A GIRL’S WEDDING

Have you ever seen a Hindu wedding? It symbolizes sanctity, beauty and the most correct following of rites and rituals. It is grand. It is royal. It is everything what a young bride and groom hope for.

There are several customs and traditions. Several ceremonies that run parallel to the grand event. Each one more memorable than the last.

For nearly a month I was involved with the wedding preparations of my best friend. Last one week was total fun. I enjoyed a lot helping out, taking part in the various ceremonies and trying my best to keep my friend happy until she begins a new phase in her life.

There is an unique characteristic of such weddings, at the end of the day, the bride cries, her family cries…..It is always sad to leave one’s home and settle elsewhere. To begin a new life, with a new person, with a new family.

I have never cried at weddings. I had always found it to be stupid. Or perhaps, I have never been close to someone enough, to miss them or care for them.

However, I did not realize but tears did sprang up in my eyes while saying goodbye to my friend. I felt silly. My friend is going to remain in the same town but just at a different house. She will carry with her the same phone number.Still, I did feel sad.

I don’t why she cried either. It is the same with her. Though, she won’t live with parents anymore, she will be just minutes away from their home. That house will welcome her anytime she wants.

Then why did she cry? Why did I cry?

Does a bride really cry because she won’t stay with her parents.

I don’t think so.

What is intimidating is that it is the beginning of a completely new life. More so for a girl.

She is the one who is going to leave her parent’s place and move elsewhere.

What made me cry is the same thing?

In a few years time, I will too begin a different life.

And now I know, I will cry a lot.

Not that I am not not used to staying away from my family. I have done that many times. But I did not realize earlier that what is actually means.

It means changing your priorities.

All those people, you thought to be the most important ones, will be given the second position. Your husband, will be your top priority.

All those people who were your family, will have less right on you and your life will have a new meaning.

What hurts is the fact of pushing your own people away from you and embracing total strangers.

For a girl, that is such a major thing to do.

Few years, down the line, a new family life begins. A phase of more responsibilities and commitments.

Sometimes, I don’t understand, what is more dear?

The first years of life when you are young, carefree, innocent and without any responsibilities.

Or the later years of maturity.

For a boy, maturity means to turn into a man.

But a girl, becomes a daughter first, then a sister, a wife and finally a mother……and that’s what she remains all her life……without any second identity…..

A wedding, is fun but at the same time, it s when a girl is born again with a different identity….

And one never knows, that the tears a girl sheds are the sad ones or the happy ones….

Or whether, the most beautiful thing in life is the one in which aeons of happiness is mixed with tons of grief!!!

THE KITE FLIER

The kite flying festival just finished in India. It’s lot of fun. It is known as “Makar-Sankranti”.

Even after 2 days, you can still see kites dominating the sky; adding their own beauty to it….

When we were kids, we used to round up all our cousins and friends in the nearby area and fly kites, this time of the year. We knew every little shop where they sold kites; which one was the best, which one was the cheapest, which one was the nearest…..

Now, if you ask me about it, I’ll say, “I don’t know…..”

I don’t remember how to string the kites, how to fly it high, how to cut other kites. It seems I have forgotten everything. I have even forgotten how the kite feels like!

It’s evening and I’m looking outside through the window while typing this out. I can see the bluish-orange sky lined by dozens of kites. Kites of all sizes, some small, some big, some very huge. And some, so far, that they look very tiny and you cannot even make out their color.

Kites of so many colors….. Orange, red, green, yellow, pink, blue,….some dazzling multi-colored ones too.

Some with long tails that are wrestling with the wind…….Some made of paper and some latest ones made of thin plastic.

Kids are running helter-skelter. Some of them, flying kites from their terraces, some from the ground itself. Some boasting, how many kites they have cut. Others running all over the road to catch the falling kites.

Some kids are lucky enough to grab falling kites. Others are dejected as few kites get stuck on the high branches of trees.

AND, there are so many trees like that. Beautifully laden with “kites”. They will remain so, until the wind blows the kites away or the sun fades their bright color or a bird rips them off to pieces…..

Has one forgotten to be a kid while growing up?

Forgotten….

The pride of flying the kite higher than the others.

The feeling of triumph when you cut someone else’s kite.

The satisfaction of spending a rupee on something you really love to do.

Society, rules and regulations, limitations of our age has turned us into nothing but “kites”. Just brightly colored, put on a display in front of the world. Flying high and getting cut just when we think we are on the epitome of success.

It’s high time we turned ourselves from inanimate KITES to lively KITE FLIERS…….

“CULTURE”, OMG, What’s That???

You might know INDIA. It’s a small country in South-East Asia flanked by water on three sides and land on the fourth. Surrounded by over-friendly neighbors like Pakistan and China. Wow, now that’s what you call a “country”.

If you consider the size, India is really small but there are million such “Indias” all over the world. Be it any powerful country, any G8 nation, there is India residing in some part or the other.

The west today, has started acknowledging India’s presence as a powerful country. The west is fascinated by the vast cultural diversity and the ethnicity. It is running towards the east, to India, taken in by it’s strange yet interesting rituals and that spiritual touch.

BUT

What are we doing as “Indians”??? Can we say sincerely, with a hand on our hearts that we are protecting our culture? Are we? Ask yourself.

Immigrants all over the world are proud to be associated with this country. Wherever they are, they celebrate all the festivals with pomp and splendor. Their kids might be born there but still they teach them all about India and it’s culture, it’s religion, it’s growth as a powerful yet humble country.

They, there, far far away, are trying to protect and enhance a culture that is dwindling here in India itself.

We are so hell-bent on being westernized that we have sold our morales and have become slaves of globalization. We forget, that the grass is always greener on the other side. We criticize what we have and appreciate things that don’t suit our mentality and up-bringing. All we crave for is, social status and don’t look beyond money and prestige.

Indian rituals to us, seem stupid and a burden our fore-fathers gave us as inheritance. Our music is no longer classical…. it’s more rock and rap. Our heroes are not the one who gave us freedom, they are the ones who run half-naked around the world.

Where is the “Indian-ness” in India???

Still, there is a great TRUTH…..

How much ever, we try to model ourselves in the western mold, we cannot over-look the fact that our roots are still Indian. Our brains are earning capital for a different country but our hearts are still connected to this mysterious nation.

Next time, you may say CULTURE, OH MY GOD, WHAT’S THAT?

And be ashamed of your Indian roots.

But remember,

YOU CAN REMOVE SEVERAL HEARTS FROM INDIA AND LOCATE THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE BUT YOU CAN NEVER REMOVE THE INDIA THAT IS LIVING IN THOSE MILLIONS OF HEARTS.