Counsellors and motivational speakers generally advice people have positive outlook and positive attitude towards life. Optimism and confidence are positive attributes whereas pessimism and fear / diffidence are negative thoughts.
One of the ways of developing positive attitude towards life is to look at the brighter side of things. As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. There will always be something good about everything in life which includes people, food, house and environment. A positive attitude facilitates one to focus on the brighter side of things.
In this regard two issues come to my mind.
The first of these concerns food. Of late people, particularly the urban population, are becoming more and more health conscious. As a result they tend to be a bit too choosy about what they eat and even drastically change the eating habits. For example there, is lot of hype of late about the benefits of consuming brown rice in the place of traditional white rice. By all accounts, brown rice has more nutrients as compared to the white variety. White rice is the polished version of brown rice and the process of polishing removes some of the nutrients along with husk. The disadvantage associated with brown rice is that it is more difficult to cook and is not as palatable as the white one.
Whereas brown rice may be beneficial to health it would be wrong to say that white rice is harmful to health. Considering white rice to be harmful implies negative attitude.
The same argument holds good for breakfast items. I don’t question the habit of some people who take fruits and cereals for breakfast. But I question the tendency on the part of some people who decry traditional breakfast items such as Idli, Upma, Dosa, Pongal, Parantha or Poori.
The second issue of concern concerns good and bad days for performing religious functions. In Hindu system marriages, Gruhapravesam etc are to be performed only on certain so-called auspicious days. Such days are arrived at based on astrological considerations. The so-called auspicious days are not universally same for all Hindus.
I see nothing wrong in sticking to such days as per the traditional practices. But I question the attitude of deeming other days of the year as inauspicious. That is what I consider as negative thinking which will inculcate fear in mind.
