Satyam Eva Jayate Or StyamevaJayate, a TV program has stirred up a hornets nest once against where gory stories of father, husband, father in laws, mother in laws are being told where every husband, brother, father, in-laws seems to bow their head in shame! But is this the true picture of India we are showing to the world on TV ? Are we equating aberration of some fellow Indians to be the norms of the society ? In our jealous enthusiasm for fighting social ills, are we punishing innocent husbands, fathers, brothers and in laws ?
When we discuss about honour killing, have we forgotten Rakhi where a brother promises to protect his sister from all trouble in the world ?
Have we forgotten the father who have started many businesses in their daughters name ? Have we forgotten the temples in the name of our female deities and the number of male visitors to them ?
Have we not fought among our friends to offer our chairs to the newly entering girl to our class ? Have we forgotten the our habit of throwing away our cigarettes as soon as we see a girl approaching us ?
Have we forgotten that a husband built Tazmahal for his wife ? Have we forgotten the thousands of fathers who celebrate their daughters ?
Have we forgotten the husbands who come back on time or before time be with their wives on Karvachauth ? Are we ignoring them ? What is their number and percentage to those aberration or criminals who kill their wives for some lousy dowry ?
Are we giving out a wrong picture of society in order to satisfy our jealous urgency to fight an social evil ?
One year back, when I was coming back from Chandigarh, I traveled on Gareeb Rath to Jaipur. I met two couples, one elderly who were in their sixties and another couple who were in their late twenties. The younger couple had a young daughter. After exchanging their stories, the older man hugged the younger man, They both had love marriage and celebrating their success stories of their respective marriage! The younger female was bragging about her happiness for the love marriage where she is no body while her husband is a the knight in shining armour. The elder man agreed as he married his love, a Marwari, and himself a Brahmin in his days for love! This is real people, real story, just like the stories Amir Khan tells you about in his TV serial.
No, the numbers are mind boggling, but instead of just numbers, think about in term of percentage and also think about the shear number of family values!
There ills, and no example can cordon their crimes, but our society is not a lost cause. We need to do a lot more, but we need not be ashamed of our society as whole and lose self respect. We wish, a show like StyamevJayate shows our brother vowing to protect their sisters on rakhi, or the oath it takes while marrying his bride in burning fire! And a father, who gifts all his love, worldly things to his daughter for her happiness!
We, Indian society, is not a criminal society as the show SatymevaJayet tries to portray! I hoped they would balance the good ones and not just show the aberrations!