An engagement a lesson in eugenics

The outside looked all plane like every other snobby hotel in this weird city, been here over a year now yet fail to comprehend the true class behind the social values placed….

Deviating too much out is gonna get boring. After parking myself under the shady canopy of an old tamarind tree I walk to the arena of the engagement. A couple of cars pass by each filled with relatives I’ve failed to catch up with the last year past. Each one a delight to speak too and each one with their own queries and words of advice. Varied, weird and sometimes helpful but above all isn’t this, what family is all about.

Walking through, acknowledging everyone and enquiring as to their health and affairs does take time and I finally accompany an uncle to the hall booked for the occasion. Grand it is and so was the ceremony. We were welcome by the groom’s father who made himself scant thereafter. (Well no idea if that was the right word but just wanted to say that he was too difficult to spot thereafter). The ceremony was too short by normal Kerala standards but the grandeur was the same.

After several polite hand shakes and acknowledgements I finally get into this conversation with an uncle and a cousin related to me from both sides of my family. The conversation leans to this topic on Eugenics.

Well for those of you like me who have little or no knowledge of the term;

Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention. Throughout history, eugenics has been regarded by its various advocates as a social responsibility, an altruistic stance of a society, meant to create healthier and more intelligent people, to save resources, and lessen human suffering.
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With the very little knowledge I had of the term there I was grabbing every word being spoken of on the subject trying to comprehend and catalogue what was trying to be conveyed or discussed. It all started with an uncle of mine trying to tell the cousin of mine how another uncle was related to us and not stopping there he goes a step further to explain the similarities that one can notice within the family.

This suddenly translates to a very interesting course one that goes winding through the family tree of some of the known family trees and the different characteristics brought together with the institution of marriage. This infact got me thinking whew if you look at it unknowingly quite a lot of benefit has in fact been reflected in a wide scope within the family and we have indeed ignored to actually take notice of the whole thing unwrapping itself right in front of our eyes. Be it our negligence or a busy schedule we sure are missing a lot of awfully evident stuff happening right under our noses…..