Tradition vs Me

India the country of snake charmers, the land of IT outsourcing and Bangalore. India has its own unique, culture, traditions. In all India has its own unique flavor. And as an Indian I have respect for these traditions and cultures. But are not these traditions ought to change with time? When India has changed from the land of Snake charmers to the land of IT, shouldn't these age old irrelevant traditions change?

I would like to explain it with this example, once in a wedding ceremony a cat was causing a lot of havoc, drinking milk , breaking pots etc. So the Brides father caught the cat and tied it to pole, and from that day it has become a ritual to tie a cat to a pole in marriages in that town. The practice which was a need during that time is being followed till date. Now this ritual may have lost its importance as there might not be any cat trouble, but still people will follow it. If some people with a scientific mind try to object to it they are termed as ‘Nastiks’, or those having no respect for the religion. Well with this example I just want to say rituals take birth only due to need. They are not hard written rules which if not followed will cause any thing bad.
In ancient times in India people lived in close quarters with nature, so they developed a respect for the nature and they demonstrated this respect in form of religious devotion to the nature. Since the cow gave milk they started worshiping the cow. Since the Aryans were mainly situated in Ganga plains and its water was necessary for them for agriculture they started praying it and thus the Ganga became the holiest of Indian rivers. This respect was put forward in the story of Shiva giving birth to the Ganga from his ‘Jata’. But now people simply have no respect left for the Ganga, people who bath in the Ganga to rinse of their sins also defecate in the river. People may have a dip in the holy river at Benares , but they would not mind their factories releasing sewage in the Ganga and hence polluting it. So does not this double standard alarm you? This shows actually the people have no respect left for the Ganga. If they had any respect they would stop throwing corpses into it,instead of doing yagna on the banks of the Ganga. This is one of the numerous example available in the country. The people were wanted to thank the snakes for keeping rodents away from their farms so they started praying to snake gods. But now people catch snakes to worship them. Wherever there is a ant hill, people start putting milk in it. Now science has showed snakes dont drink milk still people dont stop. They pour milk into the ant hill making the ant hill useless for the snake. Now if the homeless snake comes to their house to take refuge, the people wont think twice to kill it. The people should change, btu when you explain it to them they talk all gibberish about tradition etc.
People violently protest against Valentine Day because they think it is anti social for boys and girls to go out together. It is against Hinduism and Muslims. But the same Muslim or Hindu can rape a women in broad daylight, the fault is of the girl because she was wearing scantily clad clothes? What ridiculous non sense is that.?
I don’t believe doing a pooja will cure somebody, without taking medicines. But I am not against any one praying for the well being of some one. Prayers are the emotional support people look towards when some of their near dear ones are in bad health etc. So I don’t object to it. But I don’t believe that it was because of the pooja the person got well. This takes away the credit from the doctors, from years of research for creating the medicine etc.Another rule I find absurd is the matching of horoscopes , I don’t know how matching of horoscopes can lead to a happy married life. This is ridiculous, and instead people should check the medical records of each other, or their genetic fingerprints so that they don’t have any complications in the future. Even educated people like Amiatabh Bachan follow it, it is absolutely absurd. Come on we are in the twenty first century.
Recently in news I saw that people were worshipping a pair of snakes in prakasam district, while they were copulating considering them to be Nag deveta, this is again ridiculous, I agree people have a respect for snakes and worship them but they should be left alone they should not be pestered around because we worship them. Elephants should not be kept at temples to serve the god like those in Guruvayur temple.
So much of money should not be spent on temples instead it should be used in eradicating poverty. But this does not mean that the temple like Tirupati should be destroyed or their funding be taken away, because they are the symbols of our cultural heritage. But spending enormous amounts on yagnas, or building new temples should be stopped. To counter this many people say that even Vatcian spends a lot. So what if some one jumps in well should we too?
The actual problem, with Indians is not lack of education its lack of Implementation Of Educatoion. Even IIT pass outs will check horoscopes of their brides. The social and moral values we are taught in school are only to be mugged and written in exam and then forget it. We are taught not to litter the road but the same person will spit paan in the open. We are taught science but it is again of no use. The other day on TV I saw the ISRO cahirman congratulating a boy who was claiming to be a dead american scientist. Come on give me a break if the ISRO chairman does these things what can w expect of we mere mortals. Celebs also influence people by follwing such non sensical rules.

These days on news channels we get all rubbish news like a pigeon from amarnath caves found in Ujjain, a girl claiming to be kali. I dont believe these stories are aired and people are watching it. This shows the extent of stupidity prevailing. How can educated editors and press people air such non sensical stuff.

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