Machas –Those days and Today – a Vast Difference (Father’s Day Special)

People say we complain too much about the Indian guys today. They even say we are so choosy and demanding towards machas of today. Well, we say we are being lenient with our demands on a potential husband. In fact, we are going to compare machas of those days (basically our fathers and grandfathers) to the machas of today in terms of responsibility, resourcefulness and sustainability. And we will let you to judge for yourselves exactly how worst the machas today are compared to the machas of those days in terms of getting married and raising a family.

Those days, machas, our fathers were raised with the idea that they need to sustain the family. Ni than da kudumbathai katti kakanum (you need to take care of the family). Parents will continuously harp on this to their sons. Solli-solli ambele paiyangale valarpangge and siler ku belt adi kuduthe valarpangge (Parents will either teach or beat these machas into being responsible). These machas used to go to work at an early age to earn some extra money for the family besides going to school. They help out in the oil palm mill or rubber tapping or do odd jobs. Then, these machas do put a lot of hard work in school. They attend school and sit for exams. The highest qualifications those days are MCE (equal to SPM) today. Once, they pass their MCE, these machas either continue to further their study or look for a job. Most will land a job as clerks, typists or some form of government jobs. Some machas even joined the military and police as a form of career. They then shoulder the responsibility of ‘karai seikuren’ (to help to raise) their siblings especially their sisters. Machas not only save up money to marry off their sisters and do all the necessary ‘sadanggu sambrathayam’ (cultural events), but they also help out their parents financially to ensure these events take place without a glitch.

Today, we have a different breed of machas. Parents provide them everything and send them to school. Yet, these machas ‘ponteng sekolah’ (playing truant) and go loafing with their friends. They feel that education is not important and end up failing public examinations which plays an important role in determining their future. Then, these machas mingle with bad company – gangsters and get involved with illegal activities. Many machas out there say that education is not important for men as they are resourceful. Excuse me, - thali snatching, purse snatching, breaking and entering into vehicles, houses and business premises with parangs, being hired as hit men or ‘kaki’, selling and pushing drugs, lifting drainage covers and selling them to besi buruk, stealing telephone cables and cars – is not resourcefulness. Indulging in criminal activities ain’t resourcefulness – get that in your shallow mind. In fact, we had readers who claimed that doesn’t matter what a guy does as long as he can feed his family. WTF? You mean its okay to feed your family with money generated from criminal activities? Parents can’t even bother as to these machas’ activities – they won’t question why these machas come home at ungodly hours, piss drunk or ended up in the hospital with bad slashes and cuts.

Worst, machas of today are dependent on their parents for jatti, underwear and petrol money even into the age of 25 -30 years old. And yes, the smoking and thani poduren (alcohol consumption) habit. So, their parents quickly marry such machas off under the pretext that – oru kal kathu potha, avan seriya varuvan (He will be okay once he got married) to get rid of the burden of supporting them. How does a lazy ass, parasite become okay after marriage? He now becomes fully dependent on the wife and mamanar (father in law) for jatti and underwear. The wife and her family now had to ‘soru poduran’ (feed) this macha simply because he is ‘mappilai’ (bridegroom). Yenda, in the manam kette poluppu ethuku da? (What’s with the shameful way of living?) Of course, in such situation, you can’t expect such machas to pay for their own wedding, let alone to support their sister’s wedding expenses.

So, if you say we are demanding – nope that’s not true. Machas of today are of low quality compared to those days. Machas of today don’t know what the word responsible means. They don’t even bother to plan their lives for the next 30- 40 years into the future. So, how to get married and have kids with such machas? P/S – bukan semua macha ini macam. There are a handful of machas who are successful in their lives. Tapi, a handful of successful machas are not sufficient for almost 80 % of successful, highly educated meenachis out there.