Golden rings in the ears, a thick moustache, and a colorful
turban: this was the image of a perfect man in our society
some years ago.
I had two golden earrings in my ears when I was
studying at Jodhpur University in western Rajasthan. One
day I noticed that whenever I entered the class, a group of
girls always laughed at me. I asked them why. And there
was a very funny reply. They told me that in South India,
earrings are always worn by ladies.
“You look like a girl,” a voice came from the group.
Well, that was a big challenge for a boy who was thinking
he was a perfect man. The girls came from South India, and
they were studying here because their parents were working
in Jodhpur.
After some days I came back home. I told the funny
story of the earrings to my grandparents. I told them what
the South Indians thought about me. My grandfather became a little angry and said, “The
man who does not wear earrings is, of course, a woman.”
Well, I was a perfect man for my grandparents, having
earrings. At the same time, the South Indian girls had a
different idea about me.
I took a decision and removed one of the earrings when
I went back to college. I told my classmates that with a ring
I am a man of tradition and without an earring, I am a
man for a South Indian. But the mistake I made was that I
removed the wrong one.
I had no idea what mistake I had made. After some
months when I was in Jaisalmer, a foreigner called me and
asked me about the ring I had in one of my ears. I told him
the whole story. And then I heard something that made me
run away from the place. I rushed back home and removed
the ring from my ear. Now, either I wear both of the rings
or remove both of them.
I came to know how different cultures have different
meanings for different objects.
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