culture

Patriotism 101

So the other we celebrated the 60th anniversary of our independence (August 15th). I am glad to see even the rich and upper middle class people are now proud to be Indian etc. They even show a TV ad in which the guy refuses a foreign companies offer, goes around driving a bike, etc... pretty cool.

So anyway, I myself am not upto the mark on the patriotic meter, at least not by our Indian Nazi standards, but I do have a small list of patriotic-to-do-list which I try to-do from time to time. So no wanting to keep away from the prevailing hurrah of our 60th independence anniversary I hear by share my list:

Indecent Proposal


Now thats the kind of dad I'd love to have as my girlfriend's father! Though I wonder what would our cultural guardians think if this ad were to be show on Indian tv channels. The last time I heard, they were after some vibrating condoms which they believe is a sex toy and it is against Indian culture to have sex for pleasure. Guess thats the reason we have a billion people in India. The guy would be like... "Darn its against our culture to fuck for fun, can't not fuck so might as well make a baby and god would be happy too. Bonus!"

Should you marry your cousin?

So the other day some people were discussing the practice of marrying in your own bloodline, specifically marring your cousins (mostly distant) etc… However, the conversation soon shifted to the fact that Muslims do it all the time. And then to speculation about why they do it. “May be its to preserve their bloodline”. Some one said. “Cheeeee… how awful!” Some one briefly mentioned that in South India every one does it as Muslims do… but that small fact was ignored. Some one said, I told my daughter, don’t you dare think of marrying your cousin. Etc. etc. etc… cut the bullshit people. Why does every debate has to turn into a we are holier then them issue!?

What does it matter how American’s marry, Muslims marry, you marry or I marry. You don’t marry a certain way. Fine. Don’t try to prove you are better then the other… And this specific topic of marriage, in all probabilities you may be the result of some secret (or not so secret) love affair of a very happy ancestor! Even the birth of our gods is suspect for example; Following king Dashrath’s inabilities, Kaushalya drank some divine juice (the result of a major yagna) got pregnant and gave birth to bhagwaan Ram.

No marriage tradition is without blemish. I am told, people like Genghis khan and such, muddied a lot of bloodlines and so do heroes, conquerors, politicians, affluent people, etc…, in any era or time. Marriages were also an instrument of politcs and business, revenge, and  on. So chill. There are no superior ways of getting married. You are no better marring your cousin or some one else’s. It’s like feeling yuk at the people who use toilet paper. They feel yuk at those not using toilet paper.

It doesn’t make you superior.

Be nice.

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