It begins when a couple has their first offspring. All unsuspecting visitors are ‘treated’ to performances by the prodigy. “Aunty would love to hear you recite ‘Johnnie, Johnnie’, Bablu, come on,” the doting parents cajole. Finally, the toddler lisps his way through the rhyme, replete with action. As adolescents, we dreaded visits by an uncle and aunt with three children, who insisted on assailing our auditory nerves each time with a rendering of the national anthem.

The years go by, but the parents persist. If they are not able to get you to pore over graduation photographs, there is no escaping the colossal wedding album and worse, the copious video recordings. There is no way you can half-heartedly leaf through the album or stare at the screen. The proud parent- sutradhar will take you through the ceremony.

Then with the grandchildren, it is rewind to ‘Johnnie, Johnnie...’

Over the past few years, we notice there are fewer such unsolicited “shows”. Perhaps our friends, like us, have realised that home theatre is not everybody’s cup of tea. In any case, not many of them are babysitting their grandchildren!

But, alas, before we could gloat over the relief, a new kind of onslaught has taken over. Our contemporaries, with all their responsibilities behind them, have taken to travelling, big time. This is fine, but for the hours of video they return with. We look upon each dinner invitation from friends with suspicion, for it is invariably preceded by “drinks and a short screening of our trip to...”

... contd.