Being proud of an Indian

Many people now-a-days, I see, proudly exhibit the western influence on their minds. Eating with fork and spoon, Indian style commodes with Western WCs, Installing Bath Tubs in the bathrooms... Lets start one by one. When Swami Vivekananda visited Chicago for the parliament of religions, he observed the habits of westerners. One person asked swamiji that was it not backward class to eat with hands dipped in the food? Swamiji instantly replied the westerner by saying, "We indians do not poke or slice food. We first feel it with our hands before we feel it with our tongue." Really! Most people may feel it very embarrassing to continue our Indian culture outside India, or even in India while eating with other fellow Indians. We show-off how well groomed we are by eating the way westerners eat! Following is the excerpt from "Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda"

Now hear something about the Western art of cooking. There is greater purity observed in our cooking than in any other country; on the other hand, we have not that perfect regularity, method and cleanliness of the English table. Every day our cook first bathes and changes his clothes before entering the kitchen; he neatly cleanses all the utensils and the hearth with water and earth, and if he chances to touch his face, nose, or any part of his body, he washes his hands before he touches again any food. The Western cook scarcely bathes; moreover, he tastes with a spoon the cooking he is engaged in, and does not think much of re-dipping the spoon into the pot. Taking out his handkerchief he blows his nose vigorously, and again with the same hand he, perchance, kneads the dough. He never thinks of washing his hands when he comes from outside, and begins his cooking at once. But all the same, he has snow-white clothes and cap. Maybe, he is dancing on the dough — why, because he may knead it thoroughly well with the whole pressure of his body, no matter if the sweat of his brow gets mixed with it! (Fortunately nowadays, machines are widely used for the task.) After all this sacrilege, when the bread is finished, it is placed on a porcelain dish covered with a snow-white napkin and is carried by the servant dressed in a spotless suit of clothes with white gloves on; then it is laid upon the table spread over with a clean table-cloth. Mark here, the gloves — lest the man touches anything with his bare fingers!

This shows the level of ignorance towards our own tried and tested culture. I have seen many western ladies (Proudly!) wear saries while our own Indian women "JUST DO NOT KNOW" to wear them. Western ladies are excited to wear bindi. While our young ladies laugh at other (Indian) girls who wear them! How many boys really know to wear Veshthi or Dhoti? I have also seen my Mallayali friend wear Leather belt on his lungi to insure himself from any potential embarrassment! Now what to say? People, while doing the interior designing to their homes, replace Indian style commodes with Western style toilets. They call it sign of advancement. All I can claim is that our ancestors were not fools to continue with the Indian style. When a person sits for cleaning bowels on an Indian style commode, automatically some pressure is created on the large intestines which makes the "excretion" process easy. Yes, some people do give excuse that the old members in their family suffer from arthritis so they cannot sit in Indian commodes. The very cause of such joint pain and arthritis is the fast food culture that we have readily adopted, laying idle watching the idiot box and no exercise for joints. Also using the flush nearly drains out a large quantity of water. Most toilets installed before 1980 use 5-7 gallons of water per flush. Toilets installed between 1980 and 1993 use 3.5 gallons per flush. Toilets installed since 1994 use 1.6 gallons. 1 US gallon = 3.78541178 liters. People now install Bath tubs, but do you know how much water it holds? Here's some math: 1 (cubic foot) = 28.3168466 liters The dimensions of a standard size bathtub are approximately: two feet wide, four and one-half feet long, and one foot deep. Simply multiply as follows to find the tub's volume in cubic feet: 2' x 4.5' x 1' = 9 cubic feet. 9 Cubic feet x 28.32 = 254.88 liters! The standard bath tub in Indian homes hold around 40 liters of water. Here too, swami Vivekananda was asked why do Indians still prefer to bath with buckets instead of soaking themselves in bath tub? The reply was, "In India, when we bathe, the water flows over our body and goes down the drain taking with it the grime and dirt. We do not wallow in the same water in which others bath!" Yet we are so proud to flaunt our Occident influenced minds. This is really surprising!!! O.A.K.