The Cultural Enigma

by Kamil Tariq

I don’t know whether I’m suffering from dementia or I am one of the few people that have this type of a mindset, but it really is rather astonishing that people do not observe that what is going around in their surroundings. By the surrounding I mean, not the situation of the country that we live in but more importantly themselves and the people they associate with. It may be vague that what kind of a point I’m trying to make, but in simpler terms I mean to point out the growing trend for the disregard of our culture. There may be several things that define culture, but basically it’s the morals and the norms of the society. Of all the people of the world belonging to different nationalities, we are the people that don’t need to be explained what culture is, or at least it wasn’t the case in the past. What I mean to say is that while most people may disagree with this but we are rapidly parting our ways with our ways. The norms and the standards in our society are changing with such ferocity that it seems that we will be a colony of different cultures and slave to the different trends in the near future.
By this I mean not only one particular social class in our society is changing but the different social classes are changing at different levels. The often targeted, “Upper Class” is always blamed to have western influences in their lives, which to an extent is correct that yes western influence is present in the society, not even going what our religion permits or forbids; because myself being a naïve and being a less of a pious person I cannot talk about religion; but what is happening around us is not even acceptable in our society or at least it wasn’t in the past. Vice is the order of the day; justice is no longer a word in the dictionary. The more the individual is influenced by western culture the more importance they get. It’s like; it is a simulated world with so many fake people posing to be someone they are not. Not only the targeted “Elite” have their influences, but the “Lower class” in our society is also not the ones that are living a life with their identity but are in fact are more deeply infused by the foreign influences. Just the difference is that their influences come from the nation of which, once we were a part of, India. This has increased to such an extent, that even while they are talking these people are using words that a core part of the Hindi language. The things that are becoming more and more popular in either of the social classes are many, firstly the main thing that gets influenced is the clothes, what Americans are wearing the same thing is being practiced here not just to the conventional clothing but also the exotic formal wear. What is being worn in India, the same thing gets far more popular locally. Apart from that, the weddings are like a place to show off your wealth, it’s ok to celebrate it with all your heart but going overboard is the thing that gets you the respect. These are just small glimpses of what I can recall from, on the top of my head let alone giving the matter serious thoughts.
From reading the text, one would think that it is the thoughts of an old man who’s still living in the past, but I am far from that, it’s just that to me; these things feel like a little piece of a stone when it gets in the shoe, it keeps on giving an uncomfortable feeling. What can be done? Well it’s not like it’s the end of the world and these are the words for a cultural requiem we can still look deep into ourselves and bring out what we really are.