Compiled and Edited by : Tara
We are social beings and live in a society where we come across so many social values which we have to respect and follow to maintain a discipline and dignity in the society. And we all know that it doubles the accountability if you are a woman, and then if you are an Indian Woman, as Indian women are expected highly to keep up the social values, follow the traditions, culture and strictly trail the norms laid by the society for them since ages.
We heard about the recent Mangalore incident where woman were given bashing and were brutally given a complete inhuman treatment. We talk about the dignity and moral values, but where does an activity like man beating woman in public comes under the limit of decorum?
Today is Valentines Day, but instead of spreading love all around and celebrating the festival of love, people and specially woman are so much insecure and are living with a fear in our country. There came up organizations which raised their voice against such shameless and merciless actions. But we wanted to know, what a woman sitting in her home, office, or in a coffee shop with a friend is going through and what she thinks about this. What are her message towards all those people and what does she wants?
Orkutheroes tries to find out and take opinion from women on social networking site of Orkut and got a warm response from many.
Few of those views are added here to clear the picture of thinking and mental status of an Indian woman on this special day of celebrating love, known as Valentines Day!
We asked each one of them two question, which were:
Do you think its right to label the Valentine’s Day celebration as disgraceful and its celebration is against the Indian culture and that should be stopped?
What message do you have to give this year to all those who are opposing it?
Here are some of the numerous views we got:
Roop Durgapal, Assistant Media Marketing Manager, Noida:
I feel that culture is nothing but a way of living, which is supposed to be an individual’s choice. Valentine’s Day is a day of celebrating love (not only among the couples, but it could be any form of love). It is absurd to oppose any body’s way of living & especially when it is about celebrating the most beautiful feeling on earth. The lovers should just keep one thing in mind that, a level of decency should always be maintained.
I really don’t have a message for anybody who opposes Valentine’s day, as I feel everyone has got a point of view over a thing & nobody can change it unless the people understand it themselves & for that they need to be educated about the REAL & SERIOUS ISSUES prevailing in our country which need to be addressed like, population control, lack of education, Unemployment, atrocities on women etc. Rather than stopping people from expressing their love, which they would do any how, such people should be told to put their energies towards construction of a good society by trying to remove the issues mentioned above.
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Sanobar Sultana, Producer and Presenter, Chennai live 104.8 fm, Chennai:
Try googling the term Indian culture, after ten pages of reading you will realize that it’s impossible to define it. There is so much contradiction here, kamasutra’, Sati, Indra Nooyi , Sarika shah, Kalpana Chawla everything can happen in India. Valentine’s Day, friendship day, Halloween according to me is nothing but events /days which we have adopted from the west. We are giving more importance to it and helping it become a national event. It has already achieved great momentum. Thanks to Ram Sene youngsters, going out of their way to make this Valentine’s Day a grand success. Honestly, I have no issues with any event or any day as long as it does not affect the mental peace of anyone and does not hinder the progress of this country.
There are bigger issues in hand for instance the little Dalit girl whose ponytails were yanked where was Ram Sene, then? What about the countless men who molest women everyday on buses, trains and offices? Ram sene and company should be posted there every day. How often do these so called protectors of Indian culture have protected the lady next door when she is slapped by her husband? Here is my message to you any land which has disrespected women has never progressed, history will tell you.
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Anu Saxena, Rudrapur, India:
Well, as I believe that love don’t want any special day to say some thing to the person. But now there is one tendency or you can say a thinking among youngsters that in this special day we can say our heart line to that special person. Somewhere person becomes more courageous to say something and I feel that he/she should say the feeling to their loved ones in spite of not saying. But the youngsters, who are crossing the limits, should get punished. Because crossing of limit of anything is bad. But, one has the right to say the feeling in a very descent way.
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Krupa Raj, Fremont, California:
As a liberal woman and a sensible human being, I find that all the hoopla about Valentine’s Day harming our culture laughable. A culture gets richer and deeper by moving with the times and being open to new customs. Just as it’s wrong to force people to follow something they don’t care for…it’s wrong to obstruct people from celebrating something they care about.
And it’s not as if expression of love was not a part of our culture. We have celebrated the love of Radha and Krishna, Meera’s longing for Krishna, Seetha’s devotion to Rama and the love and understanding of Shiva and Parvathi. Now, its time to celebrate the love of the common man.
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Sonia Yadav, Doctor, native of Faridabad, Haryana, currently at New Zealand:
No I do not think so, this day means expressing love and it can be related to your family including your husband and father and every member of your family. I wish Valentines Day to my sister, my brother and my friends. It should not be stopped. We should try to improve the image of this day in India that it’s not only boyfriend and girlfriend thing…love involves every one….family to boyfriend, so stop promoting it as boyfriend and girlfriend day.
We all are bound through love and we should spread love massages and valentine day is excellent opportunity. So try to improve its image as family love in hand with intense love of lovers……leave ego and hate behind and celebrate it.
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Arinita Saha, student, Kolkata:
I don’t have much knowledge about Indian culture. I think each one of us grow with different values and point of view…every body posses a different opinion…for me it is nothing wrong….I think it should not be stopped. Those who don’t like to celebrate it, can sit at there home and let other people enjoy because opposing by or through rallies or in any other way will not help if they want to prove their point of view right. There are many other ways other than violence.
Please don’t try to impose what you feel on people. If you think you’re right, try to make people understand and that can’t be done through unwanted banning of a universally celebrated day.
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We hope that after reading these views one can very well understand that what does an Indian woman thinks of Valentines Day and its celebration and what do she wants from her own fellow citizens, and friends to understand and learn.
We have only one sentence to place on these Indian women and alike, “We are Proud of you ladies!”
{ 3 comments }
@Sanobar Sultana,
Assalamu Alaykum
Good post. although i donot support any unethical events but your post is really appritiated.
Thankx
Hi
I read your blog. Its a nice blog. Every body should Want to about this.
Tahank You
Rajat Kanti Mohapatra.
Hi
I read your blog. Its a nice blog. Every body should Want to about this.
Tahank You
Rajat Kanti Mohapatra.
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