Sunday, July 1, 2018

9. First Session


(Family Management)

Teacher: “Welcome! In this course we are going to discuss the different aspects of family and learn how to go about having a peaceful family life. Peaceful and well balanced – these are the two utmost important criterion. You will want neither a tumultuous and rough family life nor an isolated family life.
“That is to say, one needs to be involved in the family and yet be able to handle it smoothly.
“Now, before we go any further, we need to explain what family is. What does it mean? What does it signify? Yes, any suggestions?”
Student A (female): “Blood relations.”
Teacher: “Your husband is not your blood relation, nor are his parents.”
Student B (male): “People outside friends and colleagues?”
Student C (male): “Then the bus conductor is also family.”
Student B: “Strangers do not count, of course!”
Teacher: “Then we need to define what makes somebody a stranger and when he or she turns into an acquaintance. And what kind of acquaintance.”
Student D (female): (smiling) “All people who were invited to my wedding, but who were not friends, colleagues or neighbours.”
Teacher: (smiling) “Then your wedding budget defines your family.”
After some more attempts:
Teacher: “You can see now it is not easy to define a family. Indian families are large and they are not bound by blood, geography or social status. It might indeed be impossible to exactly determine what an Indian family consists of, its extent and volume.
“The accepted definition of a family derives from the Family Trinity Principle. I will write on the board. Please copy.”

(On the board)
The Family of a certain individual can be defined as that particular subset of her/his acquaintances, which
i) has the authority to question her/his intentions and ambitions,
ii) keeps her/him occupied during years of unemployment and failures
iii) act as a support system in case of acute financial, medical and law-and-order crises.

Teacher: “Friends fail at number one, colleagues at number two and neighbours at number three. Strangers and casual acquaintances fail all three.
“Anybody and everybody to fulfill the Trinity is to be considered family, blood relation or not.”

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