Thursday, July 8, 2010

TOW Family matters

I often write about sad and gloomy things, how everything is just hopeless ;) Thats not who I am, thats just when I write.

Today happens to be different day... I am reading "
The Inscrutable Americans" and wondered what can be that one unique thing that makes us Indians what we are. Something that if missing can be called as "non-Indian". Many things crossed my mind... from our ability to accept others (afterall no other country can boast of so many religions, languages living nearly peacefully)... to our unique capacity to live happily undisturbed in chaos... and our assumed right to poke our nose everywhere!!! But family won :)

The fact that we are answerable to our parents far longer than world average... that we have some place where we can go anytime, unannounced without explaining.... that we do not cut umblical cord so easily.. is something I relate to as most Indian.

I have been living away from home for quite a long time now still my parents get worried if I am alone in the flat... to the extent of annoying me with their phone calls. My friends still don't smoke in front of their parents. We stay with family if possible, no matter how much we earn. Ties to cousins are as close as real siblings... you can always hide behind grandparents when you are being scolded by your parents ;)... the list is endless and wonderfully obvious. Guess this is what makes my India :)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Couldn't have agreed more. Concept of family as it is in India, is the one single most important discriminator for Indians from rest of the world. However this concept is fading it's charm in young generation. Hope we could keep the concept of family and familial relations out from all that we want to borrow from western societies.

Anonymous said...

so true... and this is the reason that despite so much diversity, ambiguity and mis/non management, India still holds togather and is moving ahead so fast... It is because of such strong family system/values imbibed in all sections of society specially in the Middle class that we are growing so fast.