Why be conservative? Who said it's a nice thing?

One whole year in London has meant I just can't help comparing things here to those back home.
The so called clean roads, sophisticated buildings, hi tech transport and gadgetry apart, which I don't really see as something that differentiates life between here and India or anywhere else for that matter, I can see a potential solution to removing centuries old divisions in Indian society - And it's called a liberal youth.

The most lovable thing I find about young people in Europe is their close-to-complete abandon of any identity that's seemingly nationalistic or religious. Language is a difficult barrier to cross at times but it hardly is a self imposed barrier.
Religion and Nationalism are a strict no-no. And a majority of the people I know have any religious affiliation at all, and church's something they go to once a year and for some only when you are kids! And being homophobic is not a mass trait.

If I were to define conservative (more in a social, than economic sense) in an Indian context, I would look for the following:
1. A strong awareness of religion and its ideals, an unwillingness to do something that is unreligious but is lawful.
2. An awareness of caste, of what it entails and of what distinguishes from other castes.
3. A chauvinism for either language or region

It is this conservative attitude, that says it's a woman's fault that she was raped because she dressed provocatively or that she can be abused just because she chooses to drink or smoke.
It is the same attitude that says Biharis are not allowed in Mumbai and that says 'Madrasis' are not welcome in Delhi.

It's the same attitude that says eating beef is different from eating chicken, when it's just another animal being killed. To me, the following don't seem different - upper caste Hindus who eat meat but avoid beef and pork to distinguish themselves from the Dalits and the Brahmins who don't eat meat at all to distinguish themselves from the rest.

They are clinging onto an identity that they guard zealously. And so long as they guard it, the caste system will have strong roots. And worse, they rub it so well on their offspring that young people come out with the same mindset.
And we are so conveniently comfortable with the whole idea of it all that there seems to be no impetus to move in any other direction at all!

I am in favour of the young man/woman who simply doesn't care! - About religion, language, caste and ideas of nationalistic chauvinism.

It's a liberal Indian youth, that I see to be the key to weakening anything that divides. And only an education can impart that, it would seem but in this one case, some parents and grandparents might be best kept away!

So there is joy in giving ?... Or is there?

Notwithstanding my naive ignorance of life given just over two decades of my existence, reading about prominent people and their lives, professional and personal, has given me a reason to believe, that the biggest setbacks in one's life come from expecting too much from anybody else other than yourself.
And, not surprisingly, those who expect more out of themselves than from anybody else do well.
If you're going to give your everything to someone you like, either you don't expect to get it back or it better be to someone you're sure will give it back - Otherwise, brace up for a setback!

They say there is joy in giving, I think it comes with a tag that says conditions apply.

And then there are always those hapless few who don't read the fine print, and give everything they can to a 'heartless' few. And as it always tends to be, these 'heartless' few seem to be an attractive lot, not really expecting much, and neither do they intend to give back much.
And those who don't read the fine print inevitably run into this bunch and then it's just sometime before they get their setback(that they were asking for?)

In defense of the 'heartless' few, they might be nice people too, but then there is only so much they ever intend to give and giving them anything more than that is never really going to come back, and the more sensible among them don't even expect to get so much either.

So whose mistake is it anyway?
Whose ever it might be, it will be those who give and expect as much or more from people who simply don't, who suffer.

So what makes me write all this anyway? May be, I believe I am the reason for some minor setbacks in some people's lives and don't really know if it's my fault, although some of them have a reason to believe so!
And may be I'll have some of those setbacks too... and then I'll probably read this and see how unreasonable I was when I wrote this or differently, how unreasonable I had gotten since I had written this!