Life is like a grammar lesson. You find the past perfect and the present tense.

There are so many days, music day, earth day, this day that day, but is there any day as “self day” or “my day”. I am yet to hear about one. But then why is there no day for oneself. I don’t know, don’t want to know, and am glad it is not there. Anyways I am the best person to meet who vehemently opposes such “days”, and trust me I am also against the Hindu fanatic organizations who will not let others live. I don’t like this classification of days in to something like, ok today I’ll stay all day with my pappa and for the rest of the year I don’t care what is happening to him. Maybe this serves for the west but we Indians are a bit different. The very basis of our society is the way we live. All these “days” were created to help the west in connecting with their surroundings while they feverishly pursue their capitalist dreams. And we Indians, as good as we are, are never satisfied with what we have and have to compare, and if possible get, our neighbor’s linen. But this again is not our fault (then what the hell is, darn we Indians are all so faultless), since ages we have a habit of washing our linen in the open and hanging it out to dry and for all to see, and since we have eyes, we have ears, in short senses (or do we have it) we are bound to see the linen and then comment on it (we are good at it, aren’t we, so to help all get rid of this evil I have deactivated my blog comments) ,we need to compare and when we compare we are either happy or sad. Anyways, when it comes to west, their linen is always perceived to be better and cleaner, any guesses why we are all so eager to flaunt all the “phoren maal” when we all can sport Indian.
When it comes to traditions of western countries, we are all eager to jump at them, just because they are all so cool to follow and if we don’t we are all backward, un-cool, and at best “bhaiya” and “behanji” . Just one mention of it in a bollywood flick and there it goes, a new cult is born. Before 1996, when DTPH (Dil to Pagal Hai, and for those uninitiated in Hindi, heart is crazy) was released hardly anyone, save those who were already into the western customs and traditions or had good general knowledge, knew about the concept of “Valentine’s Day”, let alone celebrate it. After this it has become a phenomenon, and I guess, and may be it is the case, that apna Hindustan, may be the country where most number of people celebrate it, with or without even knowing what are they doing let alone why they are. The people who for sure have fallen in love with this concept are the corporations that sell gifts for the day and laugh and celebrate at the very look of their coffers that have bloated up like a hog. Just see the vulgar prices that the gifts sell at on that day, a large, heart shaped soft toy sells for eighteen grand only to be massacred when the two “lovers” break up. The youth of any country is vulnerable, in the US kids go on a shooting spree, mowing down their friends in a bid to save them from the tyranny of life, in India we are all see that the life is so rosy. If you don’t have a girlfriend/boyfriend then Oh! my God, are you a homosexual??, another concept which has now become so common, people actually have started to fear it to be true ( the concept of not having a GF/BF means you have a natural tendency towards…. ). After this, so many “days” have been celebrated/ invented, mostly by corporations to help them smile broader. Every “day” is a new “day” now. If nothing is planned for some day, just name it after the first thing you see in the morning, and if it your ugly face then there you have it finally “my day”.
This vulnerability is what is exploited and made good use of by the businessmen. The concepts of west are shown to be the coolest thing around and those following them to be the hottest lot. We many a times overlook what suits us. What is good and what is not for our society, our culture. We tarnish our culture on the pretext of moving ahead with times. Can we not take care and respect our elders while we work, respect women, lead a life based on karma, our fore fathers did it and so did my dad and I hope I too will do it. People say, “pehle ki baat aur thee, tab bahut time tha, itna tension nahin thaa life mein”, arey bhai its still the same, just that we have started to compare the linen more often now than we did before. Now we want every child to graduate from IIT/AIIMS/IIM else he/she is of no use. And this is what keeps on getting added till the concept of great western cultures sets in. we have taken our values for granted and then suffer. Many feel that others are good. I tell this because I have seen people think on these lines, they forget who and what they are in a bid to be like someone whom they always wanted to be, and in this loose themselves. Instead of aping we should try to imbibe the good of all, and that too if it suits us. We have a great culture and we should respect it. The best part of it all is that now the firangis whom we were aping are finding the wisdom that we took for granted to be their savior. Now doctors in west prescribe yoga and pranaayam as a way to remain healthy. Sanskrit is the most researched language in the world and has been found to be the most logical, being used for developing highly efficient coding practices and languages. And where are we? Much “ahead” in time, almost nearing demise of great traditions. Now we get teachers from U.S. and England to teach us yoga, Sanskrit and the ancient wisdom. One of my friends got to know the correct spelling of his name by a British emigration officer when he reached London (they still have no idea of numerology, it seems, ask our bollywood nautankiwaalas who owe their success to that extra “A” in their name).
There is still time we woke up and started feeling proud of our traditions, saying namaste instead of wassup, and following what our elders taught us. We have moved ahead to let go superstition but not traditions, we have moved ahead to let go discrimination on basis of caste etc., but not of good and bad. Hope that the great traditions continue the way they have for thousands of years. After all life is like a grammar lesson. You find the past perfect and the present tense.