I know, I know! It’s been a really really long time since I blogged. What can I say? I had a writers block. Just couldn’t make myself sit down and write a half decent post. I did write a few...what it is called...preliminaries to work up into blogs. So, watch for many new posts in the following months.
The following post has been in my minds garage for many months now. It’s way too cluttered so, once is misplaced it took me so long a time to retrieve it.
A few days after I wrote “The Three Stones” one my friends (a girl and No, she is not one of my sisters) called me and said my post was so timely. I asked why. She told me that one of her relatives had died recently and she had gone through some of the silly things. She pointed out three things that she had encountered that I had missed. I promised her that I would definitely post them on my blog.
1. You should not laugh till the last rites are performed:
A few days before the funeral, some cousins of my friend had come to visit her. Being young people, the talk naturally turned to lighter issues and they all started laughing. Soon, one of her aunts came and giving them a stare, scolded them for laughing. Her aunt actually scolded them for being happy.
I think ours is the only country that actually scolds people for having a fun time. I mean, what’s the point here? Sure, a person is dead, but does that mean that one has to stop living? No, you get scolded for being sad also, believe I have seen it.
Well, anyways back to the “No Laughing” rule. I don’t see the connection. Are they trying to say that by laughing we are disrespecting the dead individual?
2. Women should not wear bindhi till the last rites are performed:
What kind of rule is that? Why shouldn’t women keep bindhi if someone dies? What’s the connection between a person’s death and his/her relatives keeping bindhi? The most irritating part, my friend says is that: Her people chide her when she doesn’t keep bindhi on other occasions, saying it will bring bad luck and such crap. But after the death, when my friend questioned why she shouldn’t keep bindhi, they chided for asking the question….
One more instance of a "gap" is all that i am going to venture here. I am not going add anything else. I will let the above passage speak for itself.
3. That because a bad incident happened, it should be followed by a good incident:
My friend really is pissed of at this “rule”, because they have made her the victim. She is fed up at this “good should follow bad” thing that everyone seems to be harping about. Guess what the good incident is?? It is supposed to be my friends wedding. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Sounds like the Yin-Yang thing. But, if you point out that this and ask why Indians are following an essentially Chinese principle, I am sure; you’ll get lots of interesting answers. My friend says that she is quite sure they invented this thing to make her agree for marriage.
I think, I’ll go with her here. Indians have a quite a knack of inventing things for occasions and calling them tradition & culture.
Why am I so critical about Indian culture? Because, I was born and brought up in it. I am more familiar with it than with any culture and thus I can point out what I would call flaws in this culture.
All that I am saying is that culture should be able to absorb the good things from other cultures and adapt to the changing needs of the society or it is doomed to fail.
