BEING MODERATELY MODERATE
Lot has changed since we were in schools. The changes are
evident in every walk of life from the clothes we wear to the living standards
we follow. Even the way we think and act in a given situation. The changes are
more dramatic in the way we observe our religious beliefs or dictates.
Let us first talk about dress because that is the most
visible. Nothing much has changed as far as men’s dressing is concerned because
the poor fellow has a few choices from wide flared to narrow drain piped trousers,
from full sleeved to muscle shirts or from flat heeled-wide toed to high heeled
narrow toed shoes. Nothing really matters what he wears at home which can be a
lungi to a Bermuda. All the designers’ wear for the females, of the females but
not necessarily by the females. In those olden days the girls would come to
school/college in salwar suits/lahanga kurta /sarees. The salwar suits or
lahanga kurta were accompanied by dupattas (scarves). The saree were worn in
such a way that only the small angle of the neck was visible. The whole idea
was to cover the cleavage. In a way it was regressive because managing the
saree was a job by itself and during summer times these dresses were quite
oppressive. Things started changing for some good when skirt tops in schools
replaced salwar suits/lahanga kurta at least. Currently there is some sort of
competition among females in out placing each other by dressing as scantly as
possible. The tops are moving upwards and the jeans/skirts are going downwards.
So is the case with blowze and saree. It appears what is good for the west is
good for us too. The good thing is that there are people liberal enough to
accept the change but there are people who would impose dress codes in schools
colleges and offices.
The other area is about religion. There are fundamentalists
and there are liberals and moderates. There are rebels who would eat meat and
drink alcohol much against the dictates of the tradition and there are moderates
who would not mind this happening in moderation. There are fundamentalists who
would want their women to dress in a particular way and there are moderates who
accept the changes in moderation. There are people dead against inter cast
marriages and there are moderates who do not put any hurdles.
Another area is the value system. These days it is quite
common for men and women frequenting bars and discotheques and enjoying the
fare late into nights. Not only dress codes or food habits or religious beliefs
have changed but also the entire gamut of our way of living has changed. It
will not be very correct to say that this change is visible only among the
educated and upwardly mobile strata of our society. Even the middle class and
lower middle class is not untouched. We should not be surprised if we find a
jean top clad teenaged girl in some remote village of our country.
Moderation in moderation is good but the point is how
moderate the moderate should be. Simply put how to define moderation.
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