Episode 62: Essay 6 Part 2 of “Mother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India” by Santosh Desai

In this episode, we continue to explore Essay 6: Loosening the Past from Mother Pious Lady, where Santosh Desai reflects on the subtle and striking ways India’s middle class is moving away from tradition—without entirely letting go.

This section delves into how the boundaries of morality, modernity, and identity are shifting under the influence of globalization, aspiration, and self-expression.

From “The Moral of Drinking” to the irony of “Father Amitabh”, Desai holds a mirror to our evolving values—where beach vacations with Sunita, Western clothes, and private rebellion coexist with cultural guilt and inherited conservatism. In “The Death of the Baritone,” Desai mourns the loss of gravitas and restraint in our public voices—replaced now by high-pitched, opinionated noise that mirrors our increasingly restless, reactionary selves.

Do let us which sub-essay is your favorite?