Mere paas paa hai
So every generation would like to believe.
Season 2025 brings yet another marketeer-mounted consumerist narrative, parading as Fathers Day.
All these special days seem like another super-hyped season of a drama-dripping OTT series. Bigger. Bolder. Better or Battier.
Narratives of Father's Day have changed. Sentimental subtexts may still be the same.
Our generation didn't wait to celebrate a calendar date as Fathers Day or Mothers Day.
Madaaris to marketeers
It was Fathers Day whenever dads used to spruce up vintage Vespas or loud orange Lambrettas, boasting even louder carburettors, to trundle kids to the Gemini circus come to town.
Now, the only circus that Pops and progeny get to watch is a Kapil chat show or 'chaat' show, an Arnab lion roar of a circus, or a Trump-Elon Musk verbal gymnastics trending on Twitterverse.
It was Fathers Day whenever dads used to bundle off kids to sweat it out in nearby playgrounds over a Sunday kabbadi, kho-kho or cricket session.
Now, new-age Sundays see a cushioned childhood, OTP-dishing dads and OTP-demanding kiddos lounging in the air-conditioned allure of multiplexes or malls, loading calories over cokes, kebabs and 'Krrish'.
It was Fathers Day whenever dads whisked away offspring on weekends, to the lake for a date with the ducks or down a neighbourhood nukkad to witness a 'madaari's' monkey show.
Now, what fathers and sons of a Digital India partake of is the entertainment dished out by new-age 'madaaris' -- many a gaming app, web series, social media influencers' Reels and such crap.
Commercials get candid
Nothing mirrors the paradigm shift in narratives better than some father-centric commercials.
Who can forget that cult commercial of a cooking oil we grew up on, with a punchline that resonated our own heartbeats, 'My Daddy Strongest!'
This Fathers Day, some commercials, in paying an ode to dads, voice a vocabulary belonging to the new digital age while being rooted in emotions that are age-old.
There is visa processing platform Atlys's ad that salutes the clockwork punctuality of Papas. There is a Myntra ad shaping fatherhood into a fashion influencer, with a cheeky take on the term 'FD'. Dettol's #DadsCanToo ad is an ode to changing roles and shared parenting. Swiggy too swings into ready-to-jingle mode with its parody on a breaking news-addicted dad who is dished out a 'primetime menu'.
One ad that evocatively mirrors the contrast as well as confluence of newer and ancient narratives is this season's Zomato ad.
It paints a portrait of Papa as the original service provider. It projects Pop as the omnipresent, multi-tasking presence in our lives who delivers 24x7, without even a call or push of a phone button. Be it late night meals, ferrying for school or sports, fetching favourite fruits or goodies and all that.
The ad's storytelling climaxes with a catchphrase that truly resonates with old-school parenthood -- 'For Appa, Who Works Harder Than a Hundred Apps.'
Newer lenses, newer narratives. Fathers Day now comes all dressed up in Sunday best.
The curious case of 'Honey, I Splurged The Kids.'
chetnakeer@yahoo.com
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