“I read somewhere that the men of today are more likely to be chicken-pecked than…”
“Chicken pecked? I’ve never heard that expression before. What does it mean?”
“Do you know what henpecked means?”
“Yes, I know what it means. It refers to a man who is dominated by his wife. Someone who is under his partner’s thumb.”
“That’s right! He’s someone who is ordered around by his wife. Very few men ever admit that they are henpecked.”
“Why should they? And why are you talking about henpecked husbands, anyway? I want to know the meaning of chicken-pecked.”
“Well, if henpecked means a husband being bullied by his wife, then chicken-pecked should mean, a ….”
“I think I know. Chicken-pecked means a wife who is dominated by her husband! Right?”
“Wrong! The expression is used to refer to parents who are dominated by their children.”
“In other words, parents who have no control over their children. Parents who do what their children tell them to.”
“I guess you could say that! But it needn’t necessarily be both parents. The kids could be dominating just one.”
“I see. So, is it okay to say, the chicken-pecked father went to get counselling?”
“It certainly is. Sujatha tells me that yesterday’s match was quite interesting.”
“I wouldn’t say that! The bowlers had fun, but the batsmen didn’t. The pitch, if one can call it that, was terrible. I got out to a ball that didn’t rise at all. It just rolled along the ground.”
“Yes, I heard that you got out to a grubber.”
“A what?”
“G…r…u…b...b...e...r! The first syllable rhymes with ‘shrub’ and ‘scrub’. The word ‘grubber’ is a term, sometimes used in cricket, to refer to a ball that doesn’t rise at all. For example, Joe Root got out to a grubber in the fifth test.”
“That’s a ball that most batsmen dread receiving – the grubber.”
“It’s every bowler’s dream ball, I guess. Your uncle has forwarded something new about…”
“I never read any of my uncle’s forwards. They’re always about something depressing.”
“That’s true! Your uncle is a bit of a doomscroller. It’s either covid or …”
“What did you say? Doomscroller? What does it mean?”
“A doomscroller is someone who spends a lot of time online looking for …”
“News about doomsday! In other words, how the world is going to end! Am I right?”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be about how the world is going to end. It could be anything that is sad. He frequently returns to the sad bit of news to see if there are any updates.”
“In other words, a doomsday scroller is someone who spends a lot of time reading news that is generally depressing.”
“It’s not just that! He is someone who obsessively looks for such news. This tendency to look for such news is called ‘doomscrolling’ or doomsurfing. For example, my friend spends a couple of hours every day doomscrolling.”
“I think the pandemic has reduced many of us to doomscrollers.”
“That’s a good example. Doomsurfing was one of the things that many of us did during the early stages of the pandemic.”
“Well, let’s just hope that some of us don’t return to it.”
“Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. You’re only here for a short visit. So don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.”
Walter Hagen
upendrankye@gmail.com
