What I can gather from Rini's first post is that, she feels we have made a clean break from the traditions of our ancestors. We have nothing to show about them to the future generations. Reading kicha's reply, I can see why. Rini looks at the past with a socio-cultural (emotional) view, whereas Kicha was looking at the question with a scientific (rational) view. So when views differ, opinions differ. Speaking from a socio-cultural viewpoint, I agree with Ranjini. we have been moving away from several of our traditions, but mind, not all. There are still a lot of currents lying within us that bind us to traditions. There are several things that we say we are modern but still follow tradition or at times superstitions. Please note, I don't equate tradition with superstition. You have said that they don't fit in with the modern world. I disagree. What is modern world? The society we live in, the techological advancements that surround us? Rini, If you look at anything that you classify as modern, be it in the field of 'science, art, literature, social culture, technology, architecture, individual perspective', you find that the old traditions still survive in one form or the other in them. The old Koothu, that Rajesh had said, has maybe morphed or evolved into puppet shows, cartoons, and now animation. But the underlying thread or purpose is the same, use of images to tell a story. You had said that we are not following tradition in our conduct, way of living and societal culture. I would disagree. If you can understand what modern world is, you will find that nothing has changed. They have just evolved. Conduct of a person depends on the individual. A person may feel that they are behaving right, while it might seem wrong to the other. As an example, consider this scenario, Tilak sent a mail thinking it would make people laugh, but what did the others feel. A mismatch of expectations and reality. A perfect example of Expectation-Reality gap. He expected something from you (laughter, humor). Didn't turn out so. You expected something from him (a good behaviour), You were disappointed. Now whose mistake is this? Tilak or the other individual? I can't comphrehend the "way of living' part. if you could elucidate more on that, it would be helpful. As for societal culture, Again perceptions vary. Let us take a common issue, say influence of western culture. I hear, see people talking that Indian society is being ravaged by the foreign cultures. Every culture has been influenced by other cultures surrounding it. Cultures do not vanish. They get evolved into something higher. If you take India, I remember reading some mail in the group about India. That it had not invaded any nation during the past two or three thousand years. I strongly disagree. Can someome enlighten me when did the concept of India come into the picture, the last two centuries. Before that, tradition says that we were fighting each other. Notice I said tradition, not history, because history can be rewritten anytime. So the idea of a united India has been brought by maybe the Mughal rulers, because they had conquered most of modern India, the idea was then taken up by the western invaders. And now we are speaking about a unified India, indian culture, ethos and a lot of other things. What happened to the cultures that were before this unification process. Again tradition says that there were dravidians and aryans in the north. Now what can be defined as Indian culture, the aryan way or the dravidian way. You'll see that the present Indian culture is really a amalgamation of all the disparate cultures that existed in India. Now the problem is that some people are trying to only a few aspects of this culture upon everyone. The above are just my views. You have the option of either agreeing with them, or disagreeing with them. A third option is also available. "Ignore." I'm feeling hungry typing this post. So I'm going for lunch now, Will come back with more views in the afternoon.