Well we do know that the American and Indian society differ in various aspects. I was really amazed when I realised how mature Americans are that too at a very young age. I remember chatting with a girl from Canada, who was just 16, but her maturity and knowledge blew me completely. She knew about the events happening almost all over the world, had a good knowledge about politics and society, in Canada as well as abroad, and I am sure Indian kids would not even know the kind of political system we have in the country, well I would even be surprised if they could tell me what political systems exist. So going back to the main issue, about the society, Americans are much open compared to Indians. They express themselves the way they want to. In U.S. I truly see the freedom of expression being exercised. Now the question asked would be “Don’t Indians have the freedom of Expression and don’t we exercise it?” Well we do have it in the 3rd part of our Constitution in the Fundamental Rights. But can we always exercise it? I don’t think so. There are certain political parties that we have who support a particular religion, and think they are some kind of a superman or batman to come and remind us of our values and tradition. Now I come to my question, “What exactly is Indias culture or tradition that these parties talk about?” If you support a religion which is the so-called oldest religion of the world, where your Gods had numerous wives, etc etc. Well I don’t want to get into anything related to religion here, but India is the country that had Kamasutra, Indian kings had many wives, so which culture and tradition are we really talking about? Can anybody answer that. On Valentines day you will have those same political parties coming in front and thrashing people for “expressing” their feelings. I am surprised that now in the 21st century these parties behave in such a manner and think these “acts” of theirs makes more sense than the “expression” on Valentines Day. Are they some God sent angels here to teach us or remind us of our so called values and traditions?
On the other hand, I am really impressed with U.S. The freely express them self. Here in India if a girl uses abusive language, smokes or drinks, she would be looked down by the society, insulted or humiliated, not only a girl but even a boy if he is found drinking or smoking. Sex would lead their parents to suicide or the girl would be compelled to suicide or thrown out of the home. At this point I remember the movie Juno, where the parents actually took care of their daughter and supported her when she was pregnant. A movie does reflect the society because it is the people living in a society who watch movies, and the movies which run or become an hit, in turn, reflects the kind of society, by the kind of movie it is, and the kind of movies the community likes. So these movies talk a lot about the American society.
I do not support the American society completely. It has its pros and cons. Ill start according to the age groups.
Children
They are encouraged or sorry they are not exactly encouraged to get into a particular career. In India, 5 minutes after birth, depending on the sex, the parents start wondering whether their child would be a doctor or engineer (no other career exists in India according to parents) and if the child turns out to be totally useless will land into a call center for a good life in turn making lives in U.S. and U.K. miserable. I really pity those chaps out there. So children there have a wide range of options to select from. I remember my friend Neytra once telling me, “If you close one option, you close many more options along with it.” It really makes a lot of sense now. Here parents are very narrow minded, and restrict them self to a particular thinking (which is influenced by society). Thats the reason America has a wide range of labour working in different industries and are doing well in various aspects, because the best are at the place they deserve to be, whereas in India, a person may be good at writing, may be good at journalism, but would end up being a not-so-good engineer or doctor.
Next teenagers.
Now the teenagers there concentrate a lot on their personality, like for example, their looks, their speech, what they talk and where they talk. They make friends only with those who seem to be like them, and they treasure their friends (if not family). I have noticed on many occasions that American children are not very close to their parents. They often have problems with them, and want less interference from them. Its the opposite in India where the child depends on the parent till he graduates from college. One advantage there is that children are independent at a young age, they may babysit, or work and earn, whereas this is very rare in India. In India on the other hand, children are close to parents and share a strong bond. Parents often interfere in their child’s matters (which I personally don’t think is good) which maintains the bond and closeness.
Teenagers there are more exposed to sex at a young age(compared to India). Since they know a lot about it, either from their family or friends, they tend to get more curious. It is irrespective whether it is a boy or a girl. The good thing about that is that one can get rid of his/her curiosity, not watch porn too often or even visit brothels. I was having this discussion with a friend of mine, who did not agree with me on this point, so I asked her that why does India have a number of AIDS patients. She told me all AIDS patients do not get affected through sex only. Then i asked her, how many people do you think get that magical syringe which spreads AIDS in cinemas or how often is it spread through blades. But there is another thing, if I visit a yahoo or msn chat room, I will find at least 90% desperate Indians trying to find someone out there. These things would not happen if the child gets the right advice at the right time. Well you cannot really do much about the adults, but you really need to make sure the child does not get into this because at this tender age they tend to be “curious” about certain aspects (it is true no matter how much Indian girls deny it, in the end even that thought is influenced by the society)
Adults
This is one aspect which i feel really bad about for America. They tend to have a high number of divorces and tend to get married many times. It really affects a child. There is no proper family system. Children often long to meet their “real” parents and siblings. A divorce tends to destroy children mentally and emotionally but through that they learn the way of life, but the hard way. This is one aspect I really like in India, that the number of divorces are less. We live as a proper family. We have our differences as a family, but we get over them, and continue to live our life. In U.S. when the parents have a problem, or one of the married couple finds a better partner, they would leave the old one. Where is the bond of marriage and the love. Marriage is supposed to be a sacrament. We say marriages are made in heaven. So why break it if we were really meant to be with a particular person. I would like to compare the bond of marriage to a relationship between a child and his parent. Children do have problem with parents, but do they divorce each other. They fight, but tend to forgive and forget. Why can’t this happen in a marriage. Why can’t things be mended. A child often fights with his parent, but then they solve their problem soon and live happily. A child never leaves his father or vice versa (unless divorce separates them). So why can’t this be seen in a bond of marriage. Or is it a kind of trend these days, to get married to as many as possible, or may be it has become easier to get divorced and this trend is continuing and children commit themselves at a very young age as well. All these reasons contribute to a number of divorces and marriages. If this continues, I won’t be surprised if a child really doesn’t live with his/her own, real parents, but through divorce cases, land in some 3rd persons hands.
This is how society influences the way of life and here was an example of two completely contrasting lifestyles.
. I wrote something in my blog after a long time, and would be writing much more. So do post in your comments and wait for my next post.
