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We all face many challenges in raising our kids in this country where a high level of competition is stressed in order to achieve “external” results. Life in the United States is marked by atomization, where each individual is hurrying and spinning in his or her own direction. We can see the individualistic forces in this so-called modern society. We have a car or two or three; we have houses with separate rooms for each person; we have offices where we work at a computer terminal; we have children raised in front of television… Then we worry that the influence of outside environment and peer pressure is Americanizing our kids!

It is not that we do nothing to counter these influences. We do send our kids to various religious camps to learn Hindu culture; we enroll our kids in Bal Vihars; we try to teach our kids Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, etc. by putting our children in ½ hour classes one or two times a month (although, home learning of language, unfortunately, is not stressed); we also encourage our kids to learn Bhartiya songs and dances, etc. I also hear from parents that after the age of 15 when kids enter High school, the learning of Hindu culture for most of the teenagers is not a priority. The teenagers would rather go to sleep over parties, attend and play baseball and soccer games, and engage in other “youth-related” activities rather than spending some time with learning Hindu culture which in their opinion is “dry and boring.”

Notwithstanding all our efforts, it seems that we are failing in balancing the eastern and the western values in our children. I think the biggest investment that we can make for the “future” of our children is to visit Bharat with them at least once in two years starting when our children are very young. We might need more persuasion and tactics (read ‘compromise’) when our children have grown older and want to make decisions for themselves just like their American friends. Nevertheless, we must frequently visit Bharat with our kids. This, I hope, will counter many of the negative values that our children pick up in this country. To make our children imbibe Hindu values in this country is like growing mango trees in Minnesota. We can grow the trees in green houses here - but the taste, flavor, aroma, and appearance of mangoes may not be to our liking!

We aspire for our kids to have the best of both the eastern and the western cultures. For that to happen we need to develop support groups and authentic youth groups where children do not feel isolated. Hindu temples and Bhartiya associations have a greater responsibility in this regard for taking necessary steps. Our kids are saturated with the western culture here. Therefore, we also need to saturate them with our culture by regularly taking family trips to Bharat where the practice of our cherished values is still carried out.

Devendra Singh

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Secularism will lead Hindus to extinction January 15, 2006