1) Relationships between family members are diminishing over time as families have fewer children and people tend to distance themselves from relatives. 2) Important family relationships like uncles, aunts, and cousins are becoming less known to newer generations as families grow more isolated. 3) Traditions and cultural practices that strengthened relationships, like attending all family functions and exchanging letters, are disappearing as modern life becomes more rushed and disconnected.

1. Dimishing Relationships Diminishing Relationships Please read: It is not a story: what is happening to-day is in the slides On your speakers

2. In our Country, as most of the families have got only one or two, children and as the people have the tendency of getting away from the relatives, relationships are diminishing day-by-day

3. In a family, there are so many relatives l ike father, mother , Grandfather, Grandmother, elder or younger brothers and sisters, uncle, aunty, brother-in-law, sister-in-law etc.

4. Whatever may be the functions right from the ear-boring ceremony to girls’ puberty ceremony and marriage ceremony, the custom of the maternal uncle attending the functions with a lot of gift articles to prove the strength of his relationship continues since a very long time.

5. But now-a-days if there is only one female child in a family, the child does not have the relationship of brother . Therefore when the child grows up and gives birth to a baby after marriage, that baby also will not have the relationship of maternal uncle, aunty etc ., If the same condition exists in the years to come, many of our future generation will not be aware of the important relationships including that of the maternal uncle .

6. After a few years of marriage, when partition of property is done among brothers, the relationships are also divided. If they go to different places, the children of both the families will not get the opportunity to mingle with father’s or mother’s brothers and sisters.

7. In those days if any function takes place in a family, the previous day itself all the relatives would assemble and the house would be immersed in great joy.

8. But now, due to the wide gap between the relatives and shortage of relations, only the friends and colleagues attend the functions only at the specified time. If this trend continues, the future generations will have money but not affinity. They will not be aware of any culture. They will not be aware of the relatives even when they are very near to them. Relationships will vanish. The traces of customs and culture also will get vanished.

9. Now-a-days, the muller, mortar & pestle etc., have become the exhibits and monuments. They have been replaced by mixies and grinders and the Muller and morter have become out-dated and vanished from the sight of younger generation. The same will happen to the relationships also.

10. In the past years, people would write letters to their relatives inviting them to the birth day parties , marriage functions, Deepavali, Pongal and Temple Festivals. The letters had life and spirit. But in the present days though we get a No. of E-mails and messages , they all get vanished from our memory in a short period.

11. As special mentions and enquiries were made in the letters about each and every relative, the bond and affinity got strengthened. People of any place at long distances would attend all kinds of functions with family. During the festival time grand feast would be given to the relatives. Due to that, relationships would appear to be strong ones. Even today, in the level of villages these types of get-together and celebrations are existing .

12. But the wide-gap between the relationships is found only among the educated people . Even the husband and wife have no time to share their opinions and ideas whole heartedly in the mechanical hurried life.

13. Most of the people attend the functions of their relatives in hurry after sending their children to school. As they return immediately in a hurry soon after the function is over, details about such people are not known by others. Relationships are not known to children also.

14. Consid erin g the popul ation o f our count ry, giv ing birth to more numb er of childr en is i mp oss ible. What to do for the revi val of relationships?

15. At the same time we can teach our younger generations the methods of renewing the existing relationships. I mportance may be given to some matters though they appear to be superstitious ones.

16. If a brother gets a red Saree for Rs.200 and hands it over to his sister, joy in the families will be multiplied . By this, Relationships will be strengthened. Parents should avoid pointing at overload of the subjects and insisting their children to go only to school. Children should be taken to all kinds of functions of their relatives and the relatives should be introduced with relationships.

17. In those days, for many generations, fields were undivided and the boundaries remained the same without any change. Magnanimity among people existed to that extent. More importance was given to relationships rather than money. Money was placed behind relationships.

18. The mental maturity of the people should get developed so as to enable the same condition to prevail. Write letters to all your relatives during the special occasions like birthday , wedding day, success in examinations etc., because only letters have life and spirit.

19. Dear Brothers and Sisters, Let us all take a pledge to strengthen our relationships atleast from today!. Courtesy: Dinamani, Tamil Daily Newspaper Translated by : Shri C. CHANDRASEKAR, M.A., B.Ed ., Headmaster (Retd), Kendriya Vidyalaya, Trichy

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