Day 159

 Man’s Search for Meaning-16

Man being a social animal wants to conform to societal norms and demands, though many a time he/she detest them. When a chance comes, he will try to change it, if possible.

• That is the case of  students, prisoners, slaves etc.… this can be extended to school, college days and even staying with parents.
•  There are many restrictions, that one may not like. 
• Some start the resistance even before getting the freedom to do so. So, they come to suffer at Schools, colleges, homes and even society at large.

What can be followed and what need not…  is the question….

·       We were discussing earlier on colonization and its impact on the Indian psyche( India that is Bharat)… we were not able to shed many of the left over from the British system in most of our present  day life…

·       We can say that being a poor economy… the priorities were different… but how long the poverty baggage can be continued…. I remember seeing the displaced statues of many British personalities of yore in the Byculla Zoo premises long time back…

·       Many of the roads/places/stations were renamed…  including the name of VT station or Santacruz Airport. Even Bombay was changed to Mumbai…

Along with time we must shed… what is not appropriate for us.

·       Take the case of dress code in cricket and even tennis. once only white dress was allowed. nowadays any color dress can be worn…

·       Uniform in schools… many western countries, especially USA, there is no formal uniform in many schools.

·       Traffic system, we follow the British system.... but US and many counties have the opposite way for traffic since beginning/long.

·       The Saab culture of British we hold very tightly, in US first name is used even in offices… why this “sir” and “sahib” hangovers…. Because we like it… who does not like servant /peons even to lift the brief case to the car or from the car…who doesn’t like pomp and show…. Why blame British when we ourselves bathe  in the same vein….( US is cited because in our country it has become a fashion to compare with the richest nation for everything.... many not knowing/realising where we really stand in regard to GDP, Per capita Income etc..)

·       Do you think the servant/orderly guy really likes it… as we did not… when the British ordered us around?

·       I saw a video from Kumbhakonam on British left-over items…. a mobile toilet used by British in their hey days......

The purport of the argument is that we must have the courage and conviction to drop what is not needed….at least now.

·        Take the case of Uniform for school children. why boys should wear ties in Indian climatic conditions of 35 degree Celsius in many states… why indeed. Even that tie is just tied with a string... for whose benefit this is done… (Wasting some money of poor parents and great inconvenience/rashes to kids, as it serves no larger purpose.)

·       (I have worn tie during my office days for long… then we were working in air-conditioned comforts., not in sweltering heat even without a fan… how many school class rooms have fans and how many in a class room. Neither the parents nor the children are able to voice….

#  This is where the enlightened government of a free country should step in…   

·       Remember many of us while studying did not have formal uniforms in primary level, definitely no tie at all. Did we lose/miss anything due to that????)

·       Same case with uniforms even in some colleges. What is the sanctity about that….? that too color/pattern is changed periodically…. to be purchased from school or specified shops….

·        Having experienced first hand I am voicing. It doesn’t matter to me at all today…. But I always felt that these are archaic and done to follow a dead legacy of an earlier era, which we publicly detest, but privately still follow.…often helplessly...

• Hence the Book, India that is Bharat- covered in an earlier blog- indicates areas where one must re-look into our systems and procedures.
• When we come to the Centenary year of Independence, we should not be still carrying many of the baggage inherited 100 plus years ago… that will be true freedom, Independence… talked about in that book.

Be happy. Be safe.

ॐ 

 7 30 AM