“Zamana Bigad Gaya Hai”… “Hamare Zamane Ki Baat Hi Kuch Aur Thi’… “Good Old Days” …
Sounds nostalgic? We all have heard our elders saying this since our childhood. Believe it or not, I heard myself saying this couple of weeks ago and my wife shouted back asking me to not to behave like a Retired Professor! All of 35 years of age and have I become a ‘Sr Citizen’ already!
We were having dinner at a road side restaurant. There was a ‘posh’ liquor store on the other side of the road. Half way through our dinner, we saw a car getting parked on our side of the road. Four teenage girls got out of the car; crossed the road; couple of them went towards the liquor store and couple towards the grocery store next to it. Within minutes, they came back with bags full of “bottles” and “chakhnas”, loaded the car boot and drove away swiftly. They were no signs of any anxiety or discomfort in the way they went about it. It appeared that they were doing any other routine task of their day but it took a moment for me to digest. My wife, though busy handling my 4 year old daughter, was observing every bit of “cultural shock” moment I was going through…
While driving back from dinner, I started the conversation with my wife. I told her I somehow didn’t like what I just saw. My take was that this is the exact thing which Indian parents are avoiding their kids to witness in foreign land and returning back to India and our own India is adopting Western Culture and that we are “Culturally Deteriorating”. My wife shot back instantly – “Its not deterioration, its progression”. The argument continued till we reached back home. She kept insisting that I don’t judge the country’s cultural progress (or the lack of it) by the knee-length of the women’s clothing or their habits. The only thing I could murmur at the end of the heated discussion was “I wouldn’t be happy to see my daughter grow up to be like one of those four teenage girls”. As always, she had the final word – “Even I wouldn’t be happy, but that’s no way to measure the culture of a country”!
That conversation brings back to my topic. What exactly is Cultural Progression? What is “Indian Culture” and how can we ever measure its “Progression” or “Deterioration”? Can any nation’s Cultural Progress directly (or inversely) be proportional to its Economic Progress? Is India progressing Culturally? Why do we consciously or unconsciously make women and their behavior in the society, a part of any discussion related to culture?
(My thoughts to continue in the next part of this series)
(published Nov 2014)
