Tuesday, December 27, 2011

To Be OR Not To Be

As the years are passing by, the world is progressing, some people are growing happy, some more sad, some are growing richer..some poorer, some parts of the world getting peaceful, some more violent, few youth is getting ambitious..some more aimless. Amidst all these I find my country India and the countrymen earning gains in economy, education,health and so many different fields but I look at it with a different angle and as I travel more around the world I get to know my Bharat more and more. I could read what India was, I could see what India is and I wonder what India would be, and then this thought comes to my mind- "To be or not to be"!

Why do we celebrate Diwali? What is the meaning of Rakshabandhan? Why is Cow a holy animal for us? Why do we start everything with name of Lord Ganesha? Why many Indians are vegetarian? Why women put bindi over their head? Why do you have so many languages?....And a lot of other questions that people ask us when we are abroad making me realize how less I know my country, how less I know of my culture, how less I know of Indian traditions, how less I know about our mother.
You must have got an Idea why I have titled this blog "To be or not to be"!

I wonder why are we moving so far from ourselves? The new face of India (we, the youth) is changing the country both in a positive and a negative way. I do agree that we must move on with time, but I don't understand why we need to loose or ignore the aspects that make us unique in this world!

"The principal official language of the Republic of India is Standard Hindi, while English is the secondary official language." says our government. Do we really respect this? I have caught people so many times explaining me stuff in English which they could not convey in Hindi and I guess everyone has noticed this. Haven't you faced a situation when you wonder whats the Hindi of some XYZ word? Don't you think it would have been a better case the other way around. I could find no reason for speaking English to be stamped as something called "modern and growing". Though it is necessary but must not be our priority. Go to any other part of the world and you would find this kind of situation no where. I feel really shameful when our politicians deliver their speech in English inside Lok Sabha, people looking around for Hindi words, some getting rejected in an interview only because he could not convey his knowledge well in English. Anywhere in India you go you would find waiters, shopkeepers everyone speaking in English. Once I asked a girl serving me Pizza at Pizza Hut.."Why do you speak in English, are you ashamed of talking to me in English?", she said "Sir, we are trained to speak in English to give a rich and attractive look to the young generation"..aahhh so very dumb.

I know India has so many spoken languages in different parts of it, but why are me making English a common language to converse? Wouldn't it be better if a Bengali and a Telugu guy conversing in Hindi than English? Why to make English as a common media within our own country itself? We tend to learn new English words but if we try to use some Pure Hindi words at public display..we are tagged "Gawar"! Yes it happens and you CANNOT deny that. Speaking English is NOT at all bad, but what about our treatment to our official language?

The WAR OF STATES is the second thing that surprises me. The moment you say you are from Bihar, Kerela, Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh you loose your impression. Why the hell? I am least bothered about the history of our states, I just wonder the youth fighting war of states, what is there to be proud of belonging to a State of India? Do you own that state? Do you rule that state? Are you the reason for the good/bad economic or social conditions of the state? What makes you proud of belonging to Punjab or Maharashtra or Gujrat? Let me ask "Who are you?"...You are just another resident of that state by the virtue of your family's history for which you have not at all contributed, so please stop taking credit or feeling proud of a history you have not created. Its not a talk about a guy from Uttar Pradesh or a guy from South India, its just about that human being, he may be good or bad, rich or poor, intelligent or dump, caring or cunning but that does not represent his home state, its just him or the people around him (his family background) that defines that person.
 "arrey tumhare state me to aisa hote hai..waisa hota hai, arrey ye mallu sale bahut harami hote hain, ye bihar wale sare k sare gawar hain, ye benagli sab bahut chalak aur kanjus hote hain, Delhi ki ladkiya characterless hoti hain, UP wale to sab bhaiya hote hain"...damn you people, come out of the box, if they are bad..teach them to be good, do something for such people instead of sitting and talking about them, alright. You know what.. this is a darker side of India, if you cannot spread wellness, better mind your own business.

People say "We went to so and so country and had a wonderful intercultural experience", I say just move around India and one would never find a better collection of cultures else where in the world, but do we really enjoy and value this intercultural gift our country has given us? Not much.

Just imagine of a India, where people from other countries are coming, wearing dhoti and saying "that's a modern outfit", a country whose official language becomes Britain's second official language, a country where people work to improve the condition of people of other states, a country where people feel proud to speak Hindi, a country where people say "I am Indian"! All of you of coarse say so but I mean to say an India where people feel "I am an Indian".

When I look at my friends, I get to learn alot, the way they dress, the way they speak, the way they behave at public places, the way they inspire me to think good. But I love being DESI at the end of the day.
People feel so great eating at KFC or Pizza Hut, wearing good foreign brands and all. I look forward to an India which has Indian food chains in the world, people buying Indian brands, listening to Indian bands, watching Indian TV series. We might already have these things but not as much as we are influenced by the Western Countries for these things. We must grow up as India, not a Westernized India that's all I want to say. We do not value what we are, at least not everyone. When I say "We", its the youth including me.

No doubt we are growing bigger and better as a nation, whole world knows that well. But there are a few things I am concerned being a youth, the so called future face of India. I am glad to have friends who think of India and I am also glad to have friends who show me the darker side of youth. We should think universal and above all for our country.

For the very few people who bother to do something for people living in slums, educating illiterates without shouting at the government for not doing anything, spreading Indian art, being from Maharashtra and helping people from Bihar to grow, pushing our traditions to the world, wanting to join politics to do something good for India... Hats off!!!

Please don't try to be someone else, inspire others to be like you. Value yourself, Value India.

Love you all.
Take care readers!

17 comments:

shristi said...

"if u cannot spread welness,better mind ur own business"..awesum line!strong one indeed!

shristi said...

"if u cannot spread welness,better mind ur own business"..awesum line!strong one indeed!

SHANKY said...

hey nice thoughts u really stand for REFLECT JOY REFRACT SORROW...hope
ur classes goin well and ya congrats for perfect in 1st sem...

by-Nikhil Mohan Goyal !

monika agarwal said...

sab aisa he sochte toh koi baat he nahi thi, bhaiya..

Anonymous said...

Dude, you sound real phony here. I have met you in person, and the person you are trying to 'sound' here is so much different from who you 'act'.

Also, for a blogger who has been a 'seriously' since ages, your writing style and grammar sucks. It really does.

SHANKY said...

@ Anonyumous- As you said you have "met" me...that does not mean you "Know" me.
as far as my grammar is concerned..I am least bothered as long as my readers understand what I mean to say...still I will work on it. At times I do feel the grammatical mistakes but while writing I dont want to break my flow looking for those mistakes.
Thanks for your views anyways.

Anonymous said...

the funny part is that you sided with hindi n the entire blog is written in english.
Practice what you preach bro.
no offence.

SHANKY said...

Hahaaa..I was expecting this comment and here it is. The only reason I blog in English is that people from different countries get to read my blog, so I have to use a universal language.

Anonymous said...

No dude..that's still paradoxial..i mean...u blog in english so that everyone can read your blog except the ones who are not well versed in english. tell me if a person doesn't know english how would he read your blog? And if you really want to reach out to people in india(to whom i suppose you are speaking to thru this article of yours) then post a translated version of your blogs in hindi too. I wouldn't have said this if your article dint preached us about the discrimination between languages.

SHANKY said...

Ok I got your point, but you got me in a wrong way. See, what I wrote in my blog was people sticking to English for their conversation and at times they stamp people as "Gawar" if their English is bad or they speak in Hindi which is like underestimating Hindi. As far as blogging in Hindi is concerned I suppose that people from India who are using internet know how to read English (I may be wrong because we are the ones who are trying to bring internet to villages where people might not know English), I never thought of having two blogs (one in English and other in Hindi) to convey the same thing. I am here to express my views, but yes you are right saying that I should have thought of people knowing only Hindi. But still I don't consider myself wrong blogging in English.

Writing in Hindi would have three affects-
1. If I write only in Hindi I would be restricted to Indian readers.
2. If I post both Hindi and English version in the same blog, it would be very lengthy and might have a messed up look.
3. Else I will have to have a new Hindi version blog.

I cannot help it for those from other countries and not knowing English, English being the most common media between people of different nationalities to converse I had to choose it.

Anonymous said...

I also didn't judged you for writing your blogs in English. At-least you're good and bold enough to pay heed to such issues and tread this path. I'm just a little skeptic about the intention. As far as my cognition goes, you are criticising the indifferent and the irresponsible youth for their presumed sense of self superiority when speaking in a language that according to them makes em look more sophisticated compared to others. And such articles should be read by them to understand and realize their mistakes and their actual place in society!
I'm just saying that when you Put your opinions, for or against a subject, you need to be really worth it. People should not doubt you when they read your point of view. Your articles must not have a stench of Contradiction. Otherwise people would doubt your intention. And I'm not asking you to write your blogs in Hindi. Considering the rise in the number of English speaking people across the world, that suggestion would be preposterous. What I am saying is when you write about a stuff this sensitive, you need to be really careful about the reactions and repercussions of it. It wouldn't hurt you to write this one article in Hindi, considering that it can boost the confidence of the people who undermine their own abilities because of of a lack of proficiency in English and will certainly embolden them to face others with more dignity. And most of the people who Know how to browse the internet know only the www, CTRL + ENTER and stuffs and not the actual Language( I'm talking about the people you presumed to know English if they know internet).
ALL in all, your credibility would be questioned. This is what i'm saying. I don't mean to be offensive. Its just an unbiased Point of view. And I'm sure you had noblest intentions drafting this article.
God Bless you...you seem to be a good person. :)
Btw what do you do?

SHANKY said...

Hey probably this is the best comment I have got over my blog. If you could notice...somewhere in the blog I mentioned "youth including me". So I blame myself too, but I have such opinions and I stand by it. All in all "We are doing this mistake", but I do it a bit less that's it.

Well presently I am pursuing my masters from Michigan,US. You??

geek_ji said...

bhaaaai...zara ye blog bhi hindi me he likh deta....!! :)

abhinav said...

bhaaaaiii...ye blog bhi hindi me he likh deta...!! :)

Anonymous said...

Damn this is so lame, incoherent and convoluted piece of writing. I second the Anonymous1 guy. The style, the grammar and the way of collating the ideas is so wretched, esp considering you have been writing since few years I suppose.
And you go gaudy sometimes. "Come out of the box", what does that mean? LOL. You can go for simple and pithy stuff and avoid this surge of feeling literary, in case you feel so.
"Why cant Bengali Gujrati speak in Hindi?", seriously? You advocate that paradoxical stupid thought. You dont need to speak Hindi to respect it. And where is the youth involved in your imaginary war of states. LOL. Considering the huge diversity of our, I assume we are doing pretty good with one two feuds over there. And I still dint get it, the title (apparently you expect your readers to get it in the very beginning.)
Take the criticism constructively.

Anerudh Balaji said...

Excellent post. I can remember myself not knowing a word of hindi while coming to college and atleast now I can speak quite OK in Hindi.

And also, so am i ineligible to call niru a gawar anymore? saala shanky, i protest this entry!

partyprincess said...

First of all let me tell u i wasn't much surprised by reading ur article...let me tell u something which i feel along with me,most of ur friends,family or be it anyone who knows u,agrees to...ur fabulous,awesum,strong, hardworking and most of all down to earth...this is just a small glimpse of u...its always a pleasure reading ur thoughts and basically"UR TAKE ON SOME CRITICAL ISSUES OF LIFE".obviously, i had to admit there were some grammatical errors,but that's still OK if u successfully transmit ur feelings to ur readers.i completely understand wht u wanted to convey and wanted others to feel,wht u felt while writing down this article.the facts stated by u are realistic but not everyone can do something about it rather than criticizing you for actually giving a solution to these problems,its really sad when people get diverted from the subject u thew light upon and concentrate more on suppressing ur grammatical flaws and claiming them to be a good critic of urs.
cant help it.."kuch to log kahenge logon ka kaam hai kehna".
plzzzzz do keep writing ur thoughts,i am sure people love reading ur blog..u rock...guess some people r jealous,they can't be like u....