Relevance of Teachers Day in the Present Day Context

The month of September starts with celebration in its very first week. This is on the occasion of Teacher's day, which is celebrated on September 5 every year. In school, we used to look forward to the teachers' day celebrations. On the day, a large number of students used to perform different plays and dance numbers, and then present each teacher with gifts and mementos. When I look back and remember those days today, I realize that all the rejoicing and effort we used to put in for the celebration came from the deep regard we held for our teachers.

In fact, a tutor plays a very important role in shaping the future of all his/her students. For all the students, their teachers are their idols, whom they look up to in the formative years of their life. Students usually follow their teachers in the manners, dressing style, etiquette and everything else. However, this is not the case anymore. In fact, I am yet to come across any student who respects his teachers as much as we did. A few days back, when I asked my niece (who studies in the same school as I did) as to how she was planning to celebrate Teacher's day, and whether she had bought gifts for her teacher, I was surprised to hear her response. She said that she had no plans for celebration, and completely lacked enthusiasm in even talking about the event.

Such attitude amongst students can be attributed to the decreased dedication amongst the teachers. The new age teachers do not consider it to be their responsibility to shape the lives of their students. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that very few of them are dedicated towards their work, of influencing the personality of their students. This is why they also fail to command respect from the students. This has given a major setback to the student-teacher relationship. As a result of this, the present day students also fail to respect their teachers. In many cases, they do not fall short of disrespecting the tutors and disregarding their orders. This is why; Teacher's Day holds little importance in the present day scenario.

So, presently, all students and teachers who intend to celebrate the day should take this opportunity to make a new beginning and do away with their shortcomings. They should strive to start afresh and give a new meaning to the student-teacher relationship. While the teachers should try and create a congenial atmosphere for the students to grow up in and also inculcate high virtues in the students, the students should also try to give due respect to the tutors. This would be celebrating Teacher's day in its true meaning.

The Art of Bargaining In India

India is a country of many languages, ethnicities, cultures, traditions and customs. And if you happen to live in a metropolitan city in the country, then you also tend to meet people from diverse backgrounds, who are striving to co-exist in one place. They follow different practices, celebrate different festivals, believe in different Gods, and even speak different languages. However, one skill that you would find common amongst them all is the art of bargaining. That's right- to survive in any village or city in India, having the skill of bargaining is a big necessity. And if you do not have it, you are sure to learn it in the formative years of your life.

In my case, ever since I was a child, I would see my grandma haggle with the local vegetable hawker on the prices of veggies. And after a few minutes, she would end up convincing the vendor to accept lower prices. Also, as a child when I would accompany my mom to the different markets in old and New Delhi such as the markets of Lajpat Nagar and Sarojini Nagar, the markets would be full of outcries of vendors selling their ware and urging people to purchase them. Right from the fruit shopkeepers, to the cloth vendors, the crockery owners and most of the other vendors would be ready to bargain and in the end sell the products at prices ranging from are 25 percent to 70 percent of the original values offered by them. And even after so many years, things haven't changed a bit.

As I grew older, bargaining became a recurring activity even for me. Now, every time I need to get an auto rickshaw, I have to haggle with the driver to settle the price for the journey, as their meters are customarily out of order. Also, every time I need bric-a-bracs for the house from Sarojini Nagar, junk jewelery and handicraft items for myself from Dilli Haat, trendy clothes from Janpath or electronics from the underground Palika Bazaar, I ensure to spend enough time in bargaining with the shopkeepers. In this way, I am able to get the best possible value for my hard earned money besides enjoying the experience of bargaining with the shopkeepers, which adds more pleasure to shopping!

Tarnetar Fair - Saurasthra, Gujarat

While traveling to Gujarat last year, I also visited the picturesque area of Saurashtra. Luckily, I got to visit the Tarnetar fair, which coincided with my visit to Saurashtra. Visiting the traditional fair was a truly awe-inspiring experience, which I will remember all through my life. The Tarnetar mela is an popular festival for the natives of Gujarat, which is organized in the month of August or September every year. The site of the fair is the Trineshwara temple and its inception dates back to thousands of years. During my visit, I also got to know about the historic significance of the fair. The mela takes place every year to celebrate the wedding of the two important character in the epic of Mahabharata, namely Draupadi with Arjuna. Before the legendary wedding, Draupadi's father had organized a "Swayamwar", which was won by Arjuna, and culminated in the marriage of the two. Listening to this story from one of the locals brought tears to my eyes, as I was instantly reminded of my childhood times, when my grand mother used to relate stories from the epics of the Mahabharata to us.

During my visit, I saw a lot of local women and men folk, who come in to the place dressed up in their ethnic attire, looking for prospective grooms and brides in the area. The men folk who were looking for brides carry Tarnetra Chhatirs or embroidered umbrellas as an indication of their bachelorhood. The maidens, on the other hand, were decked up in very colorful Gujarati clothes and ethnic jewelery. I also noticed that if a girl would stop by a suitor, this would indicate that she is interested in tying the knot with him. This whole atmosphere of matchmaking was heightened by some commendable performances of folk dances of garba, ras and hudo, songs, devotional music and other cultural aspects. Apart from this, the place was full of exhibitions of handicrafts of all types from different local artisans.

During my visit, I also saw a lot of enthusiastic foreigners who had come to visit the place in large numbers. In this way, the fair also proves to be a great platform to promote the country's rich heritage and culture. It is also a source of occupation to many and at the same time, the mela promotes the Indian tourism across different country. Even this year, I am looking forward to visit the place again and have a blast in the most colorful fair all across India!

Can you tie the Band of Rakhi to anyone? Think again!

The month of August brings with itself a host of festivals to celebrate. Of them, the one that keeps me waiting throughout the year is festival of Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan. Rakhi emphasizes the relation that every sister shares with her brother, who vows to save her from all perils of the world. Well, that's the significance of the festival of Rakhi. However, it really hurts to see how the purity of the festival is being maligned and its significance mellowed by many people. The practice is especially prevalent amongst young boys and girls, who tie the band to almost anyone, not with the motive of establishing a real brother and sister relationship but to be able to freely speak to and be with people whom they like. Sometimes, they also tie the band to ween away people with different intentions towards them. I guess an incident that I witnessed recently would help you to understand that statement properly.

A couple days of back, a friend of mine was narrating an incident where a guy had approached her with some different intentions. She also reciprocated his feelings and was rather keen to start up with a relationship with him. But at the same time, she was also scared of coming out in the open about the relationship, lest her parents come to know about it. To avoid this situation, she tied a rakhi on him to legalize their relation. Though she was quite happy with her feat, I some how could not agree with her point of view.

For me, rakhi is extremely auspicious. Even if I would tie it to someone who is not in my blood relation, the person has to be very special in order to get the stature of a brother in my life. If you ask me such an act only demeans the the significance of Raksha Bandhan and also maligns the pious relationship between a brother and a sister. Recently it is a trend mostly with school and college going girls who also follow the same thing, with the intention of getting liberty to be with the person they like.

Its not as if this trend has originated recently. It was quite in vogue even when I was in school some ten years back. Although I used to laugh it off then, now, when I am more mature and exactly understand the significance of that tiny silk thread. This is why I find this practice to be grossly unethical.

So, here's urging all those girls to understand the importance and sacred nature of the ceremony. There sure are many other ways to be with the person you love, other than demeaning the pious festival.

Is Friendship Day (3rd Aug) Truly Meant For India?

“We had joy we had fun we had seasons in the sun,” ...These famous lines from a song from the Back Street Boys holds up the image of an evergreen friendship in my mind. It brings back the reminences of my school days when every year on the first Sunday of August, we six boys used to take a firm oath to maintain our friendship for ever. Today almost after ten years of passing out from the school, we don't even know each others whereabouts.

This thing makes me ponder over the fact that what is the relevance of friendship day now for me and even what relevance does it have in India. I remember spending a lot of my pocket money in buying greeting cards, gifts and even treating my friends on this very day, but were they worth enough? After so much exposure in life and facing so much harsh reality that life offers, I just find it a waste of time, energy and money.

I still have friends whom I never wish at all on this day, but they are still my best friends in place of those with whom I use to swear for maintaining friendship and taking holy oath on this 'auspicious day'. I think it depends upon the emotion and dedication for each other that strengthen the bond, not expressing your feeling for a friend on one particular day. I see people wearing friendship bands and flaunting them in front of everyone just to show that they have so many friends or they are liked by so many people. Even the thing that makes me laugh is people have made friendship bands as their style statement and their parameter of measuring a friendship has become the cost of the gifts that they are offered by their friends. So, what is the sense of celebrating such day?

I find it a sheer copy of the western culture like the other imposed 'auspicious occasions' such as Mother's day, Father's day or the most 'auspicious day'- valentines day. I feel do we need any particular day to show our emotion, gratitude and love for our father, mother or our beloved ones? I think every day is a mother's day, father's day and a valentines day. These all auspacious days are imposed on our Indian culture to milch money. Who are the benefeciaries out of the celebrations of these occasions? These are western greeting cards and gifts suppliers like Archies or hallmark. This is the reason why they are always promoting such occasions in a big way. They are banking upon the youths who are completely obsessed with everything western. If you don't celebrate such days, you are not a trendy or a modern guy.

The celebration of such occasions, I feel, will only lead us to such a situation when we will start remembering our friends or our beloved only due to these days. So, I firmly believe that the celebration of friendship day is only a sheer copy of the west and is being promoted in India to harness rich profits by the multinational companies. It is not at all meant for India where still 27 percent of the populatin is living below poverty line and fighting each day to satiate their hunger.

Status of India after 61 Years of Independence

India is going to complete 61 years of Independence on 15^th August, 2008. Now, one more year is going to get added when we can proudly call ourselves a free nation. But, are we free in real terms? Does it make sense to celebrate this day with great pomp and show when we are still living under the clutches of poverty, corruption, injustice, inequality and most importantly, illiteracy? At least, I don't think so.

Inequality in different forms is still the face of free India. It mainly exists on the basis of gender and caste. Let us take the case of inequality on the basis of gender. Although a lot has been done for the upliftment of women and more and more women are attaining equality with their male counterparts, yet there are many women who get suppressed by their family and society on matters like pursuing higher studies or choosing a life partner or having a say in family planning or wearing a dress of her choice. Another aspect of such kind of inequality is the preference for male child, still prevalent in many parts of our country largely evident by the rampant female infanticide. Even today, when I let people know that we are only two daughters of our parents, they give an astonished look as if my parents are living an unhappy life without a son. People are also facing discrimination on the basis of caste. Let me just remind you all of an incident took place last year. An ex-army personnel belonging to a lower caste was beaten to death by his own villagers when he tried to dig a well on his land for farming. Now, what kind of achievement of India does it show after so many years of independence?

If inequality is an evil we still need to fight strongly, poverty is another major issue still holding our country in the league of third world countries. In fact, poverty has resulted into another kind of inequality between rich and poor. On one hand, you find those affluent people who can spend one lakh rupee just on a single dinner with their friends and family in a five or seven star hotel, while on the other hand, you find people living on streets with no proper clothing, food and other basic necessities.

Poverty has also resulted into a major social evil and that is child labor. In my locality, there is a slum area where majority of children are the bread earners for their family without any time to attend government schools. Their financial condition does not allow them to attend a full session in the school. If they at all are attending classes, it is only for satiating their hunger with mid day meals. But, this problem has got another dimension. There is a class of people who have literally no interest in making their children educated and look at them only as an additional source of income. So, isn't there a need to take a strong initiative by the government to make these people let their children attend school? Only constructing school buildings is not enough, I think.

It is not only poverty that is spelling a curse on common people, but also corruption. The common man of our free nation still needs to bow his head to corruption, which is rampantly found in our administrative machinery. If I ask you, how many times you had to pay some kind of bribe to get your work done, I am sure you would have forgotten the number as it has become close to countless.

There are many other issues that show our susceptibility to get succumbed to pressures at individual level as well as national level. So, shall we celebrate this day? Of course, but in a way that promises a great future for every Indian in coming years. On this day, we all should take a vow to join hands and cooperate with our government to get our nation free of all evils so that we get a reason to celebrate this day in true sense.

Raksha Bandhan - A Festival of Bonds

Come August and I gear up for one of the most revered festivals of the Indian Calendar. Yes this is the festival of bonds that I am talking - 'Raksha Bandhan' or more popularly Rakhi. I specially look forward to this festival as my brothers visit me on this day, no matter in which part of the country they are. where they are stationed It is on Rakhi that we revive those vows which we had taken ever since we were born.

For the ones who are not tête-à-tête with the festival, Rakhi captures the essence of the relationship between a brother and sister. Raksha means 'to protect', and Bandhan means a 'bond', therefore Rakhi is a bond of protection. Like every sister, I tie a band or an amulet around my brother's wrist as a protecting charm and pray for his wellbeing. My brother in turn vows to protect me from all sorts of evils and perils of the world. The festival is celebrated on the "Shravan Sud Poornima" every year, according to the Hindu calendar. An inetegral part of my rakhi celebrations are the gifts that my brothers lovingly shower upon me. The mere thought of the box of chocolates or the new dress that might be in store for me still brings a glitter to my eyes.

This festival has special meaning for me and my entire family as it very fondly reminds us of my grandmother. As children, I use to hear the mesmerizing legend behind Rakhi or Raksha Bandhan. Since time immemorial this festival has been attached to the ritual of protecting your loved ones from the evils of the world. The tradition actually dates back to the Mahabharata and the Hindu Mythological Godhead 'Indra.'

Rakhi is fun time as it also serves the purpose of a refreshing family get-together. The entire house basks with the presence of relatives from all corners of the country. Be it my paternal aunt or my maternal uncles, it is fun to have all of them under one roof.

Now, with Rakhi just round the corner, my mind is full of joy and I am waiting for all the action to happen. It’s not just me, I am sure that all sisters are waiting for it too.