Hai Ram, Log Kya Kahenge !!!

Since long I have felt that whenever an Indian returns from abroad, after spending a couple of years there. The mind state in which he returns is usually the one in which he had left. It may have been updated with the Bollywood releases, but for a person who has hailed from the middle class back ground, he will usually ignore them to be for the rich and famous. During my flight back home, I came across an article by Shobha De titles "Dancing Queens" featured in The Week, she has talked about a lady from the British Land unable to understand why a Bride's Mother will do a solo dance on the now famous "Kajra Re". To me, still it sounds as pretty far-sighted in my circle, where it may still be a couple of more years away. The NRI lady, who is now baffled about the family traditional values which she has kept so close to her heart and guarded with near jealousy so that she wont be branded with a No-Longer Indian tag.

The question immediately pops up in our mind is that why, in India, we are drifted slowly but steadily towards the western culture and are including them in our rituals, whilst for people living outside the Indian sub-continent, try to be stagnant or worse move backwards and adopt the purer form of our traditions. Trying not to forget our roots and trying to be in touch with the present going trends, our minds are always drawn to that dilemma in making a that all so necessary choice of choosing between what we really want and what our traditions say.

The NRI Lady, in the article, has come up with arguments that are so true and reasonable. Taking one example of the Lady asking the whether it was acceptable conduct coming out of the Bridegroom's future mother-in-law. Go back a few years, I assure you, it would have been a tabboo.

Does walking in pace with time, means to change yourself over time so that it suits the people around you rather than you? There is always an external force that requires us to change. It usually is in the forms of our friends and relatives and that hidden competition between themselves. The fight to always proves who is better. And then the billion dollar question is, what is better. Better can be not forgetting what our elders told us, playing by the rules or better can be not leaving the grip of time and beating it to its pace.

I wonder in which context "Hai Ram, Log kya kahenge" will apply now.

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary
To one without faith, no explanation is possible !!
St. Thomas Aquinas

Hai Ram, Log kya kahenge, hum abhi tak pichdi duniya ke hain or
Hai Ram, Log kya kahenge, hamari sanskriti kahan gayi !!

For us its always been what we are thought of in the society rather than what we are thought of in our mind ourselves. The decisions are usually made by thinking not what we feel is right, but what the general perception of being right is.And that general perception changes with the place you live and the company you keep.

Home Cooked !!

Well I have done funny things in life. I remember during school times, the chemistry lab was something different from me. There was one particular incident which I don't forget. During the study of AgCl3, I brought the solution home once. I don't remember what I was thinking !!!. Playing with the solution, I don't know what I intended to do. I did spill some of the solution on myself, specifically on the hands.

Lazy as I am, I didn't bother to clean, because anyhow I was to head for the chemistry lab itself. ( I was a strict non-follower of the Lab Rules ) With some of the Liquid in my hand, I rushed down to reach my labs. During the walk in the sun, I realized my hands had magically turned black. It did not strike me immediately what had happened.!!

But for full 3 days, people were frightened, whenever I drew out my hand for a shake, to such and extend that they would jump and pull back there hands and would not shake it !!

Well that story is just a by-product. The main story is, in another experiment, I produced a lot of ammonia. And I went on to smell huge amounts of it for some time. I later realized that ammonia affect the outer layer of your nose's inside. This resulted in many side-effects including the leaking of my nose very frequently, cold or no cold.

Now past few weeks, and previously also I noted, I have not been able to smell things. To the extend that smell of burn whiles I am at the stove is not noticeable to me. I wonder whether it is temporarily or long term. But it sure has inhibited the amount of pleasure I could and should derive from eating various foods.

Mahesh Dattani in his article "Home-Cooked Love" (featured in The Week) points out that, it is the combination of the senses from touch, smell, and taste because of which we Indians will never be able to recluse the Home-Cooked feeling.Whatever we say, and wherever we eat, the best cooked food has always been and will be, for us Indians the food cooked by Ma !!! 90 % of the strong billion people will agree with me.

I always used to wonder, that japenese will never get that feel, as cooking is not part of there daily routine and agenda. But right now I am desperate to have that feeling. And finally after almost a year, it will come again tonite !!

To end, I will quote from Maheshs article
" I regret that I was never a part of the process of making food, but I am eternally grateful that I was at the receiving end "

I think it Sums it up in the best possible way !!!