#5685 We prefer listening to the music of Metallica, decide whether to watch a Bollywood movie based on the number of kisses and meetings over tea has changed to meetings over drinks. Sunday family time has changed to Friday night clubbing time with friends, and kids today feel embarrassed if they have to talk to their parents in Hindi in front of their friends. SuperMan and BatMan have taken over the only superhero of my childhood time - HanuMan. People are going crazy for clothing brands and western style of clothing has taken over urban population and the media. Festivals today are opportunities to do shopping and show your status rather than days of mythological significance. TV soaps like Ramayana, Sarabhai, etc are completely ignored. Experimenting with different cuisines has also changed - people would rather prefer trying Italian or Thai rather than Marathi or Gujarati. When was the last time you listened to any classical music or watched a classical dance? When was the last time you kept a fast in Navratre or other festivals? Can you tell the difference in dresses and food of different South Indian states? You would say that culture is dynamic and evolves over time, and these are all changes to the culture as we are getting more exposed to the West and their lifestyle. I agree. But is this really an evolution? Evolution happens over a period of time, and in the case of India, the radical shift has taken place in just 5-10 years. You consider yourself modern, westernized and educated when you speak in English, but still consider the sweeper in your office or the bus driver as of lower social status. Where is the social equality as practiced in West? Why do you go clubbing? Is it because you saw in the movies and your peers are going there, or because you tried spending time with your family but got bored? Have you ever tried learning Sitar before preferring Guitar, or more importantly wont you consider a person learning Sitar as someone worthless and boring? Would you like to attend a Kathakali performance? In other words, did you try developing liking for classical music and dance before shifting your preference to Western genre? If I tell you that all I did last Sunday was visiting a temple, then why do you judge me as old fashioned? Would you prefer learning Sanskrit, Tamil or Marathi as a foreign language given that probably these would be more helpful in real life than French or German? In most cases, Western practices are adopted either because people consider them having a higher social status or because they never attempted to try traditional Indian practices due to their peers or lack of knowledge, and therefore did not understand its value. This is why the transformation in the Indian culture is termed as blindly Aping the West - only those things have been superficially adopted which are seen, like dressing, speaking, etc but the thought process, the open mindedness, principles of social equality, etc has not flown into the culture. Yes, the culture is changing, but people are just copying it, they are ignoring the old ones richness, they are considering it inferior and old fashioned - and in the process, they are just forgetting it. The above is for relevant the younger generation. What about the parents? They grew up in the 90s. We still have TV shows like Mahadev and Mahabharata. We still have stories of Akbar-Birbal or the Jataka Tales. The school education is almost the same that I had when I was a kid. So why are their children, which is the todays generation, so different? My parents gave me all the knowledge about festivals, customs, the great Indian culture. Most importantly, they inculcated in me a hunger to learn and appreciate it more, and this is why I like to protect and promote it in the foreign land. As a parent, have you ever motivated your children to learn Indian music, dance or language? Have you tried to explain why, how and what behind the rich practices? From where would children actually learn about the Indian culture? Dont tell me Bollywood, please. I feel that parents are forgetting to pass on the culture - which again leads me to say, load and clear, that yes, India is forgetting its culture. Is it good or bad? Both. People are now more sensitive towards gender inequality, dowry and other social menace. But on the other side, Western styles are not being incorporated or blended with the existing - they are actually replacing the existing. People are pretending to be westerners, they are preferring to showcase their fake identity. And not just that, they are considering cultural practices as lower status thingy. Lets try to copy the good parts and ignore the rest. Who defines the good parts? I leave this to you to do the thinking. But please give it a thought. - Reshared content.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 09:14:33 +0000
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