Wednesday, May 07, 2008

McDonaldisation!!

Ah! finally I got time to write! after ages.

India , one of the oldest civilizations, is slowly changing itself so much that cultural heritage will soon reduce to a word in history text books.
I had joined music classes some time back. Students who would learn music with me were of the age like 5 or 6 or sometimes perhaps 4 also! These kids learn Hindustani classical music in English. The teacher gives them notes as Sa Re Ga Ma. And this is true for students from any community, there were lots of Bengali and north Indian kids there. They all learn music in this way. People in so many states are fighting to get a 'classical status' for their language, but what is the use of that status if the language that gets that status is not considered 'cool' by the community that was expected to encourage its use. Already, so many languages of the world have become dead. But most of them became extinct because the people speaking that language became extinct. But in our country, number of people capable of speaking Indian languages is always on an ever increasing trend. Hence, it will be shameful if Indian languages become obsolete.

This also reminds me of another interesting trend in the 'upwardly mobile and progressive' society that is flourishing in satellite townships of Noida, Bangalore, Gurgaon etc..
Yesterday my mentor told that he bought an alphabet primer for his few months old kid. The book has alphabets as:
P for Pizza
C for computer
B for burger
and perhaps I for iPod!

I might be accused of acting like French (who, it is said, dislike anything American, like our very own Left) or some anti-progressive jerk, but what kind of nature loving and healthy kids we raise if they learn of Pizza before identifying a Parrot and they see Burger before getting excited to play with a Ball

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