Disclaimer: I cannot believe I am writing this down. I have always maintained a neutral stance on this issue, but I think its time to finally accept that Dad and Baba were always right.
Today I was going through the conversations of my friends on one of the so called social – networking sites. Ploughing through the unlimited smileys and a few words that I did not understand (though I was supposed to), I could not fail to notice how much our english has changed in these few years.
We have, in a matter of speaking, adopted the western style of writing – their slang and all their jargons. Accepted, a lot of it is because we are influenced by the west and strive to be as successful, but it does not mean we have to ape them.The usage of da, gotta, dood, … makes my head spin. I wonder where the world is headed to. We now believe in aerobics and gym, while people in the west have started doing yoga.
No, I am not professing any culture. I believe in none. I am an Indian, but do not call myself a hindu. Its like what Baba said, we are the pagans. We can have our own culture, our own beliefs and our own system, based completely on our own twisted sense of logic. But the important point is that we need to have a unique quality, a selling point which makes us the person that we truly are. Its this quality that we have lost and become a part of the faceless herds.
Almost all my friends are unique in their own special way. It is this quality of theirs that makes them my friend (I do not get along very well with everyone). A person who has no self respect and nothing new in himself, can never be my friend. Above all, a sycophant – never never never – they are the kind of people I hate, loathe, disrespect with all my sincerity.
Its true that change is a way of life, but change for the sake of change must be discouraged. Afterall, what does the western culture have to offer us that we do not already have. Once again, Dad you were right and I wrong, we are much happier as it is. The strong notion of family clearly lacks in the foreign culture. I do not say this as a small boy sitting in my room with no exposure to the outer world. No, I have been to Switzerland. I have stayed there for almost three months. It pained me to see the old people shunned to the outer regions of the city, living a lone worthless life while their kids earned money (in the same city I might add).
On a completely unrelated note, I would like to add that after spending three months in a foreign country, I realised that India is a much better place to live and grow old. There is more to life than just money.
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