Materialism

I am sure we all have heard this term “Materialistic” so what does it mean.. In simple explanation it is defined as “preoccupation with or emphasis on material objects, comforts, and considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values.” Or if you are looking in philosophical terms than it is defined as “the philosophical theory that regards matter and its motions as constituting the universe, and all phenomena, including those of mind, as due to material agencies.”

I don’t want to get into heavy ethics of materialism, but do want to bring attention to it. We all are materialistic in some exacting way. Materialistic is not only about hoarding money it also concern our hoarding habits. Being attached with physical possessions, locations or people. Before you deny it. I would say take a look at the collection of  your clothing record players, or something that you collect. You might have started that with some good intentions but later it turned into this difficult habit which you cannot let go off.

Greek philosophers have given their two cents about materialism. Various schools of thoughts now going deep into philosophy  defines Materialism is a philosophical system which regards matter as the only reality in the world, which undertakes to explain every event in the universe as resulting from the conditions and activity of matter, and which thus denies the existence of God and the soul. It is diametrically opposed to Spiritualism and Idealism, which, in so far as they are one-sided and exclusive, declare that everything in the world is spiritual, and that the world and even matter itself are mere conceptions or ideas in the thinking subject. Materialism is older than Spiritualism, if we regard the development of philosophy as beginning in Greece. The ancient Indian philosophy, however, is idealistic; according to it there is only one real being, Brahma; everything else is appearance, Maja. In Greece the first attempts at philosophy were more or less materialistic; they assumed the existence of a single primordial matter — water, earth, fire, air — or of the four elements from which the world was held to have developed. Materialism was methodically developed by the Atomists.

Materialism started from a fundamental underlying reality of human existence: that in order for human beings to survive and continue existence from generation to generation, it is necessary for them to produce and reproduce the material requirements of life. Humans collectively produce the necessities of life.

So in modern life Materialism which was born out of necessity have turned into this contemporary culture of consumerism and materialism affects our everyday happiness and psychological health. Other philosopher’s have shown that once we have sufficient food, shelter, and clothing, further material gains do little to improve our well-being. People’s materialistic desires relate to their well-being. People whose values center on the accumulation of wealth or material possessions face a greater risk of unhappiness, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and problems with intimacy—regardless of age, income, or culture. In essence materialistic values actually undermine our well-being, as they perpetuate feelings of insecurity, weaken the ties that bind us, and make us feel less free.

So basic idea is about not getting sold to idea of consumerism. Live by the means of necessity, not by desire. After all we are 25% of people of the world who are lucky enough to have these advantages in our life.

Conservative, Moderate or Liberal

We all have point of views some of us are conservative, moderate or liberal. No I am not talking about affiliation with Democrats, Republicans or Tea Party, Intent here is to discuss our Indian values set of values that we were brought up with. No matter how diverse we are as a country but the common bond is the set of values we all grew up with. Parents learned from their parents, passed on with generations.

Even our scriptures teach us the same.. be it Hindu Ramayana, or Buddhist, Jain or Sikh. They all have common thread. So what are those values? We all practice them on daily basis. Tyaga (renunciation), dana (liberal giving), nishtha (dedication), satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence) and upeksha (forbearance) are the foundations for the Indian values system. Then there is some more which we all practice here in US or anywhere in the world and of course there are exceptions.

Respect for parents and Elders: In most cases you will see that children have high respect for their parents and elders. Even when they grow up the respect always stays. Also, children take care of their parents till their last. Most of the time I address any elders with “auntyji” or “uncleji”. If I don’t know the person with “sir” or “Ms” or “ Mr”. Difficult to address them with first name basis.

Family orientation: Indians will have very close knit family. Nowadays it is difficult to have joint families, but in early days having a joint family was a matter of pride. I am sure we have this situation where a “distant” relative or friend’s relative is visiting USA and they have stayed at your house. We all do that out of respect. Accommodate and put up with them.

Sacrifice and adjustment: Most Indians are known for their adjusting nature. They are not rigid and in most cases, they put others before themselves. I see this day in day out where they will make sure the guest is comfortable, parents making sacrifices to make sure their child get the best of what they want. Making everyday sacrifices so that their child have a bright future.

Importance to Education: Education is probably the most important thing for parents about their children. Parents sacrifice their career and savings to give children better education. Lot of Indian kids making into American universities, where families have taken education loans to send them to best educational institutions and making it big in life.

Trust in Institution of Marriage: In India more than 70 % are arranged marriages and divorce rate is less than 3%. This only goes to show that husband and wife make adjustments and go to lengths to ensure that marriage is successful. We know all about arrange marriages or love became arranged marriage. It was important for us to seek family approval because that is one of our values. We cannot be alone without the family.

As a first generation here my focus is to instill my kids with all the values and give them a strong background as we had. Is it wrong to do so. The values we grew up are the sole reason for our success here. I have seen some “desi” friends who are too quick to criticize us. I always wonder why, what went wrong. Or seen some who abandon their Indian values and jump on to “firang” boats. They claim its restricting and obliterating their lifestyle, feel sorry for such people, they look lost and have forgotten their identity. Sorry I am not a hardliner but a proud Indian who is proud of her Indian heritage and values.

So which Indian are you conservative/traditional  who follow your Indian values to the core? Or a moderate who is adapting as well as following new values or a liberal who know what values are their but change per their lifestyle. Please comment @http://iamhindu-mani.blogspot.com/

Imagination Versus Knowledge

There is a favorite quote of Einstein” Imagination is important than knowledge”.  When we look back and question this it does matter. If there was no imagination our world will be uninteresting and simply things that were invented and created would not exist, world will be void and boring.  There will be no seven secret smiles of Mona Lisa, or Michael Angelo various inventions and creations. Imagination is inspiration, creation, start of new questions, possibilities and new beginnings.

Artist geniuses and inventors have claimed imagination as their territory. It is more colorful vivid and comes with no boundaries. Imaginations lead man to various beautiful journeys of inventions and creation. Imagination is your dream, a thought which may happen any day time or instance. Per definition Imagination” formation of mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses.”  Knowledge where as is defined as “the sum or range of what has been perceived discovered or learned.” Imagination has been mankind’s survival aid, perceiving us to resolve problems, situations and anticipate challenges. Knowledge has played a friends role in working hand in hand to work on situations. Knowledge in other hand is dull conviction resulting from a brush with reality, is black-and-white, logical, stable, conservative – the domain of curators and  accountants.

At both group and individual levels, knowledge facilitates community and continuity, while imagination facilitates change. Knowledge binds us to a sometimes-oppressive existence; imagination helps us escape it. However, imagination evolved as a tool for facilitating survival. Imagining, we take a step beyond what we know into the future or into another world. We see alternatives and possibilities; we work out what we need to reach our goal. If imagination was not in play we would have missed Renaissance revolution.. An era where numerous pieces of arts were created which are valuable even to date.

Imagination is not bound by any norms, thoughts and is usually out of this world, it challenges rules and procedures set in place. Imagination and knowledge ratio go hand in hand. In today’s world imagination is losing its grip blame can be placed on too much of media, ever decreasing attention span. Rather than creating focus is more on learning. We are placing limits on our imagination. I cannot imagine a world without new thoughts, ideas can you…

Generation XYZ

We are in twenty first century and society is now in generation “Z” classification. For those who are unaware of the classification let me explain the intricacies of classification. Per Webster dictionary the term of years, roughly 30 among human beings, accepted as the average period between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring.  Each generation born under certain time period has been defined with a certain category and traits. So the time line goes something like this Generation Baby Boomers from 1946 to 1964, Generation X from 1965 to 1982 (proudly acclaimed our generation and current workforce), Generation Y 1983-2001 and Generation Z from 2002-2012. To begin to understand how individuals in different generations act and react, one must first start with understanding oneself. Begin by seeing where you fall on the “Generation Timeline” above. Since this timeline represents a conglomeration of many views, the starting and ending dates (birth years) of the generations are subjective, not scientific or fully agreed-on time spans. However, this subjectivity poses no real problems since the variation of years is not significant enough to impact the big picture of a generation’s description.

The generation baby boomers falls within those born of the post war baby boom between 1946 and 1964. The name most likely comes from a book about the baby boom in America written by Landon Jones. In fact, the last half of the baby boomers years is sometimes referred to as the “Jones Generation.” Generation Baby Boomers represented the children born in the period from shortly after WWII until about 1964. They were born into a period of prosperity and emphasis on youth and education. Growing up they witnessed many watershed changes in American society and now are a very large group facing the challenges of aging and retirement.

Then comes the Generation X, that’s us. Our generation who grew up to sitcoms like Simpsons, Friends and MTV. Generation who brought many technological innovations, gave world wide web (internet) to the world. We tend to distrust government control of anything - we don't want the government meddling in our bedroom, our computer, or our income. We are by products of “consumer economy”, where our spending habits impact economy. Our generation is the one who is supporting the Medicare, social security and the federal government with our tax dollars. We are also addressed as the “Sandwich generation” who are taking care of our parents as well as our young unemployed youths.

Baby boomers define us as lazy and we lack the depth or direction to add value to society. Their "theory" suggests we are lazy, apathetic, and care little about the world and even more notable, we are lost.

I want to defend our generation from this claim, our generation has sought balance in our lives. Our motto is “work to live not live to work”. Unlike Baby boomers who were relentless and everything was serious. We Generation X’ers  find time to add fun to our busy live. We also know how to “stop and smell the roses.”

Now let’s talk about Generation Y, this is the generation that grew up with technology, they are plugged in twenty four seven. This is the generation that prefers to email or text, rather than having an actual conversation. This is the generation who is pampered by their parents “Generation X”. More than that they are ambitious, seeks challenges and are result oriented. Career is very important aspect of their life. They are more giving and thrive with team assignments. Socially they are the generation with the highest divorce rates.

Finally Generation Z.. does it equate to zero.. they the youngest in the society ladder, yet most clueless and careless generation. This is the generation who is connected, morally irresponsible and tend to Google or Bing most of their school assignments.

Generation Z has diminishing attention span, they are the generation who were initially diagnosed with attention deficient disorder “ADD”. Most of the kids from this generation have issues focusing and are struggling in schools. They are unable to analyze or decipher complex data. They will be the ones who will be lost with out the GPS or bored without their handheld music devices. 

So for the coming years more power to the Generation X’ers as they have taken the societal burden on their shoulders. In end all societies go through cycles. Picture might look bleak from outside, but it might not be the case after-all we have survived four thousand years. There is no paper record, am sure each generation was smarter than the other one to make it millennium.

SO MUCH FOR WOMEN LIB

Yes that is right, I am talking about women liberation. In millennium women are competing shoulder to shoulder with men. In fact I believe that we have superseded men be it field of war, engineering, space exploration or politics. We have taken key positions and have been a power player. Be it developed country or third world, we are stepping up to speak up for our rights, make a difference and change the world as we perceive it.

Coming to this feat was not easy, we have taken centuries of oppression, elimination, mocked and ridiculed. The change and fight for “Equal Rights” has been slow and steady. Going back o genesis, where it talks about creation of man and a woman. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth,  and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  Genesis mentions that God created woman out of man’s rib and help him and man should not be lonely.

 Where as in Hinduism , It is a culture whose only words for strength and power are feminine -"Shakti'' means "power'' and "strength.'' All male power comes from the feminine. In Hindu scriptures mentions Men and women were equal when it came to education and religion. Louis Jaccoliot, the celebrated French author of the: Hindoo Origin of Hebrew and Christian Revelation said: "India of the Vedas entertained a respect for women amounting to worship; a fact which we seem little to suspect in Europe when we accuse the extreme East of having denied the dignity of woman, and of having only made her an instrument of pleasure and of passive obedience." He also said: "What! here is a civilization, which you cannot deny to be older than your own, which places the woman on a level with the man and gives her an equal place in the family and in society."  Even in Ancient Greek mythology it talks about women as symbol of family and heir producer, they were included in major family decisions. Egypt and Roman civilization women role was subdued to the boundaries of running house and completing chores.  In Islam a woman is a symbol of respect, comfort, reverence and love in every position she holds. Family is the first cradle of man.  The Prophet Muhammad announced, Heaven is under the feet of mothers.

So where this thought was permeated that women and men are not equal. What happened to our society norms that woman was treated as slave to man, and had to fight for her rights. Women’s right movement was started back in 1848 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The movement adopted agenda for getting equal rights for women in American society. To its present day have voiced on sexual harassment, equal pay and various other controversial topics of abortion and birth control pills issues. Various other movements were initiated to protect Women’s rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, enshrines "the equal rights of men and women", and addressed both the equality and equity issues.[99] In 1979 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) for legal implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it came into force on 3 September 1981.  There are various other foundations and charities who are fighting and propagating change cause for women and girls in the society.
I raise this questions has the norms changed? Have we achieved the status that we are striving for? I believe so I would say… but the achievement has only in developed countries and metro cities. If you pick up a news paper you still headlines and gory stories of female foeticide, rape and murders. How girls are abducted, raped, molested and abandoned.  There is no doubt that women have made progress in the matter of education and career. But the truth is that world is currently in a transitional age, the transition being from a feudal, agricultural society to a modern, industrial society. We are neither totally backward, nor totally modern. Therefore our society is largely male-dominated, and still has remnants of feudal thinking. Equality before law is not enough. True equality is only possible by means of a complete revolution in our thinking and attitude towards women. This can be achieved but it requires time, and perhaps a cultural revolution.
On the other side of spectrum women's movements have opened the door for us to pursue our career aspirations and speak my mind. On the other hand, men's reaction to women's movements and the Sexual Revolution, which many women participated in, have lessened the chance that we will get married and have children. So it all comes down to which you value more: your career, or family. For most of us the answer would be family. Yes we have made strides and changes have come. But can we do it all? We are so afraid to answer this question. We get so defensive about this. If we don’t answer or perform per expectations whole women liberation would fail. People will point fingers for failing.
A piece of advice for my fellow female readers yes the war is still on. Men are watching and waiting for us to fail… so what we if we fail, it will give us more the reasons to get up and fight back again. Do not be so harsh in judging thyself after all we are women.

ABCD

No I am not writing alphabets… what does ABCD reminds us about. Common term is “American born Confused Desi” or” American Born Confident Desi”, which one would you rather prefer... well it all depends who is analyzing it. A FOB or a Coconut. Sorry could not resist the quip. We tend to get biased when it comes to cultural segregation. Yes cultural segregation my us. Pointing fingers at kids born and raised here versus… back home. Wikipedia description of ABCD is “American-Born Confused Desi has become a polarizing factor in the South Asian diaspora in the US, with first-generation immigrant parents and young South Asians of second or latter generations”.  The original term was “BBCD” British Born Confused desi coined sometime in early nineties and later transitioned to “ABCD”.

In layman lingo.. ABCD are kids who are caught between two cultures. On one end they have to behave as good Indian kid who follows his or her parent directed lifestyle, on the other end he or she is trying to blend in with their American life style.  No wonder it is confusing. As a desi, I have been called I am too Americanized simply I have adapted well.. then these kids they are born and raised here. It is annoying for any American born Indian to put up with the term ABCD.. rather than “Confused” they would refer themselves as “confident” Desi. Today Indian-American youth have taken so many strides in defining an identity that the letter C more accurately means “Confident.” ABCD have made accomplishments in various socio economic sectors of USA.

ABCD has an added advantage of biculturism, they have cultivated richness of both Indian and American culture. Modern and ancient and along with that art of balancing it in their  modern lives. Ancient values guiding them in times of conflicting modern ideas and vice versa. Biculturism has been a privilege for them. ABCD are comfortable and confident in their skin and proud of their heritage. They are kids who are bringing proud to the Indo-American communities.

So next when you use the term keep in mind, the generation biculturism and rich heritage of India will be recognized by our “confident” Desi friends.

Indian Accent

We all watch sitcoms on television, where Indians are portrayed with “typical accent”.  Do we really sound like that? Does it annoy you, anger or humor you? Or are you one of those “desi” who defend yourself saying “I do not sound like that and comment such a FOB (fresh off the boat). 

Be it Simpson’s Apu to Family Guy or the series of outsourced focus on Desi with their funny accents. Good news about this is we are in lime light. Past seven or eight years trend has been catering to South Asian Community. Even our vice president was imitating our accent on some comment about job outsourcing.

If you Google the term “Indian Accent” search page comes up with Russell Peters to Simpsons. We all know Russell who imitates Indian Accent for his father and his famous line of “somebody gonna get hurt”. I give credit to Russell for “familizaring” desi community to locals here in USA.

There are classes being offered to learn our Indian Accent. I believe we are in such a lime light because of outsourced jobs and the focus is about how badly we sound on the phone. Earlier our accent did not matter, is the anger that resulted in mimicking our accent or some way of getting back to us?

I asked my friends community and their quip was its just stereotyped. American Media does that to everyone. Like Chinese Mrs. Swan Mexican Harardo with heavy accented words do not make any sense. Initially I use to get angry but later realized the humor and irony of it.  It is fairly difficult to crack a funny joke without resorting to stereotyping of some kind.

Even in our Indian Media there is a regional character portrayed like for North Indian it is that heavy accented Punjabi guy or that “Madrasi” guys who dresses in lungi and have a certain pronunciation with funny accent. End goal of such stereotyping is to humor people. Good thing is “There is no such thing as bad publicity”. On this account I do want to mention that so far India Media is behind on stereotyping “Americans” wonder would the stereotype character be all clueless, ignorant and blazing guns with Levi Dungarees and Coke can in the other hand. That would be an interesting watch.

So should we blame the media or people?  Is it for pure entertainment or there is more to that. I would like to hear from you guys. Please comment @