Dear vaagmiji
My upvote for your post.
Your frank views on the bureaucratic crowd running the central govt in delhi noted. There is some truth in them.
The next generation need not be taught anything about caste. My children did not know about caste until they joined anna univ.They asked him whether he is forward
caste? He had to fill a form indicating his caste. Tamilnadu is highly polarised on caste lines. Also it has an unreasonable reservation policy sidelining all brahmins in
education and jobs. We in delhi did not face this until recently when OBC reservations started after 1991.One does not face caste issues much.We do not look at many
things through the prism of caste.
Most higher level ,well off send children to either convent schools or those schools such as sanskrithi -floated for civil servants,modern school or DPS. These are top
tier schools known for excellence.There are no caste issues there.
For higher education it is the IITs or IIM and abroad.
Since in all these places, acxademic excellence only counts , not any caste card.
So our children are not poisoned with this caste issues.
When it comes to marriage , what matters is edu qualifications, job excellence ,language and location issues. Most compromise on caste to some extent atleast.
Same caste preferable or else some close to it in terms of food habits , family status similar -say another civil servant family. Good chances these understand each
other way of living and they have common friends.They understand the local culture and habits.
Brahmin is just one more caste for me and I happen to belong to it due to accident of birth.
I neither hate or love my caste.It is just a tag. Along with is my vegetarianism and language.
I have given up on rituals and do not miss them.
Only on occassions like marriage, death these get remembered .
I am a go getter.
If it means matching kundlis [I know to cast and match horoscope by myself],fix a ritualistic marriage to get a good match, I am for it. If the other party wants to go
to a registered office instead ,along with tying of knot, sapthapadhi due to caste or other consideration , so be it.
No one hugs someone from another religion for marriage by choice. But if it happens due to choice of girl or boy , I think wisdom lies in accepting with grace.
Being liberal is a mindset. Drinking , partying are personal choices of some to beat job and other life stresses. As long as one can hold a drink[that comes thru sadhna ]
lol] then it is OK . This is dignified drinking . Everyone who drinks is not alcoholic.
We have compromised a lot for good living.
We shall not allow casteist and narrow minded to disturb our living unduly.