TIME: It is the year 2032, twenty years from now
SCENE: A class room in any city/town of Andhra Pradesh
Teacher asks, "Can anybody tell me what Bhagavad Gita is? Only one student raises his hand to respond. He says "Ma'am, it is the song played to mourn when someone in the family passes away." The teacher faints.
I may be rubbing the Hindu groups on the wrong side, but, this is the unfortunate state of affairs to which our scriptures and culture have been brought down. These days the Gita, albeit in a much abridged version, rendered so wonderfully by Ghantasala, is played only when someone passes away and never on any other occasion. If this is the case with our generation, one need not be surprised if the GenY (our grand children) misconstrues it to be a lamentation for the dead one.
Same is the case with the melodious rendition by M S Subbulakshmi of Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatam. No, fortunately this is not played as a lamentation for a dead one, but one hears the mellifluent voice of MSS as background music in early morning scenes in Telugu movies. That, it is played just for a few seconds, is a different matter altogether.
Isn't the time ripe enough for us to first learn, at least a little, about our scriptures and culture, and then teach them to our children?
SCENE: A class room in any city/town of Andhra Pradesh
Teacher asks, "Can anybody tell me what Bhagavad Gita is? Only one student raises his hand to respond. He says "Ma'am, it is the song played to mourn when someone in the family passes away." The teacher faints.
I may be rubbing the Hindu groups on the wrong side, but, this is the unfortunate state of affairs to which our scriptures and culture have been brought down. These days the Gita, albeit in a much abridged version, rendered so wonderfully by Ghantasala, is played only when someone passes away and never on any other occasion. If this is the case with our generation, one need not be surprised if the GenY (our grand children) misconstrues it to be a lamentation for the dead one.
Same is the case with the melodious rendition by M S Subbulakshmi of Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatam. No, fortunately this is not played as a lamentation for a dead one, but one hears the mellifluent voice of MSS as background music in early morning scenes in Telugu movies. That, it is played just for a few seconds, is a different matter altogether.
Isn't the time ripe enough for us to first learn, at least a little, about our scriptures and culture, and then teach them to our children?
