Tradition vs Change.

     After days of blogs and videos about the general elections in the country, it was youtube browsing as usual when I landed on a Tamil debate show. It was on the topic of societal changes and its impact on the younger generation. While debating on the gains/losses of the younger lot, the predominantly older lot of panelists did little to actually probe the changes and rather struck to rhetoric and kollywood dialogues. I must admit that it is what drives the populace to watch it but it also got me into thinking about the millions of articles and speeches spread across the internet preaching the losses borne by the young folks due to the social transformations in the country. This urged me to bleed down my opinions in this blog.

       A week doesn't pass without the mention of the tradition and culture lost as a result of modernization, especially in the Tamil media. I am sure many would concede that although we wish to spend time in nature’s beauty in the countryside breathing in fresh air and enjoying the soft breeze by the farms it is evident we can’t give up the accessibility available in the congested hustling cities for more than a weekend, especially the ones habituated to having everything door delivered. Also the hypocrisy in judging the growth of IT industry is another nightmare almost every engineer faces on his/her visit to the village. While the incomes and living standards are welcomed, the long working hours and professional stress is detested. Another point argued upon was the changes in culinary practices that have led to health discrepancies arising earlier than usual. It is indeed true but it is also essential to understand that the current generation has appraised the pros and cons of the same and is growing to be more conscious than it was a decade back. Certainly the customs have changed and I do not have any animosity against the traditional customs but I am also of the opinion that traditions are dynamic. They alter as time flies by. 

        Hence it is time the infatuation for serene villages and classical fashion is given up for adaptation into relevant lifestyles because the former will be history not very long from now. As Thomas Jefferson put it “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past”, we must learn to appreciate the enhancements and swallow the deficiencies as graciously as we can.

spark.!

It has been a while since I wrote anything except cover letters, mails or essays for job applications and stuff. After a lot of deliberation and waiting I have finally decided to start a blog. The idea isn't new to me but it has taken nearly 3 years  to start blogging again after a small stint with a group in my sophomore year at college. Even  now, I am afraid the driving factor has been solitude rather than passion alone. In the final days at college on retrospective thinking I realize the actual learning that I have undergone here is not 

exactly engineering but on what I am capable of and what I am actually passionate about as one of my professors once said at IIT most of you don't learn anything except how to learn. I am sure I belong to that group of students. It might be a while before I manage to get out of the rat-race and finally start doing what I want rather than what I need to do. This blog will be a first step of the many to follow in that direction. As I have mentioned earlier, the loneliness has paved way for the time to think and introspect on various stuff varying from as dumb as the cuisines in the country to as intense as the socio-political changes in the country. These thoughts have initiated a spark to start writing. And I hope this spark lives long enough to get me involved and stops me from procrastinating again..