Indians have kept alive the tradition of every single person engaging with everyone else in the extended family and community even though it gets a little difficult with the challenges of modern day living. To understand this, lets look at a few observations from our lives a couple of years ago and how they have changed today.
What was commonly practiced on most social get-togethers is the introduction and greeting of every member with everyone else who is present at the event. The younger ones were expected to bow and touch the feet of the elders and take their blessings. A small kid from any particular family usually had a harrowing experience of constantly bending and being introduced to an army of people for reasons he didn’t understand. At the same time, he was expected to answer a flurry of questions thrown at him with a smile on his face and showing the least amount of disgust. He was forced to participate in the proceedings and when he tried to escape to play with the other kids, his mother would tell him that it is bad behavior. This round of socializing was done with every family attending the function without thinking much about the bi-lateral relations between the families.
At these event, another common practice is that of clicking pictures in all possible combinations so as to ensure that all those present have a picture individually as well as in all possible group formations (based on sex – all girls, age – all kids, family – entire family, entire extended family, etc.) with everyone else.
Another common Indian practice is that of sending Post cards and Greeting cards on festivals and other occasions. What is interesting is that one would ensure that the names of every single family members are present starting with the head of the family. Often, the last name to sign off would be that of the new born or the youngest kid, thereby introducing the addition to the receiving families. While addressing these cards, the common practice was to write, “Mr. and Mrs. _____ and family,” to make sure that nobody is left out. Addressing to the elder most was un-questioned and was considered as good as addressing the entire family.
What we can understand from such practices is that as a culture we lay tremendous amount of emphasis on engagement with all known social contacts. Social networking with limited amount of technology is something we had perfected long ago. A person was always known as a part of the family in which he was born and not in isolation. The number of people one knew was the social currency he owned. The number of people who knew him was a manner in which is social standing was determined. For every member in the family, all possible care was taken to ensure that one never gets secluded from the society. An independent form of existence within the society was unthinkable and highly detested.
Today, with nuclear families becoming the norm, people travelling across the globe in search of opportunities, paucity of time and advent of newer technology, there is very little face to face social interaction which is seen. However, what is interesting to observe is that although we have moved ahead to become modern in most ways, there are still small traits of our tradition which surface from time to time.
One such example is that when phone calls are made to wish others during festivals. Even today, it is commonly seen that each member of the family has a quick word with everyone in the other family. When a younger one speaks to any elder, he normally seeks their blessings over the phone. For those who are not present during the call an advice is usually left to wish the person once he returns. And not to mention the world of questions which are usually asked and which one has to keep answering.
The only change is perhaps is with the medium of interaction. Even with increasing distances, what is still alive in a small way in India is this tradition of social interaction.
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