Thread by @NamasteNiHao

#gennext & #bharatiyavalues and a misfit!

So,was invited for "brunch" by a newly married couple. Girl is a PhD student in engg dept and guy works in a startup. Girl comes to receive us in shorts and tank top, no bindi,bangles,mangalsutra or indication of being newly married.

As we were about to step foot inside the house, she said we cud walk in with our slippers. We insisted tht we remove them & entered. She seemed bit surprised to rec fruits&bisc we gt them. Gt served lemony soda drink & conversations started off in Eng, I tried to bring in hindi

Home was as typical #gennext type. Flat screen tv, 4-5 Apple laptops, iPhones & ipads, stereo playing rock music, photo collage of parties, honeymoon etc.just as I ws going to giv up whn tucked in the corner, almost as though they dint want it to be seen, was lakshmi devi murti

The only thing Indian and that salvaged the "brunch" for me was when the girl said her brother is a die hard nationalist and has left his software career to pursue UPSC🙂

Since the time I've shifted to this new complex, have started noticing how outdated I am. I wakeup every day and light the morning diya, recite daily prayers, draw rangoli outside the door, our door has the toran of ganesha and Lakshmi and an Aum.... So LS right🙄

During the last deepawali pot luck, when I complimented my Marathi neighbour that her mangalsutra is pretty, she asked me excitedly "here, do you want to try it" and started to remove it, when I asked her not to 😑

Last month invited my childhood friend & her husband home fr dinner.She too was newly married bt probably dint wnt to show off hr married identity, no bindi, mangalsutra etc. It was amazing the way both husb-wife spoke proudly of hw they can't cook so hire maid, aren't religious

After dinner while they were leaving, I offered haldi kumkum and betel leaf, betel nut as per custom...She sneered and said since when have i started following all this..politely I replied that I'm following something that I've seen my Amma do when guests leave our home

Outside the door her husband spotted my rangoli and asked whether I draw it daily...somehow they seemed uncomfortable with my trad ways.

I know I'm a minority who is part of this modern gen but who still practices our Bharatiya aachar and sanskriti to the extent possible. In fact I often feel guilty for nt being able to imbibe a lot more from my Amma but I'm glad they instilled this sense of respect for traditions

I owe whatever traditions, prayers I say, pujas I conduct ,prasadam I make to the unswerving seva of my parents ,grand parents and great grand parents towards Bhagawan and upholding Sanatana dharma 🙏

P.S : I'm not passing a judgement as to whether it's right or wrong to wear bindi, mangalsutra or dress appropriately when receiving guests...to each her own. This post is just my observation on how the newer generation lives and I too am part of it and how the differences I see

It's a fallacy that dharmics have wholeheartedly appropriated when being thrown labels like sanghi , traditional ..these binaries do no exist IMO...I'm a dharmic but have a modern outlook towards life, travel a lot, dress modern when req , dress trad when req, we adapt

This binary tried to box someone who is dharmic as essentially being backward and regressive. Intact this is the beauty of Sanatana dharma that it gives us freedoms while also binding us to our "dharma" , rules, codes to live a sustainable dharmic and modern life

I've been thinking a lot about my generation and now that many of my friends, cousins are pregnant and will give birth soon &knowing them it feels bad that their children will not grow up in dharmic household cause their parents knw zilch..too much secularism has eaten up Hindus