Tradition!

In India, the generation of the twenty first century is faced with a decision: to be traditional or  be 'not traditional'. Note that I have used neither 'modern' nor 'western' as the opposite of 'traditional' because it is not.
The culture and tradtions we inherit from our ancestors form a significant part of our identity. People who disown their culture will need to start from scratch and build a new identity to replace something that took generations of experience to create. Now,considering that we are descended from those who created the traditions we follow, which means that we share genes, and perhaps a few common traits and interests with them, isn't our culture in some ways catered specifically to us and consequently, doesn't it have the highest chance of suiting us?
Before you start to call me prejudiced, here's the other side of the argument. Times have changed considerably. Certain customs that came into being a few centuries ago are outdated or simply not feasible. (For instance, the practice of cooking using only firewood or coal). Also, every once in a while power falls into the hands of those who are unfit for it. The masses are easily swayed, and thus, practices that neither make sense nor are morally correct (such as the way in which  widows used to be treated) become the norm, and people do terrible things in the name of 'tradition'.
When the Europeans invaded India, they probably saw both sides of the story and set about dismantling the framework of our society, helping to remove evils such as the Sati system, but simultaneously eradicating our belief in our own way of life and our identity.
So what (according to one seventeen year old girl i.e. me) do we do now? We cannot, and should not, go back to living and thinking the way people did fifty years ago, but we cannot and should not therefore resort to imitating an alien way of life, such as the western one because finally, we are Indian, and aside from an alien  culture not being suited to us, we will always feel second best, inferior, to those who follow this culture because it is their own. We need a new way of  life, and the best place to begin the search is our old one. With a few modifications, it should work far better than something entirely new.
So,  those of you who are traditional, the next time you see someone try something new, give it a thought before condemning them  and those of you who are not, remember that  a  change, whose magnitude depends on you, is far easier than a complete reconstruction!