AMALGAMATION- THE PERFECT “KHICHDI”

ARRANGED MARRIGE:

Arranged marriage is a very common way of having long or short term legal relationships with a known or unknown family in India. It is a concept which begins with happiness and ends in turmoil and tension, not always though. Marriage is a sacred institution where two people along with their families come together to make a bond which supposedly gives them happiness.

Arranged marriages have a varied concept in different parts of the world. In India, they are usually an example of remaining in culture and making family ties with in the same cultural background or ethnicity. As India is suffocated with a varied variety of cultural diversity, there are different ethnic groups from which result different kind of marriages.

In India an arranged marriage is considered to be the best for two families as parents have an upper hand and can scrutinize the to be bride and groom respectively. They also hold the right to call off a marriage if the “needs and demands” aren’t fulfilled. With arranged marriages come the extra benefit of dowry and where else but in a large chunk of Indian landmass can this be seen?

With the tradition of haldi, mehndi and jaimaal, come the extra tension of giving away the girl and overtly agony struck parents and relatives can be seen. It is not like love marriages are the most happiest and successful marriages in the world or even India for that matter, but in many cases love marriages save the pain of dowry and bring the extra ethnicity under the same roof (as in many cases the bride and groom are from a different ethnic background). Though statistics say that love marriages are less successful than arranged, people love to go against the rule.

Media plays a very good and important part in getting marriages in and out of place. With the extra hype that media gives every agenda these days, if an actor or celebrity is even considering buying a ring that would end up as breaking news. Heard of honour killings- a very non conceptualised and illogical option according to everyone but the bride and groom?

Arranged marriages are an ego boost to everyone including the elders in a family and putting aside the Bollywood drama everyone considers it a necessity. Media plays an active role in giving a very durable imprint to this ego and highlighting it without considering a fall or a rise in anyone’s status or family matters. Till date media has done more harm to the “fame” than good as far as projecting this scared institution is considered.

POLITICS:

A theory which deals with power and its overuse which brings extra ordinary fame either in positive or negative light. Right from college addas to husband wife relationships, agony aunts to bosses, politics is seen everywhere. And limiting one self’s knowledge to the overly ambitious and “useful” politicians of India is bad idea!

Politics is a phenomenon one addresses and experiences right from the lower kindergarten. Even if a kid is unaware of it then, later on in life he/she would re collect an incident which reminded them of politics. Going by the most common belief in India, politics is a gutter which no one really wishes to clean up. It is a perfect example of an oxymoron- amazingly pathetic and not only for an oxymoron it has defined many other figures of speech of the English language in an absolute perfect sense.

When the classification of living beings was done, the theory of politics was used there as well. Even the ants and bees have political brains though division of labour is the best terminology that fits there. But with the advent of who is to collect food and who is rest and lay eggs, the queen bee does rule to dictate her power.

Form the flyovers that we travel on, to the drinking water that helps us wash our buffalos, politicians have kept their word in doing a great deal of Politics happens to be the favourite pass time of media these days. When they have no better wonder like a human face fish or a Yeti to show, they come up with showing politicians rubbing off on each other with more bad than good.

Politics is India is majorly associated with the Leftists and Rights who are always busy bashing each other in public and doing little good work. However this is the current scenario as 60 odd years ago India was a free but divided state due to politics and the politicians. There was a little good work done there but the repercussions still exist and the current generations are facing its brunt.

This perfect opposition has created a balancing stand for media which has its perfect platform to be the Doberman instead of the “kutta” and create its own identity by being the cat who walks away with the cake when two monkeys fight over it. Though the media is bashed as well but people believe in the dirty politics played by the media against the politicians. The events or facts or even the minutest information shared by media is taken to be the inside story without inspecting for the truth.

INDIA:

India is the perfect conglomeration of various ethnic groups and cultures where communal harmony is an everyday habit. It is also a land of hypocrisy where communal violence if any is dealt with so much love that it leaves many civilians dead and others crippled for life.

India has always been a major country in the southern Asian peninsula and more than any other SAARC country it has had a major positive influence on other nations that is to say it has been less involved in either keeping terrorists as pay-in guests or bombing other countries for the sake of it. Not like India has been at its behavior best as she has been majorly involved with some of the crude war fares.

With slogans like “atithi devo bhava” and “God’s own country” it hasn’t been able to gather much positivity around it as many Scarlet Keelings get raped with every foreigner and tourist that comes to India is welcomed by testosterone high men who use their “tool” to think on seeing White people especially girls.

A country if not rich in resources but rich in culture, has over a period of time developed itself too much for any other poor nation (though it is a derogatory term and is not to be used as laid by the UN). Now India happens to be a developed country with great amount of self sufficiency even though it has a huge amount to pay off to the World Bank.

India is the house of varied gods and goddess who appear in various forms and have done a lot of good to their devotees. Religion in India is a major sensitive agenda and anyone including the media loves to finger it for their own good (mostly in monetary value). To the outside world India is that land of epitomic symbolism of goodness that no one dares to wish against her good will except for extreme orthodox groups which hold a long term unnecessary grudge and haven’t been able to move on.

India is shown by media in a number of ways both good and bad. Though for the media India is that golden goose which gives golden eggs everyday and media sells the eggs to the highest bidder. Gone are the days when India was the “sone ki chidiya” today it is a toy and less of a mother land to all those people who pledge that India is my country but can do anything to sell her off in a foreign market. All this is openly broadcasted by the media to fill its pockets and earn more than just the livelihood.

MOVEMENT- THE EVERYDAY SCENE

‘Parents bring children to witness “second” freedom struggle.’ This was one of the headlines of The Hindu, page 10, dated 22^nd August. This is what the Nation has come to. India, which has the largest Constitution in the world, has taken the utmost care to see to it that none of her citizens feel any agony and pain at any point of time. Due to this, 64 years ago the Constitution was drafted with a view that everyone would share equal rights.

NATION:

A nation is an area which has a fixed territorial border and a certain cultural and ethnic background. India has always had a fixed territorial demarcation with a certain exception to the ever disputed Kashmir and the now POK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir). India has always been horded with a huge array of cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity. Due to this a dictionary meaning of a nation is satisfied in this case.
The idea of a nation also comes from the people living in it. Hence the concept of society and community take a very strong upfront. When a community which comes out in the number of tens of thousands on streets and protests for a certain reason, it becomes a major concern for the government. Government which is an important part of a nation helps in protecting the rights of its citizens and keeps things under control. But what happens if the same government loses control? Who are the citizens supposed to turn to?
It is under these circumstances that the idea of a nation is the strongest. India being a democratic country gives its citizens certain rights. To raise a voice against the violation of the rights becomes a duty. Under the current scenario, where there is a huge nationwide protest to free the country off its corruption is a right that every citizen holds.
The movement lead by Kisan Babu Rao Hazare or Anna Hazare, is a huge movement comprising of various sects of people and sees the inclusion of political institutions like ABVP. It is for the first time that the opposition parties have bonded together to bring something very important under one roof. Everything in the power of citizens is being done to get the Lokpal Bill passed by the Parliament.
When talking about a nation, especially one like India which has a high population of youth and the most varied cultural ethnicity, it is a difficult idea to get people together. A place where discussions are made on every orthodox community and there is always a resent between them, a term like corruption becomes a binding factor.
But with the right to stage a protest also comes the duty to hold complete knowledge of the subject and to understand what is being fought for. Unfortunately in a place like India where people are given a limitless amount of power, the ego and the authority to do anything comes naturally to them. Due to this the current campaign sees its own problems. Assuming that at a given point of time there are about 2 lakh people in an area assembled to support the movement. If 10% of these people are taken into consideration and asked at least 5 points in the Lokpal Bill, they wouldn’t be able to answer all of them. Also how many people or supporters as they would like to call themselves, know that 16 conditions of the 20 have been accepted by the government and only 4 remain to be accepted?
The idea here is with power of the right, the responsibility of a duty is forgotten due to which people move on to terms like fasts for which the government has to budge and all this because India as a nation is a democratic country. Form this comes the idea of a nation as described in the notes where a nation is any place which has a fixed territory and holds its own governments, national emblem, national symbol etc.

QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT:

The most dramatic and large scale movements of India at the time of freedom struggle, the Quit India Movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi and turned out to be one of the most bloody and non violent movement, completely against the Gandhian principles. The Quit India Movement went bizarre due to many reasons. The absence of a leader (as the leaders were arrested as soon as the movement was put into force), the frustration of people due to the British and to see the country free against colonial rule made the movement bloody.
India is facing its second “freedom struggle” not against any foreign rule but against corruption which has been piled up by her own country’s politicians and bureaucrats which has gone so far that the margin between the rich and poor divide of the economic strata has widened beyond measures. The recent decade has seen a huge number of scams which got before the public a humongous amount of money that jaws had to drop and the need to raise a committee to keep a check on the unthinkable and extreme collection of money was needed.
When an ordinary social activist raised a hue and cry against this corruption and for a committee he had to face the sentence of the very same government who was so fiercely involved in spreading the corruption to every single corner of the country. Though different people hold different opinions about the movement, there was more than proof enough to see that something was hugely amiss with the current system of pattern of work and governance.
This movement has a leader and such a strong one that somewhere people have forgotten that there is a need to support the movement and not only the leader. The shout of slogans in support of Anna Hazare is not non ethical but the mention of his name which has become synonymous with anti corruption had gained more popularity. As a result of this any and every statement or talk by the leader is followed and are considered words of the wise. A leader who wishes to alter the boundaries of a certain system of democracy must know how he is altering the chain of thoughts of a huge mass of people and what is he leading them into. This becomes immensely important because the presence of a strong leader provides a huge communication barrier between people and the government and every word said by the leader(s) is only paid heed to.
Under such dire circumstances, a negative impact on people can also be put due to which the masses can be turned against the government in a negative way. The currengt campaign though against corruption is valid, but the disconnection between the citizens and government or the connection via the leaders of the movement is unethical as all the valid and ethical information is not being shared.
a country where democracy gives immense power to its people is where they misuse it and due to this disparity between the citizens continues. The campaign against corruption maybe right but its execution is wrong and its followers more so. The government can’t see its citizens dying and forcing the government to do so is just the biggest misuse of a right and the most horrendous abuse of a duty.