It may have started with fashion trends and moved up to health and fitness, but in today’s time, Bollywood does more than just normalize and promote a flashy lifestyle anymore.  

Yes, there was a time when all people would pick from celebrities were dialogues or their wardrobe choices, but things have changed now. And for the better, too.

© Anushka Sharma

Celebrities have now begun to normalize taboo subjects like men taking paternity leave to tend to their newborn child and the ones who kickstarted the trend here were celebrity couple Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli.

© Parag Agarwal

Turns out, they’re not alone in it either, for following their lead is Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal who has also recently announced that he will be taking  'weeks long' paternal leave to welcome his second child. 

A decision that was fully supported by actress Anushka Sharma, who herself along with husband Virat Kohli, has faced the brunt of society stereotyping men into not taking paternity leaves. 

Anushka urged the importance of normalising men having emotions and doing what they feel is right, without the fear of being judged and going against the norms of society. 

© Anushka Sharma

Taking to her Instagram handle, Anushka Sharma posted a snippet of Parag Agrawal’s news only to write in the caption, ‘About time this is normalised!" And boy do we agree! 

Thank you @paraga for leading by example and taking paternity leave. I wish leaders did this when I was early in my career and becoming a father. We have 7500 people @twitter who have your back! https://t.co/MzDEtwCxOL

And not just Anushka Sharma, a lot of other fellow dads too jumped on the bandwagon to hail Parag’s decision.  

Ned Segal, Twitter’s chief financial officer wrote, “Thank you @paraga for leading by example and taking paternity leave. I wish leaders did this when I was early in my career and becoming a father. We have 7500 people @twitter who have your back!” 

Brenden Lee of Twitter’s corporate communications department also wrote, “Proud that Twitter and our CEO Parag Agrawal are leading the way here, ensuring ALL parents are able to take advantage of this most special time for their families.”

Even though Virat Kohli, at the time of taking his paternity leave, received a lot of flak from trolls. , it is heartening to see so many people support Parag’s choice of taking a few weeks off. 

View the full article