Diminishing Identity

NOTE: "This entry is not to hurt anyone. It is just my perspective"

There had been days when girls were yearning to have mangal sutra around their neck, kum kum or sindhoor on top of their forehead, I mean waiting to get married. They had pictured these as a symbol of beauty besides it being the symbol of identity of married women. By the tradition of South India, Mangal sutra and the toe ring had been the sacred ornament. In these days of the stylish era, it is being worn as just an ornament. How many of us know its importance and preserve it? So why is the toe ring worn?? Are we wearing for the purpose of it?

In the words of my Granny,” In olden days, girls wore mangal sutra and the guys wore the toe ring. While commuting on roads, the women wore mangal sutra visible to others and to walk on the street heading downwards, and men would wear the toe ring, so when a married women catches a sight of a man with ring on his toe, she would move away and the guy on looking at the mangal sutra would give her way to go.”

In those days, a toe ring were made only of silver and as gold was considered as the form of goddess Lakshmi, so was looked upon as a disrespect to wear it below the waist. But which is not deliberated in the world of fashion today.

We always like to have pleasant sounds at our house. For example the wind chimes which produce a melodious rhythm, fills s with joy. Similarly, there is a common belief that clashing sound of toe rings chases away evil spirit and brings wellness for the family members.

There is also another belief on medical insight on wearing toe ring is that it regularizes the menstrual cycle of married women. A specific nerve from the second toe connects uterus and heart. So while walking, friction caused by this nerve gives energy to reproductive organs.

This toe ring is gifted to the bride by her uncle after the sacrificial rites, who has a significant importance in the her life. After this, the groom holds the bride’s big toe and takes seven steps to affirm their relationship as friends for life.

So with all these significance in it, do all of us practice and cherish its values? Here is a little comparison with a foreign culture, the English ones. If a guy or girl finds their soul mate, they get to know them in person, understand them, go around dating and stuff till they magically decide to hold their hands. But when asking for her hand, the guy approaches her with a ring and asks, “Will you marry me?” on a perfect evening in all due respects. And the girl on deciding to marry the guy wears the ring as a symbol of love and an identity of their relationship all through their lifetime together. They do have their identity where ever they go irrespective of their lifestyle.

These days, toe rings have become an ornament rather than an identity. Let we not be too orthodox and walk with our heads facing down on roads but it is our duty to preserve our tradition and culture. So wearing it in silver or gold or enameled is not the concern, wearing it is of great importance and will give us the pride of carrying our tradition in whichever lifestyle we be.

ARE WE LOSING THE TASTE OF CULTURE??

 Change is the only permanence in this universe. It can also be explained as the first step of evolution.  Change is responsible for the development of the next generation. Whenever we refer to the Next-G, i.e.., the next generation, it should be a civilized and progressed one from the current one. As we all know, “Too much of anything is good for nothing”, applies very well to the next-g if growth proceeds in this exorbitant downtrend.

Though there are many fields to consider, the major affected ones are the health and the culture. Culture, is the value of the society. This has deteriorated to a great extent since the invasion of white men. Aping the west will improve our standard of living on par with developed countries, no doubt in it. But the loosening of our roots from our culture will destroy the mother civilization. India is called as the land of sanctity, with reference to the epics and puranas which went on during the time immemorial. Aping the western culture has become the mode of day-to-day life. Change in the attire could be accepted to a certain extent as our business environment demands the culture of the west. But the adolescence getting carried away by these traditions of aliens lets the loosening of our roots. The reason for the influence is the media which portrays the other culture as the way of life. Children think beyond their age group, knowledge of certain things which should not be known to them at their age leads to the urge to explore it. The dressing kind in these days, exposure to cosmetics at a very young age which is an impact of media is not a good sign. The proper guidance from their parents will help them know the right and wrong. The lack of time spent by the parents with their wards makes them look for a companion beyond their home. Here the media plays a role in inculcating the practices beyond their age and necessity. For example, falling into infatuation or getting addicted to ill habits such as smoke and drinks proves this. Infatuation is mistaken as love at the age when they are unaware about themselves and also life. Smoke and drinks are used by the English to accustom with their temperature conditions. This deterioration is getting worse at the schooling age. As heard from my teacher, the excessive exposure to media spoils their habits, behavior at school and also their respect for elders. This difference was found by her within a short span of three years. This will show the role and impact created by the media in day-to-day life.

In order to instill the values of tradition and culture, children can be made to study the epics and understand the moral of living, even from various scriptures on how to lead a disciplined way of life. This can be done by their parents, by spending their time with their children, teaching them the values from their young age. Some parents may justify by saying they are earning for their child’s betterment. But only their presence will lead to the real betterment of the child. Living as an example will help children learn these values better than teaching theoretically. Media should be used as a source to improve our knowledge in the right direction.

The other field of deterioration is health. These days, children rarely get time to play as we played or as our parents did. Though they play, playing in the soil will give them immunity to survive the micro-organisms from the environment, which has almost become nil. The food habits which are again due to the aping of the west, we suffer various kinds of illness. An increase in the amount of fat intake and the lack of physical activity is the major reason for the well known illness of the day-Obesity. Proper environment for a safe and peaceful life is also getting extinct due to pollution and an enormous increase in population. Through population exploitation cannot be reverted, a proper management of the resources to avoid pollution and to save it for future will help us build a better life-style. The awareness on physical fitness must be taught to children by indulging them in yoga, which has its roots in or country will help for their betterment both physically and mentally. Even healthier life can be attained by sticking our culture. To build a better future we have to prepare ourselves to teach them, here are a few online help for it.

As told by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, “The child of today is the citizen of tomorrow”. So we shall join together to know the values of our culture and take an oath to build a better future.

A few sites to enlighten about our culture and traditional values:

• This site explains about good parenting values.
  

http://www.indianchild.com/culture%20_1.htm

• This site gives us the values of Indian culture and various traditions followed in various religions.
  

http://www.indianmirror.com/culture/cul1.html

• This one is about the art forms, traditions and invaluable monuments of our country
  

http://www.indiancultureonline.com/ 

A peaceful holiday spot!!

Here is my experience about my visit to a beautiful town

It is NEYVELI. It is almost made by NLC namely Neyveli lignite corporation. Everyone must be aware of it as, this supplies a major share of power to our state. I dint nurture any preconceived notion about the town, though I had made my living there when I was in my first and second standard. My uncle welcomed me to enjoy riding his TVS excel. I was awaiting the same as it has been 4 years since I rode a vehicle. I reached my relatives place late in the evening, so couldn’t go round that day.

The next day my uncle took me a ride and was with me to take ride by myself. It was the road towards the township. Marvelous sight, scintillating breeze awakening every cell of my soul. Road was elegant bordered by eucalyptus trees. Behind those trees were the cashew trees. A must mention, this town exports a major percentage of cashew both within and outside the country. I wont say it was lush of green, it can be described as temperate region with respect to geography we studied at school. The scent of eucalyptus rose as I was driving. That evening we had planned to visit Chidhambaram NATRAJAR temple which would take an hours time from this town.

My parents said this temple is where I we used to spend our evenings atleast twice a week while we were at chidhambaram. This would have been the substantial reason for my affinity towards the deity lord Natraja(Shiva). The temple is definitely a master-piece. You will be astounded on the first sight of loty gopurams in the four cardinal directions.

This temple is a must visit for artists and performers of our classical art form Bharathnatyam. The gateways are etched with 108 poses of Bharathnatyam as enunciated in Natya Sastra. An interesting fact about this temple, according to scientific proof, the place where Lord Natraja has his right foot is the centre of this universe. The deity is in one of the dance postures called “Ananda Tandavam”.

To the right of Shiva, is the revered Chidambara rahasyam - or a representation of emptiness garlanded with golden vilva leaves. The curtain in front of the Chidambara Rahasyam, representing Shiva (and Parvati) in the formless form (Aroopam) is lifted ceremoniously during worship services, with offerings of lamps. A legend, comemorating the dance between Shiva and Kali is associated with Chidhambaram. Shiva is said to have lifted his right foot towards the sky in the “Urdhuva Tandava” posture, a definite male gesture, which Kaali could not reciprocate, thereby causing Shiva to emerge victorious, assigning Kaali to the status of a primary deity in another temple in the outskirts of Chidambaram. “Sai raksha” is the one offered to the Lord at Sandhya kaalam(6 pm). The pooja with various kinds of abhishekam and Aaradhana were mind blowing.