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Youth mantra: Being Hindu is hip
Published on Mon, Oct 09, 2006 at 11:11, Updated on Wed, Nov 22, 2006 at 17:17 in India section
Tags: Faith In Progress, Religion , New Delhi
New Delhi: Twenty-five-year old Namit Bhalla is an account manager at Timesjobs.com.
He is a regular guy with regular tastes but quite a contrast to that, Namit also spends half an hour every morning doing his puja and reciting shlokas.
Namit fasts on Tuesdays and on Navratra, and visits Vaishnodevi once every year. Apart form that he is into astrology and he is chanting Buddhists shlokas nowadays.
So how do the party-going Namit and puja-doing Namit co-exist?
“These two things never conflict with each other,” says Namit.
Being Hindu is not some thing that would throw you back to your grandparents but it is hip and showing that you are one is hipper nowadays.
The youth today are wearing religion and they are wearing it with pride.
They show it by either wearing images of the Gods and symbols in their t-shirts or using them as wallpapers on their mobile phones or even their PCs for that matter. They even use the shlokas as their ring tones.
“It is in style and in fashion and besides that it gives a traditional look,” says a youth.
However, what is making the young and the restless turn religious? Is it inner turmoil or a need to turn to God?
“Youth symbolises freedom, adventure and romanticism, and all these things could be expressed though religion,” says associate professor, Dept of Political Science, JNU, Prof Pralay Kanungo.
"Hindu and proud of it,” seems to be the new mantra for a lot of young people these days.
Only western hippies thought Krishna was cool once, but for these trendy nirvana seekers of the Y2K generation, there are new Gods sitting along side their computers and mobile phones.
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