Part I:

            Personally speaking, I am an Indian born American citizen. From this, I do consider myself to be a relatively special breed as my Mother hails from the Northern regions of India while my Father hails from the Southern regions respectively. Bearing these ideas in mind there are several rituals, customs, and traditions and that we follow as we live our everyday lives together. Being born to parents who both present cultures that are relatively similar but also have their small nuances, I tend to adapt to what makes me the most comfortable. Furthermore, I was born in Royal Oak, Michigan and my first language is English. With this being said, there are many cases that my American culture takes over as I approach to tackle the events of everyday life. There are several rituals I continue to look at and perform respectively, looking at these three different variables that factor into my personality, culture and way of life. As far as specific examples of rituals are concerned, one ritual I can touch on is marriage. Getting married is a huge deal in Hindu culture, and there are several (and I mean SEVERAL) rituals that are followed to fulfill the act of getting married. However, one main ritual I can call upon are the application of vermillion. The application of vermillion is when the groom applies red vermillion (red powder like substance) to the hair split region of the upper head of the bread. This symbolizes the husband leaving his mark and entrusting his name to the bride. I think these rituals are important because they come off as pure and unchanged for generations. Do not get me wrong, I am very liberal and a lot of my culture comes from adaptations of many lifestyles, however these rituals are important as they signify important steps in an individual’s life.         

Part II:

            Luckily enough for myself I have gone through a couple rituals in my time of living my far. One of the many rituals I can talk about in detail would have to be the male puberty ceremony. Ideally, there really is no proper way of pinpointing a time to conduct this, therefore most Indian guys have their ceremony completed around their sixteenth birthday. This ritual consists of the boy wearing traditional male clothing that is called a “lungi” (shaped kind of like a man skirt mixed with a towel wrapped around from waist below). The boy is put in these articles of clothing and gifted with several presents as the priest conducts a prayer as the overall focus of this ritual is to bless the boy in his transition from boy to man and to also bless him with the resilience to endure life on the manly level. At the time, I won’t lie I was a bit overwhelmed. My parents had invited several people to mine and there was a lot food being prepared prior to the ceremony. As the priest came, my grandma gave instructions regarding my horoscope and star count (data that priests and Hindu astrologists look into). Overall, a lot of these things along with my friends watching me go through this made this feel a bit pressured. Furthermore, being the boy of attention I literally starved through the entire thing and didn’t think too much beyond my hunger at the time. Looking back at that moment, I sense love, compassion, and well – wishes every time I think about this event. It truly serves as a reminder as to how much my parents loved and cared for me, and furthermore the overall support I had as an individual growing up. These blessings, and following of such tradition only made me come to realize that my family have such well wishes and high hopes for me. Looking back at this motivates me to work, as I have received the blessings from all my friends and family.

Part III:

I personally feel that the belonging-liminality-belonging concept is very present in college and that too in many forms. As the video clearly stated, the year of being in college serves to be a period of liminality between being a high school graduate and a college graduate. However, I believe that there is a deeper sense of maturation, development and an embodiment of growing in ways one chooses to that makes college what it is. When I arrived at MSU I came as a hopeful boy waiting to explore what the wonders of campus would do for him, as now I truly separated myself from being a high school graduate. In turn, when I went back, I noticed slowly that it became harder and harder to catch up with my high school friends as a result of being far off and different in college.

Through this, the implicit and explicit messages I have received while being on campus were to be respectful of the females around me. The vibe this campus gave, especially in light of recent events went on to feel heavily protective of females. This idea I felt, especially in party situations. For example, men would go onwards to feel up a girl provocatively dressed at a tailgate, and if it is clear that she is uncomfortable it implicitly becomes our duty to protect them, vice versa for girls with guys as well.