I am talking about my little girl. We got her head shaved yday. Although its not customary in our community to get a baby girl's head shaved, but I chose to do it for more practical (read "volumizing") reasons. I call her Lord Buddha and she laughs when I do that. Some customs we Indians have, don't we? Its said that you are supposed to get the head shaved of the baby and offer the hair to God as a gift. But I don't understand why is it mandatory for boys, and not for girls.
Anyways, talking about traditions, there are quite a few that have more scientific or medical reasons to support. And those that just don't seem right to me, I would rather not obey. Now am I being too rebellious out here. One of my cousins just had a baby. When I asked him, have you decided on a name, he said he just looked up at the rashi and wants to follow it. Fine, its good to follow the rashi, but what if you don't like any name on the letter that comes up. I feel a name is a very important gift you give your baby. When my girl grows up, I want her to be proud of her name, and not ashamed. Whether she'll be in US or India, I don't know. But when I am here, I do want to make sure she gets a name that is not twisted or butchered by these goras. That doesn't mean I am gonna give her a name like Nancy or Michelle. I do make sure I give her an Indian name, but just which is a little easy for the people here to pronounce. Now am I being "unindian" here?
This doesn't mean I don't follow our customs at all. I do. And some, yes, blindly. But some, I choose not to and I do stand the chance of being branded "too modern," but well, who am I fighting?
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