Culture

Culture means the complete lifestyle of a person, including but not limited to occupation, types of food consumed, how the food is cooked, language, dress style, laws, values, beliefs, religion, travel, construction methods, the materials used in the construction and so on.

The above definition encompasses all the various definitions that there are on culture.

Why am I stressing on the definition of culture? Because, so many people seem to use this word without knowing what the word stands for.

Especially, Indians seem to use this word more than the people from any other nationalities. They use it to raise a hue and cry about the changing dressing styles, the changing values, and generally for everything which is not to their taste. [I have used the word they when referring to Indians, even though I am a naturalized citizen of India because: I being the Emperor of the Universe, am a citizen of the Universe at large and cannot be categorized as a citizen of any one particular region.]

When someone wears jeans, people say it is not Indian culture to wear jeans. My question is what is Indian culture? Which point in India’s history, would you use as the benchmark for defining “Indian Culture”? Culture changes with time. The practices and beliefs practices today were not followed hundred years ago. And the practices that were followed a hundred years ago were not followed three hundred years ago and it goes on. So, which would be “Indian Culture”? The practices followed today? Or the one’s practiced hundred years ago?

The answer, I mostly get is that we are following the same practices that were followed a hundred years ago. Really? You didn’t have IT companies back then. So, working in an IT company is against “Indian Culture”. We didn’t have automobiles back then or cell phones, or television, or credit cards… and the list is endless. All these things are against the “Indian Culture”. Yet how many people do you see protesting against these? Not a single person!!!! Yet, you have people protesting that English should not be used in official documents, food chains should not open, and some stuff like that.

I was watching a program were two group of people were debating over whether not wearing dhoti is against “Indian Culture”. The whole thing left a bad taste in mouth. Little did the Pro-dhoti group or for that matter anyone else did not notice was that the medium (television) through which they were airing their views by itself is not “Indian Culture”.

Democracy as practiced now is also not an “Indian Culture” (The idea of democracy is from the Ancient Rome.). India since it’s inception by the great Chandragupta Maurya with the assistance of the even greater Chanakya (Who’s idea it was to create a large empire in the subcontinent.) was always ruled by a king in its long history until British Raj and became a true democracy only after the independence (In some ways, India is still not a democracy.). Yet, Indians never tire of shouting their throats hoarse that India is the largest democracy.

Show some consistency people!!!!!!!!

I end by saying that Culture is not permanent. It is unfixed, and ever-changing. It must change with time or will stagnate, decay and decompose everything that it touches. Culture absorbs new things, both modifying itself and that which it absorbs into a new entity constantly.

The idea of this post is not to say that you have to accept everything that is new and reject everything that is old. The idea is learn to accept change and do not stand in the way of progress saying something is not culture just because it is not to your taste.

Marriage

Marriages are made in heavens goes a saying. You can find some version of this in almost all cultures (More about cultures in a later blog.). Since, scientific evidence for the “heavens” is lacking, I as a rationale being cannot accept the first statement. (I am too good….. ain’t I?)

I have quite a few arguments for taking the active stance, which I have taken, against Marriage.
These have been listed below:


Reasoning 1:

Marriage is the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies

The above is the definition I got from dictionary.com. It is also very close to the meaning given in my copy of the oxford dictionary.

Let me make it clear that I am not against love or more specifically romance. All I am against is the institution that is marriage.

Most of you may ask what is the difference. There is and it is quite simple, at least to me.
You have friends, right? You don’t have a ceremony to declare that this is my friend. Nor do you have a ceremony to say; my friend and I are parting ways, we are no longer friends.

See the logic? So, why have a ceremony to declare someone is your husband or wife?


Reasoning 2:

I have been asking the question “Why should one necessarily get married?” to almost everyone I know. The answer is get is “To share my life.” Or “ Imagine, when you are 50-60 yrs old. You will want someone to love and be close with.”

These answers all point to one thing: Fear. Yeah, yeah, I know. Most of you, will not agree with me. Some of you are probably thinking of some nice juicy words and lines for the comments. But people, sadly the truth is that it is true. It is fear of being alone that drives most people to marriage.

So, if you are really strong you will not have fear of being alone. Hence, you need not marry at all. This is not to say that all married people are weak, but most are.


Reasoning 3:

This is a reasoning to which great person (read, my elder sister) awakened me. I did a little research of my own and the finding did corroborate the conclusion to which I had already arrived.

This is again another major reason why many people in India marry. They want to have sex. I can hear the boos and nay’s. But people it is the sad truth about our culture. It is indeed a sad insight into our culture. We Indians push the entire topic of sex under the carpet. Have you seen any family (read, parents and children) having an open conversation about this topic? No, I have till date not come across such a situation. The result is a country full of sex-obsessed individuals. And, this is the country where marriage is considered sacred. Pathetic.

There is another reason why many men marry. They just want a unpaid house keeper who will also double up as their emotional support. A person who will put up with them no matter what they do.

Neither are the woman any more pious than men. What else does a woman want from a husband? They want a free meal. A person who will jump up to defend them, even for the most stupidest thing they do. And, the social status associated with marriage. Most women also follow the social norm that the better your spouse is (financially and socially), the better for you.


Conclusion:

I do not oppose marriage, when the people involved know each other, love each other and more importantly have respect for each other. But I do oppose people getting married for the sake of getting married.

I have not spoken about the survival of the species/procreation argument for marriage as it is a non-issue. We do not have any responsibility to increase our numbers.

Sisters

Sisters, who can live with them or without them?

It is my personal opinion that all sisters should have a statutory warning label like they do on the cigarette packets. You may ask, why then do you still continue the relationship? Well, it is the same reason as why people continue to smoke, drink, and do drugs even though they know about their ill hazards. Believe me it is addictive and you will want to have more and more sisters. The worst part is there are no rehab centers for people like me!!

I have so many sisters that I have started loosing count. Okay, I am exaggerating by a huge margin here; the actual count is in the range of eight.

Read below to know how these sisters of mine make my life funny, happy, and sometimes drive me to utter insanity. In short, they add spice to my life.

This is what my elder sister (She is an darling [for lack of a better word] angel.) has made and I dread will continue to make me do.

I was once dumb enough to agree, when my sister asked me if I could go along with her for shopping (translation: It simply means they[girls] need a person who will drive her around, carry her bags, doesn’t comment on the time or on the choice of her tastes.). And, she even told me that she hadn’t seriously shopped (translation: which means, buying clothes that they[girls] can but will not wear for a lifetime) in a long time (translation: means about around a month). She made me wait in front of the dressing room with a whole bunch of clothes dumped on me! Imagine, my plight. And, guess what? It took her only two and half hours to decide on her clothes. She in between asked me if I was feeling embarrassed? Duh! What kind of a dumb question is that? Of course I was embarrassed. Thankfully she didn’t ask me to pay for her clothes, which was a big relief. The icing on the cake was this statement by her as we were going home: “I thought we could buy something for you too. But I guess there is no time, I have some work to do.”

The next one is even better. Her cooking. I seriously pity the person who is going to marry my sister. Once, she decided to make Poori (a south Indian dish). It was so hard that even my dog had difficulty eating it. Then there is this Thakkali Sadam that she made (I’ll never forget this once for the rest of my life.). She used a pressure cooker. The result: the rice at the bottom was roasted, on the top it was somewhere between uncooked and half-cooked. There was this tiny layer in between that was cooked properly. I can’t even today understand how she got it. Then she literally force feed the whole thing to me while laughing uncontrollably.

Now, for the sister who really spices up my life. She was my classmate in college and now my most adorable younger sister. How does she spice up my life? Well, she calls up at 11 in the night (all most every day) and cringes about something or the other. Well, what will any good brother do? Cheer her up. Well, that’s what I do. It usually takes an hour or so and by the time we say bye, her spirits are up or at least that’s what she says. Finally, I go to bed feeling good about myself. The next day around lunchtime I get a message from her saying that she’s still feeling low. This happens everytime. Isn't that enough to drive even a sane man to insanity; imagine what it will do to an already insane person?

Next, is the only second person that almost agrees with all most of my ideas (The first of course being my darling angel.). She’s crazy but on a lower scale then me though. Well, she irritates me by commenting on my laziness every time we speak. I have told her many times to give it a rest but she keeps continuing. It drives me nuts.

Then there is this sister of mine, whom I got to know mostly because we kept and keep getting into arguments (pointless arguments according to her, which I don’t agree with). Have you ever known anyone who laughs when someone is discussing a serious issue with them or scolding them? Well, she does precisely that. Effect, I get more gray hairs, and my blood pressure shoots up.

Then are these two classmates from my college again who are now my sisters. Both are pretty okay. One does sort of drive me mad because she never listens to me. I go mad of asking her the same question and getting the same reply that she still hasn’t done what she was supposed to do. I think I should be happy, as things would have been worse if she had been working in town. And the other sister is the only one of my sisters, who I think has up to now never tried to drive me crazy (Excepting of course the one time she nearly came close to the precipice of insanity but I pushed her back to sanity. But, i pushed her back to sanity, becasue she was not ready yet for insanity.).

Next is the sister that made and makes me very happy. Why? She’s is the third person, who agrees with most of the things I say. But, even she doesn’t agree with me on everything. I guess I am that rare breed of genius who comes along once in a millennium. Understanding, accepting, and appreciating such a genius like myself itself requires a kind of genius that comes along only once in a hundred years. So, back to the topic of discussion. Don’t worry she is not even near the vicinity of the area of what may and can be classified as the lower zones of my genius. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, how she drove me crazy. Well, it made to me so happy to find another person who is like me, that I went crazy.

I have saved the best for the last. Because, this next sister of mine is the winner hands down. No arguments about it. Why? She very nearly killed me by giving me a heart attack. I know, what you guys would be thinking. That she probably brought home some guy and introduced him as her boy friend. No, that wouldn’t give anyone a heart attack would it? C’mon people have some imagination. Remember people she is my sister. Can’t guess still, here’s the answer. She’s recently taken to calling me “anna”(Tamil, for elder brother). Now, you are probably wondering why she calling me anna gave me a heart attack. Because, until about seven-eight years ago, we both used to literally have wrestling matches with each other (serious ones, mind you). Come to think of it, I guess theses wrestling matches do partially explain some of my hair loss. Okay, enough about my hair loss problems, back to the story. You might wonder, didn’t you anticipate this, in the intervening years? See, in between, we didn’t get to meet each other lot because of my studies (Yeah, right) and generally we lost contact. So imagine, how would it be when suddenly she called me anna? I know what you people are thinking? You probably want to meet my sister to congratulate her on nearly killing me. But, sorry I am not going to name her so you people can never know who she is. (Sorry sis, you have to remain anonymous. But you know who you are and so you know how many people would have come to look up on you as a savior had you managed to kill me.) Evil, ain't I?

Note:

Not all sisters are like mine nor do I guarantee that they all would not be so. I have chosen to write only how they drive me crazy. They of course also sometimes make me very happy. I have written about the instances when they drive me mad not because of any lack of instances where they have made me happy but because I have chosen not mention these instances.

Special Note to Girls:

The intention of this blog is not to scare any brother into disowning his sisters. I till date have not disowned a single sister. I do not and will not take responsibility if any brother does so. As it is up to each individual on how he interprets this blog. But, I guess you all know that you have nothing to fear from one small tiny little blog. There are about hundreds of thousands of warning out there about marriage. Yet, men keep getting married.

Homosexuality

Why have I written a blog on homosexuality? Well, because I have been asked by quite a few people if I am a homosexual. I don't mind or care how many people ask me how many times but what disgusted and disgusts me is that the question is asked with a sneer or in derogatory tone (expect by the one person I really really really really really care about.). So, it set me off thinking that should probably write something about the whole issue. Read on...

The one thing that immediately strikes me is: Philadelphia. Why? Because, it is the one single movie that makes me cry every single time I watch it. The characters are so beautifully created that the whole film just gets recorded into your mind. And, I personally consider it to be the best movie on homosexuality.

Now, for the main issue.

In India, which is where I live incidentally, the whole issue is avoided. People just don’t want to discuss about it. They would rather have the whole thing swept under the carpet like many other things are done.

What is most depressing is that even well educated, otherwise broadminded people too shrink away from discussing the issue. Sometimes, they even pass the most disgusting jokes on the issue.

This is a country that HAD a long history of tolerance. Now, look at the pathetic state of affairs Okay, I am digressing here. More about the deplorable state of affairs in a later blog.

First of all what people, I am sad to say, don’t understand is that homosexuality is not a disease nor is it some kind of a sin. No religion ever says anything against homosexuality. Yet, the religious leaders during medieval ages and even now continue to twist the minds of people against it. Why? Because, they are demagogues.

Discriminating against homosexuality is racism. Please think before you act, they are people just like you. They too have jobs, friends, families, and ideals just like you. Why then do you want to discriminate against them? Don’t they have every right to live, as they want to, just like you do?

Criminals and terrorist are pardoned and yet these people who have not done anything wrong are harassed and jailed. What kind of a society is this? Did you know that marriage between homosexual is considered illegal is India? And guess what people, this law was not formulated by us but was constituted under the British Raj and it is still in continued use today with no change. How about that people? For a country that has tried to remove all traces of its colonial days, it still uses the same arcane laws that were setup during that period. This just goes to show how hypocritical we Indians really are about on everything.

Personally, I believe that all those closet homosexual should come out and make a stance. Marriages between homosexuals should be made legal.

If you are a person who is against homosexuality, I am going to ask you to do a small favor. Go watch the movie Philadelphia.

Here is an link to another intresting blog on homosexuality. http://wingstoneverland.blogspot.com/2007/11/are-we-homo-sapience.html

What you can expect from this blog.

This is kind of like a Introduction to a book that you read. Though this is a self-introduction. This blog has been created so that i can have some place put down my ideas(real crazy one, believe me) so that others can read them.
The logic of some of my reasoning may and sometimes will be baffling (sometimes even i can't undestand the reasoning of my statements!!!!!).
So, if you are not able to follow the chain of reasoning, leave it. Don't make me explain things that i myself can't understand.

Also, I absolutely love to argue. Infact, i argue with everyone about everything. So, if you too like arguing feel free to come in for an argument or two .

By the way, I am a avowed atheist and a hypocrite in all matters except my religious beliefs. And as my friends know, I am crazy and probably will be institutionalized in a couple of months/years. So, if suddenly the blog goes silent. Don't worry about me. I would probably have been safely locked up in some asylum.