Being Cultured !??!

One of my family group on Whatsapp had a circulated message sent by one of my cousin. Usually I stay off from these distractions in office hours. But this one had that peculiar irrational logic, which I'm still learning to ignore.

So it was about inter - religion marriage, to be specific 'Hindu - Muslim'. Yeah, now you know how serious it can get. So after reading that very long message, I was like - "Dude, you are going to be an engineer of 21st century and still stuck with this. Don't you have better things to do?" I get predictable defensive response saying 'Truth is truth'. And I want to know how the hell do you decide what is Truth ! I will come back to this again. 

And he wakes up and realizes (not sure in lack of proper reasoning or to avoid being rude) that I'm his elder sister so he can't argue with me as it is not our culture and he is sorry. 

Seriously !!! This is why his parents are spending so much money, so that he can develop his critical thinking & logical reasoning capabilities. This is the only thing Engineers get paid for, rest everything can be done by anyone.

And, he doesn't wanna use that. (I must advise my uncle...) 

And funny thing is - one day by mistake he sent dirty message to this group. Nobody said anything, because we all know what boys do. So, Culture went on holiday that day :)

Anyways ... So the question is who defines Culture and says what the Truth is.

As a strong believer and follower of Hinduism, I have learnt that being flexible takes you to the path of growth. Because the only constant in Universe is 'Change' (Parivartan hi sansaar ka niyam hai - Bhagwad Geeta). One who can adapt to change, will survive and you can do anything only if you can survive. Adapting does not mean compromising, but reinventing. 

Culture is our way of survival which will adapt to ever changing world and technologies. Earlier it was matter of respect to go and personally invite someone on an occasion, today Facebook events, messages are fine. Our culture adapted to new level of convenience everyone is seeking. 

Now Truth - in my opinion, there are very few universal Truth / Beliefs, others are just cultural or personal preferences.

Believe it or not - Jihad is Holy war for those who sacrifice their life for it, but terrorism for those who suffer. Honor killing is right of a family to hold their societal presence, but simply put is another murder in law. 

By universal truths / beliefs, I understand Humanity, Love for Universe, believing that Earth is our Family (Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam). 

So let me put it in technical way ;)

Using iOS or Androide or Window Phones is like cultural alignment based on how restricted or open you like to be. Still people jailbreak iPhone to enjoy freedom to download any application with iPhone hardware experience, though they know there will be no more warranty support - this is personal cultural preference. (Examples are only illustration purposes, no offense :-) ;) to iPhone / Android / Window Phone users) 

So even though truth is iPhone is restricting and limiting in cultural preference, that's not the truth for everyone, because they have personal preferences as well.

Now is the time to make a transition to 21st century and doing things which truly matter to make Earth a better place.

I would quote Steve Jobs:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.