The scenario I shall be describing here is that of when I had gone to my home town for the first time and this was 10 years ago.This was an enlightening experience for me as I had come to learn a lot about the traditions that my relatives follow as a part of our culture .
My family and I had gone there for a religious function that happened once every year.However this was the first time I had attended it ,as my hometown is quite far away from the city I used to live in.Our first meal had given me my first surprise of the day .Instead of plates , we were served food on banana leaves and we were supposed to eat food with our bare hands .As my parents had taught me to eat food using a fork and spoon when I was small,it seemed near impossible to eat the same food using my hands at that time.Nevertheless, I had managed to finish the meal with great difficulty and when I was folding the leaf , my mother firmly told my to fold it from the outside and not inside out.I was totally confused as for me it did not make that much of a difference whichever side I had folded it.
Later for the function (prayer ceremony), my parents made me change clothes to just a long cloth (called dhoti) that covered the lower part of my body leaving me bare chested .I felt very shy for a long time as it was the first time I was not wearing anything to cover my upper body in public.
Right through the day, I remained in a confused state of mind as I honestly did not understand as to why I had to follow so many practices which looked very meaningless in my point of view .
However,later in the night ,my father had explained the reason as to why each of the strange practices I had witnessed today were followed.In the case of folding the banana leaf, by folding the leaf from the outside showed that I was satisfied with the food and if I folded it inside out , it symbolized the fact that I was unhappy with the food served and it would not be very polite to convey such negative gestures.Furthermore,the reason why I had to go bare chested was the traditional attire for the function demanded all the men to shed their materialistic desires and adorn clothing that was only necessary.
Though , my memories of that function are not entirely happy ones , atleast it was an opportunity to get to know about my culture , tradtion and the practices followed by the people who belonged to my culture and thus overall it was an experience that made me better informed when it comes to culture and tradtion.
My family and I had gone there for a religious function that happened once every year.However this was the first time I had attended it ,as my hometown is quite far away from the city I used to live in.Our first meal had given me my first surprise of the day .Instead of plates , we were served food on banana leaves and we were supposed to eat food with our bare hands .As my parents had taught me to eat food using a fork and spoon when I was small,it seemed near impossible to eat the same food using my hands at that time.Nevertheless, I had managed to finish the meal with great difficulty and when I was folding the leaf , my mother firmly told my to fold it from the outside and not inside out.I was totally confused as for me it did not make that much of a difference whichever side I had folded it.
Later for the function (prayer ceremony), my parents made me change clothes to just a long cloth (called dhoti) that covered the lower part of my body leaving me bare chested .I felt very shy for a long time as it was the first time I was not wearing anything to cover my upper body in public.
Right through the day, I remained in a confused state of mind as I honestly did not understand as to why I had to follow so many practices which looked very meaningless in my point of view .
However,later in the night ,my father had explained the reason as to why each of the strange practices I had witnessed today were followed.In the case of folding the banana leaf, by folding the leaf from the outside showed that I was satisfied with the food and if I folded it inside out , it symbolized the fact that I was unhappy with the food served and it would not be very polite to convey such negative gestures.Furthermore,the reason why I had to go bare chested was the traditional attire for the function demanded all the men to shed their materialistic desires and adorn clothing that was only necessary.
Though , my memories of that function are not entirely happy ones , atleast it was an opportunity to get to know about my culture , tradtion and the practices followed by the people who belonged to my culture and thus overall it was an experience that made me better informed when it comes to culture and tradtion.
