The grandmothers hitting patriarchy and weights

The grandmothers hitting patriarchy and weights   SPOTLIGHT left Savitri Hooda, 65, with her son Ashish, 27, an aspiring stand-up comedian and novelist, at their home in Rohtak. Ashok Kumar The Hindu Ashok Kumar ROHTAK -- TO GO WITH ARTICLE BY ASHOK -- Savitri Hooda from Haryanas Rohtak. Age 65 and her son Ashish, 27, aspiring stand-up comedian and novelist. Photo. Ashok Kumar / The Hindu Grandmothers in areas surrounding Delhi are rewriting the rules of engagement, one reel at a time.

From challenging patriarchy and lifting weights to dancing to Haryanvi pop and inspiring other seniors to embrace fitness, they are turning social media into a platform for self-expression, defiance, and a new-found freedom, finds Ashok Kumar Period blood is the only blood that does not flow because of violence. “Still, society despises that blood the most.” Savitri Hooda, 65, speaks straight into her phone camera, standing under a neem tree in her home’s backyard.

That video, shot from Rohtak’s Mungan village, 70 km north-west of Delhi, got 19,000 ‘likes’ on Instagram. In another reel, she looks at the camera and calls her own generation “shoddy”. “Should I list their misdeeds? They killed daughters in the womb, discriminated against their own daughters, burnt their daughters-in-law for dowry, and leered at other women. They treated women as second-class citizens and now cannot stand their freedom.” That got her 4,87,000 likes and a whole lot of comments from people showering love on “Dadi”.

1ubG3A5P Savitri Hooda Savitri Hooda The Hindu 261 16:9 Welcome to @tai_savitri’s month-old Instagram account, which has just 27 posts but 3,08,000 followers. Her bio says: “Desi feminist from Haryana. Freedom and unfiltered opinions.” The overwhelming response to her profile has been startling even for the family. Her son, Ashish, recalls receiving the first podcast invitation when Savitri had around 3,000 followers.

After her video on mental health went viral last month, interview requests began pouring in. Across the National Capital Region (NCR), women over 60 are putting their voices out on social media. They are singing, dancing, and giving out wisdom that the youth is lapping up. The irreverent feminist For Savitri, speaking her mind is hardly new. The rebellious streak that now finds an audience online surfaced when she was a schoolgirl.

She dropped out in Class 7 after her mother, whom she describes as “very conservative”, refused to let her participate in a school play about dowry and opposed her taking up judo as well. “She thought it would disgrace the family. So I quit my studies in protest,” Savitri says. It is a decision she still regrets. Her formal education may have ended early, but Ashish says his mother has always been receptive to new ideas.

She listens, reflects, and frequently brings her own observations into discussions, sometimes surprising the family with the connections she makes. Her curiosity has also translated into considerable digital independence. Savitri records and uploads videos, manages her YouTube account and responds to comments herself. She uses the voice-to-text tool because it is faster than entering text manually.

“If someone writes in English and I cannot understand the comment, I reply, ‘Thank you for sharing your views’,” she says. To meet her is to meet an anti-influencer. She sits cross-legged on a bed in a dimly lit room, plaster peeling off its green-painted walls. Clothes hang shabbily on pegs. Ashish, an aspiring stand-up comic and novelist, leaning against a pillow beside her. She asks her husband to make three cups of tea.

“What is the point in talking about feminism if I cannot finish patriarchy at my own house?” she says, chuckling. Her social media journey started as a son’s sentimental plan during COVID-19. “He said it would preserve my memories. That the children could watch their grandmother singing folk songs when they grew up,” Savitri says, as her grandson sits by her. “I was fond of singing, so I agreed.

That channel, ‘Yo Apna Haryana’, renamed ‘Tai Savitri’, now has 3,31,000 subscribers and 14,000 videos. But singing felt hollow after her singing partner lost her 28-year-old son in an accident. So she quit. “When the singing stopped, we had to think about what to do next,” says Ashish, who has a postgraduate degree in Zoology. The answer emerged from conversations at home. Ashish had developed an interest in theatre, philosophy, and psychology over the years.

So, discussions about ideas and society were a regular feature of family life. Ashish says that he does not quote philosophers word for word to his mother. Instead, he translates them into everyday language, allowing discussions to unfold at home over days or even weeks before they eventually find expression in a video. It led to her creating videos on feminism and against social evils.

Bertrand Russell’s proposition that people should need a licence to become parents, for instance, prompted a conversation that led to one of Savitri’s most-watched videos on parenting. At other times, the starting point is something she observes in society or among people around her. “The videos are not scripted. If I get her to deliver it as a script, she won’t be able to speak with the same conviction,” says the 27-year-old.

After a mental health video went viral, the family received an anonymous call from a man who threatened to kill Savitri. “That was the first time I was genuinely frightened,” says Ashish. Her criticism of local godmen in her videos has also drawn displeasure. The backlash has not been confined to anonymous callers. A khap leader once called on his father, Bijender Singh Hooda, to complain.

“He said my father had removed the nath — the nose rope — from his wife. He was comparing a woman to an animal controlled by a nose rope,” he says. Savitri, meanwhile, draws inspiration from watching godman-philosopher Osho and civil services exam coach Vikas Divyakirti. Her subjects have expanded from femin…