It is not packaged milk fortified with artificial vitamins that is good. It is the cow’s milk or buffalo milk that directly reaches your home without pasteurization, still warm from the beast’s udder that is healthy and good. Indians/Hindus have access to the latter mostly. A peeled orange fruit can never be compared to chemical orange drink with added preservatives and colours.
It is not refrigerated vegetables that are good. Pre-cut veggies are worst. It is buying your groceries on everyday basis and NOT refrigerating them that is healthy. We Indians do the latter.
It is not the frozen meat that is hygienic. It is the fresh cut meat and poultry that Indians have access to that is healthy.
It is not packaged/pre-cooked/tinned/canned food with printed expiry date that you can reheat on oven that is good. It is the freshly prepared food in your own kitchen that is best. We Indians spend hours doing that everyday at home.
All our herbs and spices and nuts and millets make for wonderful feast. Bland pizzas are insipid and tasteless. Indian food makes for gourmet cuisines anywhere and everywhere.
It is not the toilet tissue paper you wipe your asses with that is ideal. It is the water wash with health faucet that is best and most hygienic practice and we Indians do just that. Not only are not we hurting the environment with printing tonnes and tonnes of tissue paper, we are also using water which is the best medium for cleaning any surface. Water is replenishable natural resource that gets topped up with the arrival of monsoon.
Soaking in bathtub may sound luxurious but it is rinsing under a running shower that is hygienic standard.
It is not bottled water that is bacteria free. It is the running water off the tap that is best.
Swimming pools and golf courses and grazing fields for beef cattle are the worst environmental hazards. Hindus are not consumers of beef the production of which drinks up most of the surface water and scrapes earth of its greenery.
It is not sedan that is comfort. It is walking or cycling that is good.
It is not the air-conditioner that is healthy, it is rather the room temperature.
It is not the makeup that is cool, it is the natural way you look that is uber cool.
Eating with forks and spoons are not marks of sophistication or that of a civilized society. It is eating with hands that speaks of the human-food holistic connection. Eating is a spiritual experience for Hindus.
You don’t have to hit the gym at all if you are a practitioner of Hatha Yoga. When you have nothing to call your own, gym will become your refuge.
We even have the Hindu martial arts. We don’t have to take up karate or taekwondo.
It is not brands that are great. It is the ethnic weaves and motifs that I wear as an Indian so proudly that are the best clothes to wear. Our clothes represent our culture, history, heritage. I am wearing my India on my sleeve for the whole world to see.
It is not the synthetic fibre that is fashion. It is natural yarn cotton and silk that I drape myself with that are most environment friendly.
If you are hooked on to western music or western soap as an Asian/African or anyone, it means you don’t have native/desi/local talent. There is a big void – you don’t have authentic pedigree culture. You have not enough of creativity.
If you are watching only the Hollywood pictures, then again your local talent pool sucks. You don’t have ingenuity to produce even quality entertainment.
If you do not have local classical music or dance or art or literature scene, it means you are rootless. You lack imagination. You are forced to appreciate the foreign stuff for you have no alternative.
Anglicization is not culture. It is wearing a bindi in crowded New York or in Arab soil that is culture. Now that is some identity. English language has given me its share of advantages but it shall never become my Thamizh or Sanskrit or Hindi. Thamizh and Sanskrit are older than Latin and are still around. That is the antiquity of my Hindu culture.
Westernization does not make you superior to anyone. In fact it renders the opposite. It makes you a worthless duplicate.
Duplicates galore: a smatter of English words, two or three short reels from western soaps and metal/hard rock do not make anyone cultured or civilized. In fact it looks pathetic on you. A cheap imitation.
If you are Asian/African but are always clothed in western trousers and shirts, it means you have nothing original. You are a copycat who has no sense of self respect or self esteem.
If you are following Christianity or Islam, it means even your Gods were imported or thrust upon you by your barbarian invaders who destroyed your roots and rendered you bastards. I am a Hindu, a pedigree, a non convert, an original. Don’t try to talk me down. A Hindu is a Hindu is a Hindu.
We in India know what we are doing. We Hindus know what we are made of. Wherever we go, we add value to that society. We don’t tear up our adopted homelands with violent terrorism. Hindu Dharma is not here as the one and only longest surviving civilization for over ten thousand years without a break for nothing.
We in India appreciate foreign culture but we never forget what we are made of. We know our value. We know of our authenticity and pedigree. Proud Hindu anyday. We never robbed nations. The muslims and chrisitians did that for survival. We nurture wildlife and rivers and flora and fauna. We worship nature. We have not survived to this day with the sword. We usher in peace and wisdom wherever we go. SANATHANA DHARMA (HINDUISM) is a way of life. Not a violent cult that sprang up with a self appointed nomadic ‘son of god’ or ‘prophet.’ We Hindus have no founders, no founding date. That must tell you something.
Proudly brown. Happily dusky. I am Indian. I am Hindu. I am my natural self. I don’t have to pander to your definitions of beauty or class. I have both, much more than you can ever dream of. I am me. I don’t become your definition of me. In fact you smack of intense jealousy if you are preoccupied with me. Because I couldn’t care less about you. As I tan walking around the vast ancient temples of ours, my heart swells with pride. I belong. I have roots, unshakable roots. I therefore am.
India shall live to eternity and shall remain eternally Hindu. Brook no nonsense fellow Hindus. Rub commonsense into the cowards. Tell them, show them what is genuine, what is fake. Throw their rubbish to where it belongs: in the garbage bin of their closed minds.
When someone looked at my cotton washable handkerchief with disbelief having been born out of the ’tissue’ culture, I could see what the world has come to. The fakes have taken over the world. The bottled water, the canned milk, the frozen food, the tinned fruit pulp, the tissue for wiping your bum, the disposable nappies rather than cloth nappies – now all these are more appreciated and thought of to be better and hygienic substitutes to the naturals. The way we convince ourselves that the fakes are the best is what is more troubling. For we can awaken a sleeping man but not someone who pretends to be asleep.
****************
Why is India still under-developed, over populated and not anywhere near China.
You have to live in the Hindu society to learn why India is backward. It s never the bhogic life for us like the Americans. Our philosophy is Yogic, which means we spend hours in temples, puja, meditation etc – none of which the Chinese do whose only aspiration is materialistic.
This country has been lived on for tens of thousands of years as we are home to stunning range of flora and fauna, wildlife, rivers, mountains, plains, valleys, sea coasts etc., that India was one of the chief cradles of human civilization. The temples I visit each are over an acre easily, and some thousand, two thousand years old. That is our antiquity. Some streets are here for hundreds of years. Ideal geo climatic for centuries that has turned worse in recent years only thanks to global warming, the land of gold and diamonds, agrarian primarily where an array of arts and crafts were nourished by the kings, it is no wonder that India accounts for a sixth of world human population.
But then, are we asking anyone to feed us. We export rice, wheat, fruits, nuts, spices after FEEDING ONE POINT THREE BILLION MOUTHS here. Which is something. Critics of India must check whether they can just manage that simple feat.
vijiravindran's 