The Indian Community

There are different communities around the world serving different purposes. A community tends to affect everyone's life one way or the other by interacting with every individual. Community describes a group of people who have something in common, even though every human is unique. By belonging to the Indian community, I have interacted more with its cultural community, social community, and school community. People all over India belongs to a variety of different communities depending upon their geographic location, values and beliefs, social and recreational interests, history, culture, and language, education and skills, family and race. Apart from the existence of different communities Cultural, Language, Social, and School communities are highly eminent in the Indian community. Culture is an important part of the Indian community. Indian culture has taught me several different things such as how to behave in front of others, how to respect others, how to perform my duties in order, and many other significant guidelines. My culture includes various religious activities such as performing â€Å"Pooja,† a Hindu religion ritual, when somebody bought a new house or for the well being of their family. My sister is also involved in many religious performances like â€Å"Garba,† which is a dance activity done to worship a Hindu goddess â€Å"Amba. † Dance is considered to be a form of art and is of great significance for my family. Certainly, there are several religious festivals in my culture among which the famous one is â€Å"Diwali,† the festival of lights, which is celebrated in honor of Lord Rama on his return to home from exile after fourteen years in jungle. As a child I was always exited to light the firecrackers and eat lots of sweets during the festival of â€Å"Diwali. † Language is also an important constituent of Indian culture since people in Indian community speak several different languages. Hindi, the national language of India, and English are used as the buffer languages by the people of Indian community since they primarily speak their own state languages. My primary language is my state language, Gujarati, then come Hindi, English, Sanskrit, and Spanish, which I learned after coming to United States. In my culture, elders are given the priority of making the decisions in the family and to guide others from their experiences how to make judgments during critical situations. A strong bond of unity prevails in the family, which helps to share joy and sorrow of everyone in the family. Another important aspect of the Indian community is Society. Social community greatly interacts with me in the terms of my relationship towards my relatives, cousins, neighbors, friends, and many others with whom I deal with on a daily basis. Everyone older than me has to be called with a respectful name or a subtitle. I have to go with my family on social visits to my relatives' house on our religious occasions and ceremonies like wedding, birthdays, etc. When we visit someone's house during a New Year day or some special occasions we give them a gift, a box of sweets or usually its money that we offer. There are usually frequent visits from my cousins and friends during the summer time so that we can enjoy our vacation together. For instance, we all would play â€Å"Cricket† in the open fields of the farm in my village and climb up the mango trees to get some raw mangoes. My neighbors around us are very helpful and caring people. A major part in my life and the Indian community is the School community. School community greatly emphasizes on the educational programs than any other programs like athletic, different kinds of clubs, etc. Education is considered as a prestige of the family in the Indian community and highly signifies the family status. My school life in India was the true experience of discipline, manner, and respect for others. Indian schools are strict about the education and so every school enforce rules and regulations of their own. Schools have their own uniforms and guidelines, which every student like me should follow and obey them. My exams were much harder back in my country, India, than they are in United States, in the terms that there were not multiple choice questions, there were mostly essay questions, and in addition to that sometimes we have two final exams in one day. My school life in India is by far the best part of my life that I have ever enjoyed. Thus, Cultural, Language, Social, and School communities in the Indian community are the important aspects of Indian life. The complex nature of these various sub-communities in the Indian community has made them so important that each one can be explored more extensively. As each of these communities is not static, but rather changeable and interdependent on each other. Further more, in-depth analysis of these sub-communities would describe the Indian community as a whole.