Skip to main content

Be a Roman ..

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

But in Kannada we have another proverb which is slightly derogatory.

ಒಕ್ಕಣ್ಣು ರಾಜ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಕಣ್ಣು ಮುಚ್ಚಿಕೊಂಡು ಓಡಾಡು.

"In a country full of one eyed men, walk with one eye closed."

Wikdipedia showed me a list of similar proverbs in so many languages of the world. Which means, this is a universal concept.

Why? Why should we conform to the common customs of the people? Or to put it crudely, why should we behave as a sheep in a herd?

Is it because people do not like "others". They detest (slightly) others who do not conform to norms. They detest (strongly) who defy norms proudly.

Most often their question is "Who does he/she think himself/herself to be? How dare he/she act like this?"

OK, ok. If this norm is something "right", something your value system agrees upon, you can follow the norm. But what if you disagree? What if your value system says the path of everyone is wrong?

Let me go to the extremes. Let us say you live in a world where telling lie is like eating chocolate. It is not wrong at all. Every one does it. And it benefits the doer, let us say. So everyone lies. But you have a different opinion. You think that honesty is necessary and lying is wrong.

So should you lie because "you are in Rome"?  Or should you not lie and get into lot of troubles? And be looked down, ridiculed because of your beliefs?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Someshwara shataka

ಚರಿಪಾರಣ್ಯದ ಪಕ್ಷಿಗೊಂದು ತರು à²—ೊಡ್ಢಾಗಲ್ ಫಲಂ ಈವಿದಾ ಮರಗಳ್ ಪುಟ್ಟವೆ ಪುಷ್ಪವೊಂದು ಬಳಲಲ್  à²­್ರಂಗಕ್ಕೆ ಪೂವಿಲ್ಲವೆ ನಿರತಂ ಸತ್ಕವಿಗೋರ್ವ ಗರ್ವಿದಂ ನೃಪ ತಾಂ ಲೋಭಿಯಾಗಲ್ ನಿಜಂ ಧರೆಯೊಳ್ ದಾತರು ಪುಟ್ಟರೆ ಹರ ಹರಾ ಶ್ರೀ ಚೆನ್ನ ಸೋಮೇಶ್ವರ Will a bird in the wild go hungry just because one fruit tree dries up? If one flower withers, will not the bee get any flowers? If one haughty king is miserly, will there be no patrons (of poetry) on this earth? ಕೆಲವಂ ಬಲ್ಲವರಿಂದ ಕಲ್ತು ಕೆಲವಂ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಂಗಳೋದುತಂ ಕೆಲವಂ ಮಾಳ್ಪವರಿಂದ ಕಂಡು ಕೆಲವಂ ಸುಜ್ಙಾನದಿಂ  ನೋಡುತಂ ಕೆಲವಂ ಸಜ್ಜನಸಂಗದಿಂದಲರಿಯಲ್ ಸರ್ವಜ್ಞನಪ್ಪಂ ನರಂ ಪಲವಂ ಪಳ್ಳ ಸಮುದ್ರವೈ ಹಾರ ಹರಾ ಶ್ರೀ ಚೆನ್ನ ಸೋಮೇಶ್ವರ Learning from wise men, reading from good books, observing others  work and learning from good company, these are the ways a man becomes omni-scient (sarvajna - one who knows everything). Just like many streams join together to make an ocean. P.S. 1) If you find some of my wordings in this shataka is wrong, please let me know. It is a 40 year old memory. 2) There are also...
4 comments
Read more

Hair care and me ??

I delayed writing this post for I was not sure whether I am entitled to write this post. If I put my photo along, I should also add that I do not use Dove shampoo, so that it will serve as a warning to people , if they don't use a proper shampoo, their hair might also look like mine :-( :-( :-( Things (on my head) were not this bad always. I had long black and reasonably thick hair, nicely plaited, when I was a child. In fact I would be sitting on my plaits - they were so long. And to top it all, one of relatives used to say " you say you will be taller and your hair will say it will be longer" or something like that. (Now I have ended up 5.2 ft  and my hair also short sob....) Back then, how did I nourish my hair?I did not do much in fact. But mere paas maa thi. She would religiously oil my hair - everyday. But not soak my head in oil. She would just put half a teaspoon of oil to my head. Then brush my hair nicely and put 2 tight plaits before sending me to school. T...
13 comments
Read more

Danuvettiddu

We Hegdes from Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Shimoga districts of Karnataka belong to a brahmin sub sect called Havyaka Brahmins. We have some traditions of our own, a language of our own - which is slightly different from kannada. But I am not an authority on the subject, nor have I read any book on comparative analysis of Karnataka brahmin traditions. And as most modern secular Hindus I find it more amusing to make fun of our traditions rather than celebrating them - may be because I do not understand it completely. I attended a marriage yesterday. So let us talk about few of rituals in this marriage ceremony. On the previous day of the marriage called Naandi - which means beginning of any good thing. The groom will wear a simple dress, and a wooden footwear (since we can't conjure up wooden paduka so easily, he will wear foot-wear made from dried skin of areca flower) and with a sack on his shoulder, will declare that  he will go to Kashi. Here he is saying, he wants to...
Post a Comment
Read more