IN PRAISE OF फठेर्स By Lisa Salmon

Dads might not appreciate a big bunch of flowers on Father's Day - but there's no doubt that growing numbers of them deserve more than just a measly card.
More and more modern dads work hard in the home as well as in the office, and it's not just mums that really need thanking these days.
Even if dad isn't one of the 155,000 men who now stay at home to look after the kids, increasing numbers of fathers are working part-time and sharing the childcare.
Indeed, a new survey has calculated that men now spend an average of 53 hours a week carrying out household chores and childcare, up from just 34 hours a week in 2005.
The Legal & General poll found fathers' heavy workload includes around 21.5 hours looking after children, 9.5 hours doing housekeeping tasks, 7.5 hours cleaning, and six hours cooking.
In addition, the number of stay-at-home fathers has increased massively, by 58% between 1993 and 2008.
And while there's still only one dad for every 10 mums staying at home, the Fatherhood Institute has found that seven out of 10 mums believe dads are as skilled at parenting as they are.
Elaine Farrow couldn't agree more. Her husband Edmund gave up his job as a computer programmer nine years ago to look after their first son, while she returned to work as a university researcher.
Since then the couple, who live in Edinburgh, have had another boy, now seven, and a girl, aged four - and Edmund looks after them all.
He says: "Even before we had children, we decided I'd be the one to look after them. It's just the way our personalities are."
The 35-year-old dad does all the cooking and cleaning too, although his wife does most of the laundry so she "feels a part of things".
Edmund says: "As with any job, there are days when you think 'what am I doing?', but in general I really enjoy it.
"In some ways, particularly when they were smaller, it was a lot busier than a nine-to-five job as I was constantly on call, but there wasn't the stress of my old job."
He admits being a housedad can be isolating, as there are relatively few men looking after young children full-time.
"At parent and toddler groups, quite often I'd turn up and it'd be me and 30 mums. That has been hard on occasions, but I can cope with it," he declares cheerfully.
To help him cope, Edmund set up the website Dads Dinner, in which he relates his funny housedad experiences, and offers tongue-in-cheek advice.
"It's a chance for me to share some of my experiences, pass on a little advice, and hopefully raise some smiles," he says.
Although there are now more dads who look after their kids, Edmund acknowledges that there's still an expectation in society that the man is the breadwinner while the woman stays at home to do the childcare.
"There is some pressure from that, but after a while you cease to notice.
"My wife is very glad to head off to work in the morning knowing that the kids are with me and not a stranger."
He adds wryly: "The hours are long, the holidays are rubbish, the pay's a joke and there's heavy exposure to toxic biological waste.
"On the plus side, there's plenty of fresh air, exercise and hugs, relatively little stress, strong job satisfaction and an army of amusing minions.
"You also get to play Hungry Hippos and call it work."
It sounds like fun - sometimes - but many men aren't convinced they could look after the kids well, even on a part-time basis.
In fact, a new survey from the DCSF's Think Fathers campaign - aimed at promoting public debate about fathers' positive involvement in their children's lives - found that 47% of males questioned thought they weren't equipped for the job of being a father.
However, 92% of dads said that once they became fathers it was one of the most rewarding jobs a man could do.
David Bartlett, deputy chief executive of the Fatherhood Institute, and a member of the Think Fathers steering group, says: "If these statistics show us anything in the lead-up to Father's Day, it's that dads lack confidence in the essential role they play and don't realise what a good job they're doing."
He points out that the latest statistics show men are a massive 800% more involved in their children's lives than they were in the 1970s.
"Dads are doing a great job of raising their children and are spending much more time with them than in previous generations," he says.
"The broader trend is towards a convergence of roles between men and women, and a lot of that's driven by mothers working more, which has a huge impact on the amount of childcare carried out by men.
"Men are working much more flexibly, and when they're not at work they're much more involved with the kids."
He says there's also strong evidence of changes in attitudes towards fathers' roles.
"Men are expected to take on a much broader set of responsibilities in relation to their children.
"There are higher expectations, but higher aspirations as well - men really want to do this, and they find it incredibly rewarding."
Certainly, the Think Fathers survey found that 34% of dads enjoy fatherhood so much they would consider exchanging their full-time job for full-time parenthood.
Yet the Fatherhood Institute has found that 67% of women and 72% of men believe society values a child's relationship with its mother more than that with its father.
And 59% of people think society assumes mothers are good for children, but fathers have to prove it.
Bartlett says there are still a few "dinosaur dads" who think childcare is only a woman's job, but thinks that a bigger problem for modern dads is the public face of fatherhood, like standing at the school gates and going to toddler group.
"They'll still feel awkward going to the toddler group, because they're probably the only bloke going, and all the workers are probably women.
"Most public spaces to do with children are female spaces, and that's one of the main reasons fathers are caring for their children mostly in private."
Bartlett says society appears to be in the middle of achieving a more relaxed attitude towards dads looking after their kids, and points out:
"The previous generation of dads were less involved with their kids, so the current generation haven't got strong role models to draw upon.
"I think that what we'll see changing is that now we've got a generation of dads that are more involved, but are sometimes not very confident, whereas the next generation will take it completely for granted that they care for children too, because they'll have seen their dads doing it.
"We're in the process of unstoppable change, but we're not quite there yet.
"Dads play such a vital role in their children's lives and it's time we gave them a confidence boost."