Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan were blessed with another baby boy on 21 February and I think we can all agree that for any family the birth of a child makes for a special, private moment.
But, of course, in India we consider any celebrity a public property and their children too.
Back in 2016, when Taimur Ali Khan was born, his name made headlines. Every person had an opinion on how the two chose to name him after a 'barbaric' ruler.
And now, four years later, things have only gotten worse. It's almost like with each passing year, we become a scarier version of ourselves (at least online) and hate is in fashion.
All The Comments Scarred Me As a Person and As a Mother: Kareena Kapoor Khan
In a chat with Barkha Dutt, Kareena Kapoor Khan had spoken about the time she had had Taimur and people were commenting on his name and the trolling was incessant.
"A certain famous personality came to visit me in the hospital and it had not been even eight hours. This person in a conversation had the gall to say 'What’s with you, why have you named your son Taimur?'. And I remember I started crying and this person was asked to leave".Kareena Kapoor Khan
"Caste, creed or religion...it didn't feature in the scheme of things for us," Kareena said.
Trolling a Newborn Says a Lot About Us...
Indians are always invested in what celebrities do. Whether it's commenting on why Kareena chose to get married to a Muslim actor, Saif Ali Khan, or what their children should be named. With actual laws against 'Love Jihad' in some states, the intolerance that we as a society harbour is no news.
But just as who one married is none if your business, what their children should be named isn't either.
Twitter is filled with people passing all kinds of embarrassing comments on what the couple could name their second child because they named the first one Taimur, which irked many.
Aurangzeb, Chengiz, Khilji...there are all kinds of suggestions for the couple.
A Show of All the Islamophobia...
Some on social media went to the extent of blaming kids for Hinduphobia which truly is Islamophobia on display.
Some even called Saif Ali Khan "jihadi" on a public platform. If this isn't prime Islamophobia on display then what can possibly be the explanation of this incessant trolling the couple has been subjected to? Some others didn't even bat an eyelid when it came to comparing Saif to ISIS.
Firstly, what they choose to name their child should be no one's business. Secondly, they're actors and saying that they should get used to this because they are celebrities is us being presumptuous of the fact that they don't hear what's being said or are always unaffected.
Not that they needed to, but Kareena has taken the platform to talk about her son's name 'Tamiur' multiple times. Despite that, four years later when she has a baby and '#Aurangzeb' starts to trend, it really goes to show mindset we have developed - an atmosphere of normalising hate and spewing venom about a newborn and a mother still healing in hospital.
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