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Campus Feature

Do we have to copy everything ?

Mehnaz A. Chowdhury

Can anyone tell me why we need to blindly imitate everything from 'them'the so-called MTV generation of the west? Just look at our college and university campuses of the city. Starting from dress codes to food habits, from conversation to mannerism, from lifestyle to outlooka sea of change has undergone among the young people ever since the 'idiot box' came up with bulks of foreign channels.

My younger brother is still in his school. As a person he's alright, but I can see a subtle mood of arrogance in the name of 'smartness' in him. The outburst of that mood is evident in some occasions when he talks with othersor even with my mom.

My brother is a just a representative of his generation. Parents keep on complaining about their kids' unruly attitudes, lack of discipline and what not. They don't sleep in time, nor do they study after evening; they eat dinners at 12 midnight, wear tattoos on their muscles, and shout when they converse on normal issues.

Now, whose fault is this? As for me, blaming the kids wouldn't help much. It should have been, and be, the responsibility of the elder members in their familiespreferably the parentsto take care of these apparently trivial issues. They must tell their kids that developing haughtiness towards our mother tongue and cultural practices IS stupidity. Chatting in funky incorrect English blended with 'aare come on yaar' or 'uuuf chhoro yaar' stuff is NOT smartness. Wearing T-shirts with strange writings is not any thing great.

Then eating fast foods with ice creams all the time is simply ignorance of basic health rules. Driving turbo-engine cars with full speed along airport road is actually a conscious attempt to commit suicide. And above all, not respecting the senior citizens in public places is a crime, because you yourself would be a victim in your later years.

Therefore, it is the need of the hour to impart values, ethics and civic sense to youngsters wherever possibleat home, at school, at playgrounds.

I have seen some people argue: in American or Indian campuses, students can wear comfortable dresses (read short dresses), even drink cokes inside the classrooms while lectures are going on. Well, they overlook one fact. Those short-dressed, coke-relishing students follow lectures meticulously. They relish classroom activities more than those acts. Teachers even come up with casual dresses, but their concentration is only on teaching. There, students regularly visit libraries, finish assignments in time and then go for socialization. Such is the extent of their regard for educational and societal norms. They know the limits. They may not keep saying 'slam' to teachers or elders all the time, but the attitude of respect stays intact in their minds.

Has our society been able to develop, and maintain, such attitudinal infrastructure yet? Given a chance, our older citizens block streets, go on a rampage in the name of 'daabi aadaye', drive on the wrong sides of roads, and what not! And you tell about following the west?

But we copy all the negative features from them. Drinking like mad in parties and engaging in madness stands foremost. Therefore we cannot teach our children not to copy bad things from the TV channels.

Little do our parents understand how these channels have been selling sex and obscenity to our kids in the form of music videos, dance programme shows, or talk shows. All in the spirit of the lucrative word: globalisation. Rappers are seen uttering objectionable and anti-social lyrics accompanied by teasing dances by modelsand our teens love these like hot cakes. Female artistes have virtually no clothes to put on and they keep singing objectionable linesand kids make them icons. We have forgotten that this copycat nonsense in every aspect of life in the name of 'interchange of culture' has been taking our youngsters to nowhere. Real cultural mingling isn't taking place anyhow. The politically and economically powerful culture always dominatesrightly or wrongly. What we are doing is just getting subjugated by a peculiar phenomenon called global culture.

I know the readers here are students of graduate courses like me. And that's why I am pretty sure, they would think over this issue and activate them in whatever capacity they can before we lose everything!