ExpertDabbler

Last week, I was talking to my friend about the rise of live-in relationships in places like Bangalore. The talk of Society’s approval for our behavior came into the picture.

This society is a powerful thing. Man essentially craves recognition, acceptance and approval from the society for his actions. He wants to contribute to be in the good books of the society in the hope that his society will come to his rescue when Life turn rough for him.

But what essentially constitutes society? And is society the same everywhere? Things were getting interesting.

According to me, Society is something in which you interact with on a daily basis. People about whom who you think about and people who think about you. People with whom you discuss matters - general and personal. Essentially your personal friends, family members, close relatives etc.

Is society the same everywhere? The answer is obviously no.
In fact the term society does not have value without a place prefix. And as regards the place, the more specific the better.

The society in Coimbatore is different from Chennai society which differs in values and beliefs from a Bangalore society. New York people think and act different.
Even in Coimbatore, a person living in Kottaimedu encounters a different set of values and yardsticks of acceptable behavior than one living in Telugu Brahmin street.

Now what if one was born and brought up in Coimbatore suddenly finds himself living in LA for instance?

His society will constitute his parents and family, people he interacts with in his daily life in LA, people he trusts and considers his friends in India. Is he going to be worried about what a distant uncle might think of him who he had last seen some 5 years back? Not likely.

In my case, I interact and mail a set of people. My Mom, Priyums, Suman, Ganesh, my office mates, Mani, Madhu, Accurum friends in Chennai and some school time buddies.
There are people who I just mail alone, say for instance, Agila.

I call and speak to one of my uncle about once in a month.
I have never spoken to my dad’s relatives in the past 4.5 years.

Now, if I am able to contribute something to the set of people I interact with, quarrel with them, talk with them on a sustained basis, I think I can be happy. Bluntly, I could not care less about my Dad’s distant uncle views me. The reason, he does not come under my set of people.

Internet has definitely changed the way we had conceived and viewed about friends and our people. Today, each person can be in different time zones and yet those may be the people to whom we discuss pretty much everything.

If and when I get married I would like to have people who know me well. People with whom I had eaten with, talked with, quarreled with, went to movies with, talked my heart out with. I am not too keen to meet people who know nothing about me except my name just by virtue of being a blood relative.

What if the people I consider as constituents of my society reject me? There will be pain, suffering, and heart aches. I might introspect to find if I have done any wrong. I might try to change. Try making corrective actions. If things are beyond repair, then gradually I might find new friends, meet new people who are more receptive to my ideas and life goes on I guess.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 27th, 2005 at 9:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.