Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Rakshabandhan & Love Stories…

On my recent visit to home, I was having a conversation with my younger sister.
“A guy has given me a proposal” She Said.
“What are you talking about?” I was shocked to hear that; first reason - I am her brother and the second, she is in Sixth Grade!
“Don’t worry bhai, he has asked me to tie him Rakhi on the Rakshabandhan day” She cleared my doubts.
“Okay. Why is it so, he doesn’t have a sister?” I inquired.
“No, he has 2 sisters. It is because people tease us in class, everyone in class says we are a pair and we want to stop that” She replied.
I laughed in reply.
Though this is not the first time I have encountered this. I have many such memories from school days wherein girls would tie Rakhi to guys they were paired with!
I would like to share the most memorable incident.
I don’t remember which grade it was, we were in all 44 pupils in the class and out of which there only 14 girls (Serious Sex Ratio Problem!). It was big tussle; there was always a quest on who would claim the best of the few. As in claim, we were still adolescent to get seriously involved into relationship.
Prameet had a crush on Dimple. Class had already started their job of teasing and I can assure you that even the dumbest student excelled in this subject. Being a vernacular school, we used to celebrate most of the festivals. As the Rakhi Poornima was coming closer, pressure was building on Prameet. It was sure that Dimple was going to try tying Rakhi on his wrist. Bunking school was the best option he had, but being a coward was not his choice and he did come to school on the D-Day.
It was the first session of the day and ceremony had started. Dimple steered like a rocket and parked herself near his bench with a Rakhi in her hand. He move backwards and shouted “No, please don’t”. Unfortunately our teacher heard him and reported to the scene which already had the whole class as an audience. She asked him, “What is the problem?”
Poor chap couldn’t find an appropriate answer and blurted out “I don’t like decorated Rakhi!!” Whole class started laughing and our teacher joined too! (Few notorious characters of our class had made it sure that even teacher knew everything.) After little hesitation he had to lower his hand to honour the Rakhi. Satisfaction of winning the war was seen on Dimple’s face all day long.
I am sure that death certificate of many one sided love stories has the date same as of the Rakhi Poornima.
My point is, aren’t we dishonouring our religious customs? We are using it as a tool to help us out of some trouble. Today, older generation complains that the younger generation is ruining their culture. This is not the case; the younger generation is asked to follow traditions without actually understanding them. A proper understanding and reasoning will help them evolve. This would give more meaning to our rituals and customs and hence they will be respected by generations that will follow.
Till this transformation happens, ladies if you feel that I am trying to hit on you; please note, I don’t like decorated Rakhi!
-inanimate

No comments:

Post a Comment