After a long time, Ashish and I were coming back in the evening together and as usual stuck in a jam. It was a time to share our thoughts and realize how much we have in common on our views on certain issues, rather than getting frustrated about the traffic snarls in Bangalore and get irritated with every other traffic violator (which we did of course, but that wasn't the main topic though)
I really can't remember how we started off on the topic, but our discussion mainly concerned about how we Indians are not proud of what we have and how instead of respecting our own culture we are quite ashamed of what we are. Why is this?? What is the logic behind this?? I still haven't understood it quite clearly. We are so eager to embrace anything that is thrown at us but why are we so blind to the rich heritage that we have?? Is it our education? Is it our ignorance? Or is it just the fact that we are Indians????
Now I remember, the discussion did start because of the traffic situation. The conclusion we came to was that people just don't respect each other. My point - the culture and tradition in India, is probably the only unique one where we are taught to respect everything. From people, to everything in nature, to even a small piece of paper. All things were attributed with some divine qualities so that we learnt to respect everything that we had. This, like nobody else does, we are taught as small kids - don't stamp on a piece of paper, never show your leg to another person, much less kick or stamp him