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Khalrika

@Khalrika

Voyager

Posted: 16 years ago

I left India a long time ago. Is this true of youngsters in India or is this an exaggeration? Just curious. I posted this as it relates to Ramayan. Here is the link to the article. I was feeling sad a little bit after I read this article.

http://www.hindu.com/op/2008/03/02/stories/2008030252821500.htm

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Janaki

@RamKiSeeta

Achiever

+ 6

Posted: 16 years ago

Originally posted by: Mandodari
I left India a long time ago. Is this true of youngsters in India or is this an exaggeration? Just curious. I posted this as it relates to Ramayan. Here is the link to the article. I was feeling sad a little bit after I read this article.

http://www.hindu.com/op/2008/03/02/stories/2008030252821500.htm

It is very sad Mandodari😭, but this is totally true. Lots of Indian youngsters, "dudes" as they call themselves, are not interested in our culture, because it is not "cool" enough for them.😕

I mean, I am a huge fan of Harry Potter (as you can see by my siggie) and other American Literature, but for me, my culture is first and foremost. No Epic, no literature, can ever hold a candle to Ramayana and Mahabharata. I just don't understand how our own Indians can look so down upon them. It's disgusting.👎🏼😡

The surprising thing is that my own librarian in my High School once saw me rereading Ramayana, and asked if Hanuman was a character from it. I was so surprised that she knew something about Ramayana, and she told me that she once looked up Ramayana in wikipedia to know something about it. Wasn't that sweet of her that she showed some interest enough to research on Ramayana?😳😊

But our own Indians think following our culture and being interested in it is "out of fashion" or "out dated".

These kinds of articles used to get me angry, but now I only pity these kinds of people. They look up to fictional characters in American Literature, but they leave aside real characters in a religious historical epic. Isn't that sad? They don't know what they're missing....

But one thing to remember: there are also youngsters who love our culture. This Forum is proof enough. Aren't half of the members in Ramayan Forum, or Jai Shri Krishna Forum youngsters? They not only show interest in our epics, but know so much that we can learn from them. It's really great. That's one reason I really love this forum a lot👏

What we must do is to always keep faith in our epics and culture, and always love them forever. We must make it our duty to teach our children these epics, and teach them to love our culture even more than us. That will make them teach their kids, and so on. This way, our culture will never get lost, no matter how many non-believers there are out there.

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Vibhishna

@Vibhishna

Dazzler

+ 3

Posted: 16 years ago

Originally posted by: Mandodari
I left India a long time ago. Is this true of youngsters in India or is this an exaggeration? Just curious. I posted this as it relates to Ramayan. Here is the link to the article. I was feeling sad a little bit after I read this article.

http://www.hindu.com/op/2008/03/02/stories/2008030252821500.htm

It is true to a great extent, Mandodari ji. In this busy life, everyone just wants to rush with stuff. We don't even get time to relax or even think. Kids these days are handled with cartoons, toys and computer games. The little time they get will be spent in nicking that time too to play some game in the streets or in parents pushing their kids to tuition.

First of all, in those days, grandparents, parents and relatives use to tell so many stories from the epics and other moral stories. The elders of the neighbourhood use to adress a gathering of little children and tell them such captivating tales (again from our epics and other literatures). The kids of today do not get a chance to experience all these. The kids themselves are busy or prefer to spend time in the computer.

All the festivals celebrated has a special significance. In those days, everyone used to know why and how it is celebrated and all the relatives used to get together and prepare for it all. Nowadays, we don't even have time to celebrate the festivals. Then where do we get the chance to know about the festival and learn the legends behind it?

There are many books available from which the children can read the stories themselves. But how many kids prefer reading books? And how many kids turned away from it after reading a badly written book or a book that gives false information? How many children prefer reading the original classic versions? If they think it is too high or it will be too boring - will the parents have time to sit down and read a bit of it to them? If this happens, the kid will pick up the book by him/herself. Many do not realise that reading the original verison will be so interesting that they won't be able to put the book down.

And most importantly, even if the kids themselves are interested and want to know more, they do not find proper guidance. Most of the times a child who is inquisitive of all the customs is told off. "You just do what you are told. Don't ask questions." - this is the common reply. If the children ask why a particular person did that - for example the incident of Lord Ram killing Vaali - he/she is told off and advised to just listen to and not ask quesitons. The reason may be that many do not know it themselves or that they might think that the kid wont understand - Primarily it is the case of not being confident enough to explain it to the child. Will the child still continue to show interest in this field? How many children will still be interested to search for answers, ask others till they find the answer and read more to find out?

By saying all these, I do not mean to criticize the way kids are brought up today. I am merely stating the situation. No offence meant at all.

Few years ago, it was much worse, but now its slightly better. Many movies, animations, serials, etc. Many people take lots of pains to bring the attention of the youth back to our culture - so that they know atleast the basics of our literature. I appreciate the efforts taken - in my childhood days, there wasn't much (or perhaps I didn't have access to much). It used to be a rare treat and delight to see a series or movie made based on our mythology. Nowadays, one can always find somehthing or the other based on our mythology now. Whether this situation will get better or worse is in the hands of the youth of today.

That is one of the main reasons I was so glad to find this forum and Ramayan discussions here. The only time I got to talk about our mythology and no one ran away was with some of my colleagues who shared my love for the epics. Now I am glad to know so many are interested and gladly help others with the knowledge they have. Hats off to all of you, my friends!!! 👏👏👏

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ananyacool

@ananyacool

Voyager

Posted: 16 years ago

Very disheartening to read this article 😔 . We cannot generalize that this may be the case with everybody but neither can we deny about the people who don't know much about Indian epics and culture. There are many people who know about epics just through the serials that are been shown on TV

Dr Anant Pai, the man behind "Amar chitra Katha" was prompted by a similar incident ....He saw that many kids ina quiz show who were well versed with greek mythology and other western super-heroes but their knowledge with respect to Indian culture was NIL ,. The rest is history.....today we need something similar to ACK revolution; but as Vibhishna says : How many kids are in a habit of reading??

The habit of reading has to be reintroduced among young and old alike.

Now coming to another aspect, though this is not directly related to this topic nor the article mentioned , for the people new to epics one might really get confused thinking 'Lakshman rekha' to be a repellant and not a term of the epic Ramayana.

I remember one incident when one kid asked that whether the name Laxmi was the name of goddess and not the name a fire cracker "Laxmi bomb" this may make one chuckle but indeed is a serious question..

Edited by ananyacool - 16 years ago

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Kiran Raghu

@kiranraghu

Inactive

Posted: 16 years ago

Dear Mandodari,

As generations are passing, there will be a change in every one's attitude. But one should know about their culture. I feel that this shud be brought up from childhood only. Especially schools they shud atleast allocate a day for children to know about their culture, customs and traditions.

Many parents today are job holders & it has became mandatory to run after both time & money. But they shud atleast spend a day for their child not only to teach their academic syllabus but also to teach about an attitude to turn them with a good charactered persons

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Khalrika

@Khalrika

Voyager

Posted: 16 years ago

Thanks for replying guys. I was curious after reading that article because I know more than half the people in the epics' forums are youngsters and hats off to you guys. I learned so much about our epics from all of you. I was just curious to know if this was true or if it was a generalization. I am glad to know that it is more balanced. There are many people who are ignorant but at the same time there are many who are very knowledgeable.
I guess the people who are taking TV serials and animations are doing a great service to the younger generation. It is good that Sagars used so much animation and cool things to attract youth.

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sita

@sitakshii

Stunner

+ 4

Posted: 16 years ago

yup!! in todays hush hush life where we all so busy ,

i can say abt myself tht i really don't hv time to read all the fat mytho books !!!!

whatever knowlede i hv abt our mytho treasure its all becaz of the stories which i got to know from my parents & my grand parents & the mytho shows which i saw on tv like vishnu puran ,RAMAYAN & old RAMAYAN (i don't remember tht one clearly) on zee ,brahman vishnu mahesh on sab tv ,jai hanuman on dd national & on dd national many mytho shows like om naham shivay & many more mytho short stories on dd national channel & all the mytho documentries on news channels like star news ,aaj tak & sahara samya ,india tv & sometime reading mytho & relegious articles in news papers & magazines !!!

i hv mytho books but never get time to go thru them ,so whatever i know abt my culture its mainly becaz of the print media & the electronic media & yup!!! hats off to sagars !!! for making such brilliant shows !!!!👏

& we indians love our culture & traditions & respect our mytho treasures !!!!!😛😛

Edited by sita11 - 16 years ago

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