|| Cultural connect ||

 || Cultural connect ||

The great Mahatma Gandhi once said, "A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people." Recently, I heard in one of the speeches delivered by the former president of the USA, Barack Obama, that in India, it is the wives and mothers who so often hold families and communities together. Indian women have shown that they can succeed in any field, including government. Young women are taking an interest and are determined to take part in the growth of India, and he feels nations are more successful when women are more successful. Our Indian culture prioritizes taking care of our country and the mothers in our families since they are the ones who give birth to the future leaders of India. Mother and father's love and caring encourage a child's development of greater strength and security. India's continuous progress is therefore solely attributable to our shared cultural heritage. We Indians like sharing ideals, celebrating holidays, and having cultural connections.

In our Indian culture, Holi is celebrated in Mathura and Vrindavan for nearly a month, as directed by Lord Krishna. Direction by Lord Mahavir in Jain Dharma-to celebrate Paryusan for almost 8 days. In Islam, it is guided by holy gurus to follow Ramadan for almost a month. Love and respect are deeply ingrained in our Indian culture. Every prayer spoken during any festival in India, regardless of the community or religious affiliation, is positive and filled with a holy emotion. We trust in and believe in the power of our prayers to God. Being connected culturally also enables us to tackle obstacles with positivity.

I recently met Ricky Kej, a three-time Grammy Award-winning music composer, as he was doing a live concert at the historic site Gateway of India. It was an event for the initiative Mumbai Kaustub, which is going to promote art and culture of India at different places in Mumbai. It is initiative by national art gallery.  The event's beauty was in the way the anthem was introduced, with music and song performed by Ricky himself to encourage culture. During the whole event, he delivered Indian culture so well. May it be a song from Punjab or Rajasthan, or a song talking about love and peace in the world, or a song about the values of soldiers and farmers in our country. The concert was totally planned around the cultural connect of India. The best part I liked was that Ricky was such a humble and nice human being. I feel such people can only portray a nice cultural connection, and I feel proud to know him, who promotes our Indian culture so well on an international platform. 

Our ancestors, when they used to take any social commitments, used to do "ugna" and take an oath to work for the betterment of the people. Lord Krishna has very well narrated in Bhagwad Geeta in his dialogue with Arjuna that before going to battle, even though you have battles against your own people, to save dharma you need to do good karma, and good karma comes with good knowledge. We have knowledge of our Indian culture, the values, and how important it is to survive, but we have started following western culture, and somehow we are diverting ourselves towards evil thoughts of losing values of our own dharma.

Recently, a couple came to meet me; they were both from different cultures. The wife is born and brought up in a family where everything is given to her on a platter. Now she got married here where suddenly she got responsibility of family, specially taking care of in laws. She was not mentally prepared for it. She used to get panic attacks, and she and her husband were not able to handle such situations. I said you did love marriage. You selected a boy from another culture. You have to enjoy the responsibility that comes with it. If you enjoy it, you will not get fear or panic attacks. Though the two different cultures connect but values are the same. Those seniors age does not allow them to make change, just as you are also not ready to change. 

Working with the hearing impaired, I feel cultural connection plays a very important role. We have a joint family system in our Indian culture, and that helps us face challenges with family support. We are going into the digital era and moving towards the right technology. If the psychology of an individual is there with cultural values and technology, it helps to be motivated and secure. An ideal organization has a culture that is adoptable and motivating to all, especially in India, where we just have to work hard to survive the growth of technology. Core values in our Indian culture, like doing "Pranam" with respecting elders, taking care of elders and kids, taking responsibility for family, maintaining the dignity of an individual, and helping mankind, will help us to maintain our cultural connection and also connect to the god whom we believe in.

I also came across culture of health action is also equally important specially after pandemic. We need to make health a share value; we need to educate, as I have been working to reduce hearing disability in society. We need to create more healthy and equitable communities through Culture Connect. We need to collaborate, and we need to work to strengthen the integration of health services and systems. We have improved population health and well-being, which will help the community and country grow with Culture Connect. 

The basic values of our Indian culture include positivity, harmony, wisdom, unity, healing, protection, compassion, devotion, and understanding the integrity of life. It has been said, rather well, that culture broadens the soul and the intellect. I hope and pray that we will put forth great effort to uphold our "Cultural Connect."