I just came out of the screens after watching The Namasake. For all people, who haven’t heard about this brilliant movie by Mira Nair, please do take your time out to watch this on the big screens. Along the lines of the many American-Desi movies, The Namasake portrays the radiant diligence of Mira Nair as an extemporary movie maker. I simply loved every scene of this movie, and kind off could relate to it every moment that I spent within the theater.

A couple of weeks back, I had this amazing conversation with one of my good mates who is a second generation Australian, now getting into an arranged marriage scenario soon. Obviously the topic revolved around Indian values, customs, traditions, culture, etc. I still remember those words that I read in my MSN chat window. “Its funny isn’t it, my parents came here 22yrs ago and I still live so much like an Indian”.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with those words from her. I certainly did expect these from her, and offcourse, I can totally relate to her & sympathize for whatever is happening. According to me the solution is pretty simple & clear. If you want to live abroad forever, then either you embrace the local culture and be an Australian, American, European, etc or if you can’t stand your son getting hitched with a white-woman, then make sure you get home before he is born.

It is ridiculous to blame the child, who is grown in the local culture to loose his stranded values in aim of thinking very alike the way you thought. My point is not that all of them of alike, there are many exceptions to these cases too. I understand that people tend to stay back more so for the future generations than their own, but under even that circumstance its better to think about what value structure that you want to persist & what you want to forgo.

I am not a racist, sexist, nor anti-settling abroad since this post is coming to you exclusively from Sydney. But I am a pragmatist, and this is something which I have certainly experienced whole-heartedly.

One of my friends doesn’t want to have a kid, in claiming that it would restrict his boundaries – which I totally respect. Under this circumstance there is no problem or persistence. But at the same the pleasure of giving life is yet another astounding act, which I want to totally enjoy.

"What are all these Cultures, Traditions, Customs, etc that you are talking about"- asked me my best friend’s mom who has been living abroad almost all her life. “Sometimes, People living abroad follow these more than the ones who live in India” followed the next line. This is where I say where the problem creeps in. Following customs in India itself is a big thing in today’s world. Again, I am not anti-beliefs, my point is different.

I am supposed to be a white-belted, three times Sandi doing South-Indian-Iyer -I do neither. The only thing I follow is vegetarianism, that too due to the fact that I don’t like meat (not religiously). Now under these circumstances, what about me – what would you explain about a guy like me?

The conclusion is very simple. It entirely depends on individual perspectives.

My point being the fact that there is no reason in the world anyone should crib about the fact that their future generations have gone the other way, in-spite having the knowledge very well that they are in the mixture of cultural tangles.

Understand, Appreciate, Unite - Love is Unconditional!

Filtered by sambhar....