I hardly have seen people doing anything other than Hand
Shake while greeting irrespective of whenever and wherever they meet others.
Meeting friends, relatives or colleagues, starts and ends with Hand Shake. Why
we are so prone to imitating? And we laugh at china by saying no one can beat
china in copying? Aren’t we beating china in copying other cultures?
I will narrate few incidents from my life that opened my
eyes. Recently I had attended marriage engagement with friend. My friend is around
28 years old. He was speaking to elder lady; suddenly middle-aged woman called
his name. She was happy to see him. First thing she did when he went near her;
Handshake. I can’t believe what I had seen. I tried to analyse this incident in
two ways. First, even housewives also know party manners. Second even
housewife/mothers also became western and forgot our culture. Irrespective of
age or relation, people do hand shake. In childhood, we used to see hand shake
only in films when villains make deal.
I was in world famous jog falls. I sneaked in and spent good
time on top of the falls. I was sitting looking down at the people who are
viewing falls. Suddenly I heard “Namaste”, I was pleasantly shocked and surprised
when I saw foreign couple. I said “Namaste” then I realizes, last time I said
“Namaste” is more than a decade back. “Namaste” felt so foreign to me that
moment.
I have seen cousin/relatives who purchased blazer for
marriage by paying 10-15k but wore only on one day (i.e. reception day) till date.
We have our own unique marriage dress why do we need blazer?
Are we copying only from western countries? No. We are
copying from everywhere, within India too. In proper Karnataka marriages, there
is no dance or mehandi program. Now there is sangeeth, which is pin-to-pin copy
from north India marriages, Only Hindi songs played during sangeeth.
Above-mentioned incidents are very small but impact is not
negligible. We can’t even guess our magnitude of westernization. If a mother do
handshake, how can her child do anything different?
I am travel enthusiast, I like to explore and know different
culture. In present situation, I feel there is no need for a foreigner to come
India to know our culture because we will be having almost everything similar. We
are using same steel/plastic utensils, driving same bike/cars and wearing same
dress as westerns. So tell me, where is Bharatiya culture or identity? From
many decades, we are calling our parents as mommy and daddy, relatives as uncle
and aunty, or strangers as sir and mam. From long time we stopped putting hands on our friends shoulders but started hugging irrespective of gender.
There is one positive incident also. I had attended corgi
friend marriage in Virajpet, Karnataka. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw
people touching their elder’s feet while greeting. I meant to say instead of
handshake they are greeting by touching feet. Almost all relatives of groom and
bride were wearing their Kodava dress. I
was very happy that day, as Bharatiya culture still exists among few of us.
Is it wrong to copy? No we have to take the best from others
while retaining our best. For example: Jeans easy to wear and can wash once in
month.
Lets try these below simple things to preserve our culture
in small way
In Karnataka, we have lot of Kannada songs so lets play
Kannada songs in Sangeeth.
Lets greet by folding our hands with respect or touching
feet of elders instead of handshake.
Lets preserve suit and handshake for business purpose only.
Lets say Namaskara/Namaste instead of Hi/Hello.
Lets put hands across the shoulder instead of just hugging.
I take this opportunity to ask you to question yourself. As
a Bharatiya, you have to protect your identity and culture. Think in your own way;
share the same in your circles.
