replacing the diamonds with pebble

India is modernizing, the process started with stepping in of British, and after independence the momentum increased rapidly. I believe that change is essential, by changing a person proves that he is alive, we change every day, through changes wise people improve themselves and naïve people take the path which fancies them. In the long run the wise people look back at their life with a smile, where as naïve people some times look back with dismay.

I have personally observed a few pebbles which Indian society has picked up blindly and thrown away the true diamonds in their bags to replace them.

One of them is respect for elders, family, and the institution of marriage. Even in my childhood marriage and family meant a lot to majority of Indians. We used to obey people who were hardly one or two year senior than us, whereas the trend of new age seems to make fun of white hair. I don’t want to say that every old person is respectable but we can at least respect their seniority and try not to speak back unless we are pushed to a corner. There is no harm in giving a person who is far more older than you his or her due respect,

In my childhood or even twenty years back we used to hear that marriages are for life, but these days people have forgotten that thing. The unfortunate part is they want every one to believe what they believe. That marriage is just for convenience, it is just a social certificate for a live together. It should not rein down their liberty, and some times recklessness. People like me, who have not married just because they have believed in the old system, that marriage is the union of two heart and souls, and a vow to be loyal to each other for life. Hence marrying any stranger just to abide social rules was impossible for us. We have to sometimes fumble for words when we try to make our friends understand the true meaning of marriage in Indian society. I usually don’t argue because age and maturity has taught me to keep my mouth shut and stick to my principles. But earlier I used to get red faced trying to make people understand that people who don’t know the true meaning of marriage should marry only people of their own wavelength or should not marry at all. No one has right to ruin any one else’s life and dream.

Family life was always so strong in India, that its really painful to see it getting disintegrated. I have lived in a semi joint family, my sister in laws have lived with their in laws for years without any friction, so I really feel a little sad when families fall apart to pieces, first it started with brothers separating after marriage, then finally it ended with husband and wife living a parallel life in two cities. In the mad rush to get the glitters, I think we some how are missing the gold. We are sacrificing love, security, happiness for luxury.

To further extend this point we will see that in the post independence era we have lost another invaluable mindset with which our ancestors were blessed. That is the ability of being happy with a very modest life. We have simply thrown away the thinking “god give us only that much that I am able to take care of my family, I don’t go hungry nor does my guest…”, in my eyes it’s a very beautiful interpretation of our basic needs. I think if we can stay content with this, and acknowledge every extra bit as a god’s gift we will be truly blessed. There is no end to human desire, hence by losing the Indian values, which taught us to be content with minimum, we are giving in to the whirlpool of endless desire.

I often love to play pranks with people who are obsessed with going against the Indian values, by sticking to Indian values like wearing saree, eating by hand or sticking to Bengali my mother tongue or at the max speaking in Hindi. I have been born and brought up in an environment where we have been taught a lot of western etiquettes but have always been clearly told that Indian heritage is priceless. I still believe that, and always will.