DigiEdu4all.sunderblogger.blogspot

DigiEdu4all.joint family.20151117 The Joint Family Cult is a very eastern world charm. In the West, its closer version were more royal living out of a mansion with over 50 people living as one grandeur surname. In the East, it carried a brand too, based on the laurels and accomplishments of its members, than the mercy of a lineage. It continues even now - mostly in China and India. So you can see a few dozen people walk out of a small home, may not be so much in Delhi or Beijing, more so in the smaller towns and more remote districts. There will be kids of similar ages but they may be a generation apart: as one of them would be an aunt or an uncle. Now waning as space does not permit civilised living for so many within a door. They have also waned as the family's old values and ethos were challenged or compromised. I see the scenario more as a hardware store owner who in his 20s started out a venture for a family that included his brothers and sisters besides his own very young children. The business was more a men affair and the household women's domain. So you could walk into the store and see the startup owner sit at the cash whilst other members would be simple salesmen. And at the home, the elderly father in his 60s would decide whom to welcome at home, which neighbour to be friendly with and which neighbour to be treated with a distant grace. The elderly mother would decide the menu but the overall kitchen would the exclusive domain of the store owner's wife, the elder most of the senior generation. As the brothers got married, the family expanded with the newer kid generation thrice the size. So, the two brothers were just the right hands to manage the sales at the store. Until the next generation boy turned 16 when they would be the trainee floating around for the odd jobs. Soon they crowded the salesmen's roles. In the older times, following the ethos, values and disciplines that kept a joint family together, the startup store owner would diversify and invest into another store or another venture. In this age, the owner has a bigger question: should the new investment be for his next brother or for the son? If he would for the brother, that will be just, as the new venture could get more mature and experienced hands. What happens however if the capital is blocked into the brother's business that might not treat the family just as his own? And the son, when he grows does not get a share out of his uncle's business? These questions that were not ever relevant to the old age norms turned very realistic and wise in the new age. So, you might just find several such stores with more pouring hands of salesmen than the size of the daily customers. The sharper, keener and the agile now turned into lazy ducks, sitting pretty, doing little but passing well. The newer store in the neighborhood could swallow its old pride. Or, if the business split into its various members lending financial freedom, so would the families multiply into more homes. Back in the home, the changing tastes and preferences of the newer generation would make the rule keepers job very challenging and often threatening. On the bright side its trusted financial and affectionate support made people more secure. But they also made the newer generation take to life a bit easy, often even lazy! Lineages get threatened by the declining zeal to keep the decree high and above. If the aspirations lose, the financial challenges overcome other needs to separate into more nucleuses. And the old name loses its charm. It does not then matter if the newer may make a name or just keep up with the old. I was at a chemist shop in one of the posh Delhi markets when I saw three generations managing the store dutifully as despite having their Mont Blanc pens and glasses signed off on their attire, they would be so willing to attend to an angry customer. Despite that there were at least six more hired sales guys - some appeared as old as the master at the cash. Yet I could see that the youngest boy in his new age blues wasn't quite so comfortable in listening. The proverbial joint families still live. And they live in Delhi and Mumbai. In Bangkok or Shanghai. The Westminster is very different. Posted 7th September by Prabhat Sinha