Over on the SM newstab we have this headline:

Sex, violence and incest on TV. In India?

Is it about a serious talk show on which real issues like sex trafficking and child abuse is discussed and solutions sought? Of course not! It’s merely about a “reality” show in which Indians will show they can be just as low class and slutty as Americans on Jerry Springer or Maury Povich.

Good lord.

This is all a diversion from the powers that be to keep minds enslaved on a global scale so that we don’t start revolutions.

First the dumbing down of America, now the dumbing down of the entire world.

Welcome here.

That 5,000 year old cultural mandate is called “dharma” i.e. duty, and it’s a mandate the West would do well to emulate, minus all the gender biased crap of course.

Having said that she isn’t that offbase on her observations as blanket and banal as they seem. If you peel away the layer of tone that might annoy you she’s makes a lot of valid point.

Desis from here are far more entrenched in so called “culture” while India has moved on and ahead on so many of the issues though not completely. This was glaringingly obvious to me when I got married. Roles, relationships, place in the world/family/society, responsiblities etc a within the context of family are still dictated by a cultural mandate that’s 5000 years old. We haven’t yet managed to undo it.

There has been some curiosity and speculation of where i come from. Just to put it across , I come from the industrial city of Ludhiana ( Punjab)And just to put it across , it is the city with most number of “Mercedes’ in India along with highest number of cars per capita.It is voted as one of the fastest growing city in India and can give any metro a run for its money when you want to compete on grounds of modernity , parties, corporate growth , wealth generation and interaction between the opposite sexes per se. I did my engineering from Chandigarh , another modern Indian city with flux of multitude of national and international cultures. I have spent considerable time in Delhi and Mumbai and have been through the party culture there. “Hugging girls ” is something I am certainly not averse to , but my point was that it might be limited to friends and acquaintances and not first time casual meets like in the article. Also , coming out of the comfort zone is something i did in terms of being at the forefront of many activities like event organizing ,public speaking , leadership opportunities and in launching the Consulting Club for my program and being its first President. The idea of writing this comment was not to justify something but just wanted to clear some air regarding some issues Fell free to get in touch with me to know more harsimarbir singh

I guess I’ve lived a sheltered life. From high school to the ashram to India. With only a half a year of living completely on my own as a young adult in the USA before I went to live in an extremely family oriented and conservative culture/country. Now, upon my return and taking up residence in my birth country, I am shocked to see what it has become, but maybe it was like this all along but I was too young and sheltered to notice?

Or maybe I’m just uptight?

I finally understand why some Indians will say, “Americans don’t love their kids”. Of course they love their kids, but your average Indian would never understand how someone who loves their kids could prefer to spend time dating than at home with them.

On the other hand, from the American single parent’s point of view, he/she needs a break from work and the kids every once in a while in order to keep his/her sanity in tact.

Bottom line: don’t have kids. You know as well as I do that you will end up divorced anyway. That’s not rocket science, people.