Vahini's Musings

  The Stories We Inherit: How Much of Who We Are Belongs to Those Who Came Before Us?   All families have tales to tell. Many are retold over and over they find a place in childhood. Some show up out of the blue in a discussion, a family reunion or trip to a family estate. There are family tales of grandparents traveling for forays, parents sacrificing time with grandchildren to work, childhood exploits, disagreements, the missed opportunities, and dreams that never came true. Usually without realizing, we develop hearing to hear and remember these fragments of the past, and the ensuing changes that is, they shape our understandings of ourselves. Prior to forming our own memory, we take on the memories of others. A grandmother who tells of a Village that doesn't exist anymore, a grandfather who recounts the miles he walked to school and a mother sharing her memories of opportunities unavailable to her generation. The stories are more than vintage memories. They contain...

  Traditions That Refuse to Die: Are We Preserving Our Culture or Simply Repeating Our Past?   As Bathukamma flowers decorate the streets and neighborhoods of Telangana, each year, the streets and neighborhoods turn into an array of color, songs, laughter and celebration. Women come together and arrange seasonal flowers, sing traditional songs and are involved in a cultural activity handed down from generation to generation. But during a happy time, there's one question that remains, is there anyone who really knows the stories behind the flowers they create, the songs they sing or the rituals they follow. From the community, we still carry out a myriad of traditions in a devoted manner, sometimes without an understanding of their history or even knowing what they mean. This may be the paradox of tradition: they pass us on traditions before we can ask questions about them. Traditions live on because they give us something that is very human: a sense of ' belonging'....