct because the viewer sentiment was fragile.

Advertisers were wary of offending the sensibilities despite the fact that there was less intra-category competition and consumers had very few choices. But to stumble upon something like this in the present day is clearly indicative that it has been created out of choice and not out of compulsion "" and that is what makes it all the more endearing.

What I've learned
Shakti is evolving.
There used to be a time when household responsibilities were unquestioningly clear-cut. People didn't think a lot about who did what.

All they knew was that they had to do what their parents did. A mother did the cooking, cleaning, combed the kids' hair, put a little clove oil on aching gums and told the little ones stories about their grandparents and great-grandparents.

A father went out to work in the morning, did all the outdoor jobs considered suitably "male"; "intelligent" work like banking; "responsible" work like talking to the school authorities and took on the role of the Supreme Court at home, before whom tantrum throwing children were summoned at the end of the day.

Father's law was absolute law in those days. A smile or a pleading look had no currency before the finality of the judgment. Things changed a bit when I became a father. In fact, quite a bit.

My children's schooldays passed by in a blur. I don't remember going to any PTA meetings, my inimitable wife looked after it all. My role was sharply honed to bringing home the money, taking care of financial matters and, more importantly, working towards giving my family a reputation that they would be proud of...and though it was literally a 24x365 task, that was it.

And today, I watch a completely different scenario unfolding before my eyes in my daughter's life. She drives herself everywhere, to the bank, to the school, to the market... Checks out investment options for her family, buys movie tickets for an evening out from the Internet and so on. In other words, she is so empowered that she literally runs four lives all on her own!

For me, a witness to three generations of change, the role that my daughter plays seems to be an enviable one. She seems to enjoy the best of all worlds, she is independent, yet protected, she nurtures and is nurtured in return. She makes decisions yet isn't judged because of it... yes, she seems to have it all. If this is how the future looks for women, then I must say it looks like a good one.

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