{"id":205742,"date":"2022-02-28T12:01:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T12:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=205742"},"modified":"2022-02-24T03:29:18","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T03:29:18","slug":"culture-food-music-languages-dress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/02\/culture-food-music-languages-dress\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture \u2014 Food, Music, Languages, Dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many countries had their own culture
\nConsisting of languages people spoke, food they ate
\nThe attractive dresses that they wore
\nTheir dances, music, songs and more<\/p>\n

Systematically, their cultures got ruptured
\nLanguage was perhaps the first to be disturbed
\nCountries had many distinct yet overlapping tongues<\/p>\n

USA, Canada, Australia, African, Asian, Latin American countries
\nSuffered the blows of Spanish, English, French, Portuguese
\nNice that Russia continues speaking Russian<\/p>\n

Only English in Australia, all tribal languages decimated
\nHappily,\u00a0Maori<\/em>\u00a0language does remain in New Zealand
\nLatin America, Spanish giant killer of tribal tongues
\nPortuguese acted the same way in Brazil
\nWhich tribal languages remain today \u2014 nil<\/p>\n

Go to S. Africa \u2014 you can hardly find anyone speaking Swahili
\nEven the names of men are George, David, Robert, Bruce
\nThey dress like the Europeans who conquered them
\nOnly their skin colour and hair, gives an idea of their race<\/p>\n

In India 200 years of British rule, our original names still remain
\nRam, Shyam, Harish, Satish, Naresh, Ganesh (for men)
\nDurga, Pushpa, Kamlesh, Kamla, Vidya, Sita (for women)
\nRam and Sita \u2014 the heroic couple of\u00a0Ramayan<\/em><\/p>\n

We have learnt English language, but speak our traditional tongues
\nTamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Assamese, Bengali, Sindhi
\nMany people with own languages, have learnt and speak Hindi<\/p>\n

Hindi films popular all over the world, even more so than Hollywood
\nMany people saw the film Awaara in\u00a0<\/em>Russia or\u00a0Nagin in\u00a0<\/em>Dubai<\/p>\n

Our food has not changed too much \u2014
\nRoti, khichadi, daal,<\/em>vegetables,\u00a0\u00a0sambosa, naan<\/em>
\nDelicious,\u00a0more so with added herbs,\u00a0masaala<\/em>
\nSweets such as\u00a0ladoo, jalebi, rasgula, gulab jamun<\/em><\/p>\n

Friends come to the ancient land of India,
\nAlso known as Bharat, Hindustan
\nCome as guests, not as Invaders like\u00a0Alexander<\/em> or Vasco da Gama<\/em>
\nUnfortunately religion divided this land, new country born \u2014 Pakistan<\/p>\n

The country attracts with big mountains, Mt Everest, Himalayas
\nThe rainiest State \u2014\u00a0Meghalaya\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>land of clouds
\nWith many small churches on the roadside
\nCome once and you may like to always remain
\nSplash in the waves, all over the long coastline<\/p>\n

Come and see beautiful Hindi films with their melodious songs
\nThat showcased many actors \u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand<\/em>
\nFemale stars \u2014\u00a0Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Nargis, Vyjayantimala<\/em><\/p>\n

Wonder at beautiful men\u2019s dresses\u2014 dhoti, pyjamas,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0kameez<\/em>
\nFor women \u2014 silk, khadi saris,\u00a0the\u00a0dupatta <\/em>flying in the breeze<\/p>\n

Come my friend \u2014 I am waiting for you with folded hands \u2014\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Namaste<\/em>
\nDelicious food and fruit \u2014\u00a0sambosa, dosa, mango, coconut<\/em>, what else<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many countries had their own culture
\nConsisting of languages people spoke, food they ate
\nThe attractive dresses that they wore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-205742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}