“APING THE WEST” Of late the trend has been to follow whatever is done in the west and it is becoming a sort of in-thing to be doing it. Is it due to liberalization of economy that we are also attempting to liberalize our life style. Indians have started aping the west completely and the western influences can be clearly seen in our behavior, culture, attire and even language. Though to say, we are an independent nation but instead of promoting our culture, we are aping the west and one would feel that we are still under a foreign rule.
For sake of argument, let us say this is so. Then, why not also follow the west in the matter of discipline and work culture instead of merely picking up all those habits which would not help in taking us forward. Some may describe this copying specially of festivals like Valentine’s Day or whatever other day maybe there as keeping up with the time. That is fine. But, what about matters like dedicated to one’s work or keeping to the schedule as is the case in most of the western nations.
Why not follow such examples too. In fact many of the TV programmes too are being copied from the west. Can’t we think something original and suited to the Indian tastes. One good trend that has of course been noticeable is in the film industry where the latest films are being focused on the emerging life styles and how western culture is seeping into ours. Hopefully, the message would go across and a positive result comes out of it.
Coming to the point, majority of Indians have turned out to be figure conscious and it is mainly the female gender which gossips about their vital statistics more than their counterparts. This shows that in the recent few years the western culture has indeed slowly influenced the minds of the Indians through various factors, one being the beauty pageants which have played a major part in revolutionizing the mentality of the Indian society. The female centric ads are another major reason for the obsession to look ood. The ads regarding the fairness creams have poisoned the minds of the people to such an extent that they have started imagining cosmetics to be a miraculous solution which would even turn a ‘monkey into a prince or princess’. The film industry would be the third factor for this figure consciousness as mostly all the films focus on the female anatomy and the muscular look among the males. All these factors have obviously lead to the mushrooming of more and more gymnasiums and beauty clinics.
Thus, external beauty has gained such prominence in our lives that mostly all men wish to be as perfect as the Greek Gods and all female wish that they were heroines with envious vital statistics even to the point of being anorexic. Lastly, I would only say that ‘External beauty withers with time and internal beauty opens the doors to heaven’. The world and times are changing and values will continue to change and cultural shocks will persist, but it is up to us to decide what it is we wish to change and what it is we would die defending. Jai Hind.
