Culture.....Follow ??

Yesterday night, around 11, I was ambling back to my hostel sipping hot chocolate along with a dear friend, Mr.Ass, my neighbour in the hostel. We love to talk about all sorts of random topics and one such topic that ignited our idle minds was - "Are we really proud of following our culture in the hostel or do we just try to seem to follow some culture to please our peers?"

It all started when we noticed our batchmate making a weak attempt to adopt a western accent to impress a group of acumen freshers to whom he was giving some advice. I remarked - "Why do people tend to adopt or imitate some other culture by forsaking their own?"

With a nod, Mr.Ass aceded - "Yea, many of us have actually transformed and adopted a random culture with a false idea that it is a more "cooler" culture and that makes us a real "college dude" ".
The point is, many of my batchmates, have after coming to the college, seem to have forgotten their inherent culture and have started to emulate, adopt and follow another culture that is seemingly more cool. In most cases, that culture is actually "no culture". There are a set of students in our college, they follow no tradition, culture or philosophies, that is because that is how they have been brought up and that's how the life is in their native lands. They find that life natural and are comfortable with it. There is nothing to blame them for.

Now, many students, who astutely followed their religion, culture and tradition till their 12th, seem to have forgotten those and have found an attraction to this life of "no culture" and living a care free life, sticking to no rules. They seem to have forgotten their daily rituals, their beliefs and started ridiculing their own culture. Instead, they praise this new "no culture" and seem to have forgotten of God (in whom they once so severly believed that they even went to the temple thrice a week). Being a brahmin, I found many fellow brahmins losing their traditions. They stopped applying the sacred paste on their forehead, stopped praying, stopped believing in God, stopped taking bath daily (they think its cool to stay without bathing for days on end), tend to adopt a heavily accented way of talking by frequently absurdly using obscene words (another factor that makes them think its cool), tend to walk and behave like western teenagers with that slight swagger, tend to stop studying thinking being a cool dude means one should study the minimum etc., There have been many such people, some my very dear friends, they have completely changed in their lifestyle, their attitude, their way of speech, their behaviour, their way of life , a complete transformation in everything so that they can be a part of that so called "no culture" group. The sad part is, not many succeed in this "transformation", it results in such a weak profile for that person that it is very pathetic and seems that that person is very desperately trying to imitate someone. The end result, they lose their identity, they lose their originality and they lose their personality.

You would have been referred to as - "Mahesh?, oh the guy who plays the mridangam ?, they guy who wears the white paste on his head daily? they guy who plays the flute ? the guy who has a neat room ? the guy who has a beard . . .. so so "

Now, if you adopt some other culture, you will be referred to as - "Mahesh ?, oh the guy who roams with that gang ? the guy who smokes a lot ? they guy who tries to be like an NRI ? they who says "f*ck" for every 4 words ? ....so so "

Now,

On the other hand, there are quite a few who proudly exhibit their culture, show off every slightest property to claim that they strictly follow their tradition and culture.

I say, we should silently and humbly follow our culture, be proud of our culture and tradition, be proud to be whatever you are, always withold and support your culture, never unnecessary boast of your culture and at no cost try to dump or shadow or bring down your tradition.

There is yet another small group, that has been wooed by this "no culture" and tried to imitate it and underwent this transformation. Then, they decided that this new culture is not suited for them and it was a mistake!, this group was in a fix ! they din't know what to do , they had made a mistake and chosen the wrong culture. They finally realised the beauty and the scantity of their older inherent culture and tradition and reverted back to their older lifestyle. These people are the ones who have completely understood the norms and meaning of culture and tradition.

At birth, you are involuntarily made to follow the traditions of your family, whether you accept or not, you follow it till your 12th. When you enter your hostel, you are a free bird, your mind tends to wander and ultimately you might end up transforming. The transformed people are one set, some benefit and some lose due to the transformation. Now, those who lost, tend to return back to their own lifestyle, this time, they voluntarily return back, they know that their old methodology was the best and now realise its full potential and from then on, their life becomes a smooth ride !

So whatever tradition or culture you follow, pray follow it throughout, or if you want to imitate or adopt some other culture, do so with utmost devotion and do not take up any temporary change. Only when you lose and return back to your own culture, do you realise its true potential.

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Whatever culture the students follow in the hostel, back home they are the normal, astute kids and they follow their family tradition to the last letter ! So, in the hostel, it's only an attempt to impress people and give an false impression.

Always uphold your religion, never lose faith in it - The Maharishi

Be proud of what you are, never tend to change your beliefs and life style so that it may impress others, that is a false identity and is of no value, people appreciate and respect a person who follows his own lifestyle and upholds his ideals - The Maharishi