ICC :-)

FREE food is the best lucrative offer that a company could give to its employees and specially if its "good". I have heard the top most reason of having a very low attrition rate of the IT company I am working for recently is the "free", "eatable", "good" food that people get over here.

Coming back to the topic, it was one of those boring, silent breakfasts that I have over here... Silent did not become a part of my dictionary until I joined this corporate jungle. There was this usual regional discussion going on... for Gujarat!!.. ya thts my native state... and its a usual target for people to talk about. I take it very positively as per the guru dialog, "Agar log tumhare baarein mein baatein karne lage, samjlo tarakki kar rahe ho!!" Just during one of those good things discussed about gujarat, the topic of "Navratri" came up.

I described how people go for the garba dance for all nine nights during navratri. It was a big surprise for one of the top bosses sitting there... Nine nights and you keep on dancing... Yes I agree to that, for us gujaratis its very normal, but it really needs a high deal of energy to keep on going for all the nights...

It was then that the controversial statement came, the main inspiration of me writing this blog... The biggie quoted, "Oh!! Girls dancing looks fine, but gosh I cant see those men dancing and that also in those weird dresses!!" As a ardent follower of the garba spirit my first reaction (thank god, it didnt come out) was "What a hell!! You are such a hypocrit!! and you dont even appreciate others tradition, man!! YOu're surely going to suffer for this!! BANG!! BANG!! " HEHEHEHEHE

Luckily I didnt do that, changing jobs frequently is not my preference!! At first I took my reaction a bit harshly for myself. Thought that its just because the person is making fun of my culture and I am not taking it sportily. But then on further thinking it struck why to me that biggie seemed to be a hypocrite. It was the discussion we had just prior to the topic coming up. As we were all watching the boring news channel, it was showing glimpses of the Goa parade. With the men and women dancing in those parades it was very normal for that Indian boss to think that wow I wish we all went for a holiday to Goa.

It’s a general tendency of people all around us to make fun of men dancing or rather to be more politically correct (as per my politics… :D) who are into the Indian traditional dances. I am not sure why this happens and why don’t people take with the same spirit as any western dance. Whether its garba, bhangra, kathak or even the various dance forms coming from the southern part of the sub-continent.

Maybe we are so much confused over being traditional + modern that we really don’t know where to demarcate. Whats cool and whats not? Who’s going to define that, should be our choices rather than a general thought bubble, which might have originated from a perfect ABCD (ya right, American Born Confused Desi). I would really want to get back to a friend I am sure he would be reading this blog as I wont let him not read it. Who some days back was talking to me about his interests. The words he used… “Don’t laugh!! But I used to do classical dancing” Well, this reflects our confusion… he was not ashamed of sharing it out but still he had a doubt (and I am sure he still thinks I did make fun of it) that I would be laughing at the idea of him doing a traditional jig. Well, I actually didn’t only because I myself had tried my hands on it and was very familiar with the concept. But if it would have been some other person, or any of my counterparts back in Gujarat it would have been a funny thing for them.

I call this the great Indian Culture Confusion or ICC (well its not the International Cricket Board.. its world cup time and it’s an obvious full form). It not only penetrates a general culture clash but it also gives rise to the battle of the sexes. What are men supposed to do and what women? With the rising globalization the well defined roles of men and women are getting more and more vague.

India being a very very diverse country in terms of cultures and traditions it always is difficult for each of us to acknowledge the traditional values of the other. To me till date the greatest strength of Indian people has been the cultural and traditional tolerance but is globalization and modernization taking a toll over it? Are we heading towards another partition, this time a more cultural one? I know the issue with which I started this blog isn’t that great that I should be thinking to this extremes but it’s a question worth to be giving a thought!!!