Well. Most of us would have ‘celebrated’ the New Year on 1st Jan 2011. Many would have even been awake at the dawn and would have (ironically) gone to sleep as soon as the New Year began. Many would have ‘cheered’ the New Year with alcohol and parties! I am definitely not a fundamentalist. But I am only putting the clock back when I was at school. The Tamil calendar would show 1st January as “CHRISTIAN new year”. Slowly the phrase was conveniently changed to just show “New Year” as if it is New Year to everyone. And Hindu temples, in blatant violation of shastras, are open at midnight for ‘New Year’. And now people are wishing ‘everyone’ a ‘Merry Christmas’ as if it is a universal festival. Have we ever wished everyone a ‘Happy Rama Navami’? Do we dare to do it? Isn’t this a western influence? Isn’t this a mesmerized state? This reflects the callousness of Hindus to their culture and tradition. Added to this is the hypocrisy of our politicians who plat politics with Tamil New Year! How many of us know the Tamil years? How many of us know our birthday by the Tamil month and Nakshatiram? My parents used to greet me only on my star birthday. Even though we are overseas, we celebrate the birthday of our children on their star birthday too. If we don’t bother to keep up our culture and tradition, who would? If we neglect our customs, who would safeguard them? Let us resolve that we would at all times be proud of our culture and would cherish it and pass it on to the next generation.
Loka samasta sukhino bavantu.
Loka samasta sukhino bavantu.
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