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How do you look at caste in your lives and how do you see it enfolding in the future?

Castes have origin theories. Some theories explain the emergence and justifying is existence in the old times. However, none of those theories present a strong case for the caste system’s practice in modern times. It is an argument proven more than enough number of times that the caste system is unjust and unfair. Higher levels of education and an increasingly open culture around us made the caste divide blurry. When I look around, and I only speak for myself, I do not see a brahmin, a kshatriya or a shudra for that matter. Ours is an “intellectual” and “progressively intercultural” community. We celebrate Eid with our Muslim, Lohri with our Punjabi and Christmas with our Christian friends. I’m well aware that caste and religion are two different things, but one can get an idea how the so-called barriers are opening. However, celebrating festivals and eating lunch together is far from how much change we need to bring. Eyebrows still frown when one talks about inter-cast...
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What is the hymn for India?

When I was told that we’re supposed to maintain a culture journal as a part of an assignment, I was confused as to what we’re supposed to write. In the class, we were later explained how culture forms smaller details of our day-to-day conversations. It is omnipresent. I started listening, with particular intent of finding cultural references in every conversation. This has now become a habit and since the next theme for the journal was cultural representation in media, I was in for a treat. Culture is portrayed and stereotyped in almost every form of media. More so now, since the advent of meme culture. Over the past one week as I deliberately started looking for signs, and have been tracking various forms of media but one particular thing that irks me the most is how our country is presented to the world audience in the western media. Slumdog Millionaire limited itself by showing only the poor, cringe-worthy conditions of living in the largest slum of Asia. The Darjeeling L...
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