Pondering over the monkey story.....

If you are aware of the story then skip this para else go on till you get a hang of the story & then skip to next para. Group of monkeys caged, bunch of bananas lowered from roof of cage, monkeys jump to grab, the instant they do this hot water is splashed on them, this is done everytime the monkeys attempt to jump & grab bananas so they build in a fear . Now one monkey from group replaced by new monkey, unaware of the consequences it tries to jump, the old monkeys pull it back, it tries again but is pulled back each time. Another old monkey replaced same action repeated. Finally all monkeys replaced by new ones, none of them try to jump & grab bananas, inspite of the fact that none know the reason for not doing so.
Dont you think this story is worth pondering? Just imagine a new born baby is brought up in a marooned island such that s/he is unaware of the outside world, isnt there a possiblity that s/he will like the stink of garbage & abhor the fragrance of flowers? We dislike the former & like the latter only because everybody does so, we go by convention, dont we?
Why should only women where sarees & only men dhotis? Why should we have Sunday & Saturday(consecutive days) as holidays & why not Saturday & Wednesday instead so that week is broken into two? These questions show how we have accepted conventions as they are without a thought that there can be other options too. These are a few conventions we blindly follow without questioning that come to my mind right now, if you have anything else in mind do comment.
We tend to accept conventions only because of fear of being laughed at by others. Metrosexual men, women in army, etc... have raised many a brow only because they defy convention, but when we look deeper into them there is nothing abnormal about it, its a matter of personal choice. When talking about defying conventions one person who comes to my mind is Mallika Sarabhai, she is an IIM grad but went on to become a professional dancer, the other day I was watching her interview on TV, she wore different earrings to each ear, I mean the two were from twp diffrent pairs, now that called being 'different', you tell me, will any 'sane' person do that? I can hear you saying 'NO' , but why not? It is just that we have always seen women wearing a pair of identical ear rings, if unidentical the person will be looked at as insane. We just dont have the guts to break conventions & face the public gazing at us.
Like any Barkha Dutt or Karan Thapar show even after a lot of discussion which looks like a lot of sense the result is life goes on as usual without any change. Men may come and men may go but conventions go on for ever................