Zeitgeist

Let’s have a look at some incidents that took place in recent times across India: Karnataka: A 22-year  old man  died after injuring his spinal cord while doing a backflip for TikTok. Rajasthan: A 12-year-old boy  hanged himself  after wearing a ‘ mangalsutra’  and bangles (apparently, they were part of the rules of a challenge). Maharashtra: – A teenager from Maharashtra  was killed  while posing with a pistol for a video clip. Tamil Nadu: A 24-year-old man  jumped  in front of a train and committed suicide after being bullied and ridiculed by strangers over social media for dressing up in womanly attire. And the list goes on. A common theme across the above incidents is TikTok, a mobile app. It appears that this virtual world has become a death valley of sorts for youngsters. As a result, there has been a clamour from many quarters for flattening out this valley. TikTok has become a sort of playground for ‘ Youngistan’  provi...

As per Ancient Hindu literature, there are  different types of marriages  in accordance with the religious sanction and social acceptance (Brahma, Daiva, Arsha, Gandharva, Asura etc). Among them, Brahma marriage is considered to be the most appropriate marriage, and in today’s Indi, it is the most prevalent one, although in a polluted form. We will see how. The general precepts of Brahma marriage are: The father finds a suitable man and proposes the marriage of his daughter to him – This part is still the same. The groom, bride and families freely concur with the proposal – Quite often, in a patriarchal society, girls have no say whatsoever in selecting their life partners (forget about being engaged in supervised courtship). Their parents and elders choose for them and they have to accept the proposal and marry a person with whom they are unacquainted with (without any prior interaction with the person or any consideration to their p...