Much ado about nothing!

Here's a case of how facts get twisted out of shape. What makes it a point worth pondering upon is that the protagonists of 'twisting the story' are supposedly literate if not well educated.

The Background.

A few weeks back, the 11 year old daughter of a priest at the Sabarimala shrine had entered the premises of the temple to pay obeisance to Lord Aiyayappan, the deity. Now, as per traditions and the mythology surrounding the temple and the deity, the following points need to be understood:-

  (a) Lord Aiyyappan is the offspring of Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu(In his avatar as Mohini, that demolished
       a demon who'd gotten big for his boots after being granted the boon of invincibility by Lord
       Siva). The former had fallen for the bewitching beauty of the latter - just goes to prove that even gods
       are fallible and have their moments of weaknesses!

  (b) Since the child was conceived under extraordinary circumstances, it's supposed to have been released
        from the thigh of Lord Vishnu and the royal family of Pandalam became the foster parents of the child
        named 'Manikantan' who is known the world over as Lord Aiyyappan.

  (c) As per his promise to the foster parents he had decided to remain celibate so that he never came in the
       line of succession of the royal throne to facilitate the ascendancy of their biological children.

  (d) The consequent tradition associated with Lord Aiyyappan and the Sabarimala shrine is that no female
        pilgrim - between the ages of attaining puberty till the advent of menopause - is permitted into the
        shrine.

The entry of the child was, thus, against the spirit of the existing tradition and the fact is that the priest was definitely aware of it

The Remedy.

To right the wrong and to cleanse the temple - which is a common religious practice - the Travancore
Devaswom Board is overseeing the 'purification rituals' and the expenses will be borne by the errant priest!

The Aftermath.

A section of the social media users blackened their profile on Facebook and covered pictures to protest the ritual which they dubbed as discriminatory and uncivilised. They've asked the Kerala government - through a message signed by many, including social activists - to back out of the decision to carry out the 'purification rituals' which was akin to the reprehensible public trial of a young girl in the name of violation of rituals!

My Take.

Every institution has traditions - at times quaint - unique to it and I don't think it's right on the part of the outsiders to question them against the backdrop of modern thinking, pragmatism etc. And from the narration above, the tradition has a religious reasoning and it would be prudent to respect it.


Tailpiece.

Another social event - the commissioning of Raju and Bindu's new house in our immediate neighbourhood - was attended when we got to meet a lot of people. It was a pleasant forenoon indeed!
   

How they lost the plot.

The exit polls on the recently conducted Parliamentary elections are out and all of them give Narendra Modi and BJP the green signal to rule from Delhi after 16 May. The differences between the various polls is the extent of victory and we do not have to wait too long for the results! Let the media and the psephologists explain their findings but I'd like to go through some of the main players who'd lost the plot in the course of the electioneering which, of course, is a personal viewpoint. Here I go:-

  (a) Rahul Gandhi.

   The poor guy has quite a few instances of misdemeanour where his lack of maturity showed through and
   must have made an average Indian shudder as to what the country would become if entrusted in his hands
   just because of an accident of birth. Let me list them:-

       (i) the tearing up of a draft legislation in front of an embarrassed Manmohan Singh which was being
           covered extensively by the media. It's okay that we all know that the Prime Minister held the position
           courtesy his family but his age should never have been humiliated. It's just not acceptable. And why
           wasn't he deployed for campaigning? A case of being dumped before demiting office, now that his
           utility is over?

       (ii) calling the Gujarat model of development as 'toffee model'. The statistics held by the central
            government and above all, the people of Gujarat, were being scoffed at by that single remark. It
            clearly showed his lack of understanding of key issues.

       (iii) saying in one of his rallies that there will be a carnage off 22,000 people if Modi were to be the
             PM. That was the limit! But who were his script writers and who were his advisers? They need
             to be hauled on burning coal!

     (b) Mulayam Singh.

           The day when neither he nor his son - I'd thought that he'd would be refreshingly different because
           of his age - contradict Azam Khan when he made that stupid remark that Kargil was won by the
           Muslims of the Indian Army. What became clear was their brazen minority appeasement for votes!

     (c) Sonia Gandhi.

          She was always attacking Modi for the riots and many other things. Many a time I got this
          impression that she's parroting her speeches in Hindi without grasping their meaning. And what
          amazes me is that she never touched upon the legislative pieces that she'd worked hard to pass
          through parliament like the Food Security Bill, the Right to Information Bill or the Right to
          Education Bill. Or was it deliberate knowing fully well that these pieces of legislation would be
          a heavy drain on the state exchequer and were really not viable? But whatever said and done,
          the RTI definitely has been appropriate and timely to some extent but it needs to cover everyone
          for total effect.

     (d) Mamata Banerjee.

          Her swipe that had she been in Delhi, she'd have seen to it that Modi was sent out of Bengal by
          the first available flight dragging him by having a rope tied around his waist - probably, a case of
          bad translation of her thoughts in Bengali - when he questioned her 'Poribortan' of Bengal
          after taking over from the CPM, brought her down in my esteem. Perhaps, she's a reason to
          fume when her personal integrity was being brought under scrutiny for no rhyme or reason but
          she's shown, time and again, that she doesn't take criticism well.

I can keep going on and on about the leaders of each political dispensation but would then make it too long and unwieldy and hence, I desist.


Tailpiece.

Manishankar Aiyar must be ruing the day when he'd crassly said that the PM's chair wasn't vacant for Modi but that there was a vacancy of a tea vendor at the Congress' office at New Delhi. Who'll have the last laugh? And proverbially, he who laughs last, laughs best!  
          

Money comes....and goes..

I've heard this saying many a time and I suppose it's a 'fiscal rule' if I were to be permitted to coin a phrase. This story of mine will highlight what I'm trying to put across.

About three years back, Ramjee who used to visit me twice a month for haircut asked for Rs.40 grand to put his son into a public school. He'd actually taken the amount in two instalments and had promised to return in instalments before the calendar year got over. I've been impressed by his business acumen in that he'd got himself tenders - amid stiff competition - to run three saloons in Kochi and had provided employment for several youth and of course, his close relatives carefully chosen from his hometown in Bihar!

But despite all his promises he'd slipped up on repaying the amount and since coercion was not in my lexicon, I'd patiently given him time to return the amount. Sceptics might call me a 'soft' guy on money matters and the few, who knew about our transaction, had even asked me to forget the whole thing as a bad joke. But I was confident that the goodness inherent in him would ensure the return in due course. And sure enough, on the 10th of this month, he'd returned the last of the instalments.

A day later my relation, staying close to us here at Guruvayur, had called up to say that he was going through a financial crisis as his pension has not been forthcoming thanks to the problem riddled ex-organisation of his viz. the KSRTC. I must confess that I do not have the heart to say no to somebody when I've the wherewithal and I also strongly believe that when somebody asks for assistance, he's literally on his knees and therefore, not appropriate to belittle him further by sitting on the request or taunt about the 'repayability factor'. Anything given away should be done with dignity and without any denting of the person's ego further, otherwise it ceases to be a 'help' in the real case.

As directed, he and his wife had come to collect Rs.10 grand from me this afternoon. I can never forget the look that he'd given me as he took leave and I never asked him as to when he'd repay the amount. I only hope that his financial mess gets sorted out at the earliest and that, in turn, would pave the return of my money!

Yes, life is full of hopes and expectations. And it has to go on!


Tailpiece.

We'd my aunt - mom's youngest sister - and a cousin dropping in on us today. They'd come to pay their obeisance to the good Lord. And they're seen off by the night train to Thiruvananthapuram. It's nice catching up with them after what has been a long time!  

A quiet 'Mother's Day'.

It was like any other day and my mom had got up at her usual time. The geyser in her bathroom had misbehaved for no rhyme or reason and she'd used the normal water for her bath without complaint. (On cross checking, I'd found that it was her impatience that made it appear that the contraption was misbehaving and when I told her about it, she'd laughed with me!)

As I escorted her down the stairs into the dining hall, I wished her a happy Mother's Day and wanted to know as to whether she was keen on doing anything different during the day. I still remember her counter, a few years back on a similar occasion, as to whether it required a 'Mother's Day' for me to remember her. To put things in perspective, it's Mother's Day - everyday for me - since she stays with us. We've our serious discussions, we remember the things that we'd done together as family, her childhood and the hectic life with her parents, we discuss and laugh about my dad's clumsiness  and of course, we fight too especially, when she gets fussy over me. Lekha observes that we're more like kids when we're together!

The day had meandered through with a few people dropping in on us with my mom taking on the job of chief hostess. The lunch had her choices on the table and it turned out to be long drawn out and boisterous. After a short siesta, she had her half an hour's walk in our courtyard which, she reiterates, helps her to unwind. And as I was going out for my evening walk, I did howl at her because she'd insisted upon my carrying an umbrella and a torch which I consider as bothersome appendages for smooth exercising.

And then, it was 'fruit time' when the three of us had fruits while running through the day's accomplishments - nil in my case - and later, watched a couple of programmes on the television. She'd her supper a trifle after 9 and as I escorted her up the staircase, to her bedroom, she tells me softly that she'd enjoyed the day thoroughly and I'd searchingly watched her face as to whether she was telling it to satisfy me.

And it was curtains to yet another day. Another Mother's Day, to be precise. Did I keep it too bland? Should I've done anything better?


Tailpiece.

My mom bestest!

The gentleman with the cute Pug.

On my morning walks, there are many people whom I pass, on a regular basis and many of them are on a hand waving or a smiling relationship with me, by now. One of them happens to be a gentleman with his new canine acquisition - a cute Pug and the two of them remind me about my sojourns with Bruno, years ago.

Usually, he and the pup are accompanied by either of his children - a boy and a girl, who're extremely proud of their pet! In the initial stages, I used to see the owner literally tugging at the pup to make headway making me wonder as to whether he was endeavouring to catch up with me and my pace. So, I'd to tell him, once, that the dog needed to be given time for his sniffs and capers that accelerate the process of doing his job and if he wanted to pursue his walk to exercise himself, he'd to do another circuit after leaving the animal back at his home on completion of its outing.

He's eager to know about the nuances of parenting a dog and takes tips from me, every now and then. I try to recall the milestones of Bruno from my memory and pass on the information in the 'why-when-what' format. I daresay I've become a vet of sorts! Probably realising my usefulness, his Pug has taken a liking for your's truly. The Pug is named Tiger and has a white coat with a cute black patch around its mouth! His owner adds that the canine is fiercely carnivorous and all attempts at feeding him with vegetarian fair have been met with stiff resistance.

I must confess that I feel nice seeing the pup every day and feel that I've missed out on something if I did not see him on my walking spree!  



Tailpiece.

I've kept my inclination in check to acquire my own canine - friends have suggested that I must go for a pair this time so that the devastation is minimal if one of them were to pass away as the other's presence would soften the shock, a fact that I can't comprehend. But there are far bigger reasons in my hesitation, which are:-

      (a) Bruno is still very much 'live' within my system and his loss continues to be a festering wound.
      (b) One's movements get hampered with the presence of a pet and there's quite a bit of travel for us
            under the present circumstances.

'The Thrissur Pooram'.

Today has been a great day for the people of Thrissur because it's the day of the 'Thrissur Pooram' a grand spectacle that is being played out on the expansive grounds - the 'Thekkinkadu Maidan' - of the iconic 'Vadakkunnatha kshetram'. Ironically, this annual festival is of recent origin, in that, it's only 200 years old and there are 'poorams'(festivals) of the temples nearby that are being played out for over 2,000 years but they lack the fervour and the grand spectacle of the one at Thrissur.

Background.

The story has it that the local king, Sakthan Thampuran, was slighted when he'd gone to attend the oldest 'pooram' of the temple in the outskirts of Thrissur and on the rebound had drawn the concept, thus becoming the architect of the Thrissur Pooram. The event is the most extravagant and colourful festival of Kerala, the highlight being the active participation of all communities regardless of their religious affiliations!

What's it all about?

The main participants of the Pooram are the 'Thiruvambady' and the 'Paaramekkavu' temples, the other participants are drawn from the eight neighbouring temples. The deities from all these temples arrive on caparisoned elephants, along with percussion and other paraphernalia at the Thekkinkadu Maidan and pay obeisance to Lord Siva - known as 'Vadakkunnathan' - at the Vadakkunnatha kshetram and return to their abodes. The main function of the Pooram is the ceremonial face-to-face of the Paramekkavu and the Thiruvambady goddesses! The 'Kudamaattam' - the swift change of colourful parasols atop caparisoned elephants, music by the traditional bands and the gracious and synchronous moves of hundreds of the 'Panchaari melam' dancers are all part of that face off.

The seven day festival had begun with the ceremonial flag hoisting by the participating temples, the sixth day being the main Pooram followed by fireworks in the wee hours of the seventh morning.

The colours and the myriad sounds of the percussion and other traditional musical instruments make it spectacular and an event to remember. No wonder, then, that the UNESCO has adjudged the Thrissur Pooram as the most spectacular event on the planet!


Tailpiece.

1. It has been raining cats and dogs, in Kerala, for the last three days thanks to a trough of low in the Arabian Sea and the forecast was that it was moving northward predicting heavy rains in these parts of the state today. The believers, however, were absolutely sure that 'Vadakkunnathan' would see to it that the Thrissur Pooram will go on unhindered and sure enough, the sky was more or less clear throughout the day. Subsequent met reports talked about incessant rains on the Karnataka coast......a game played by the good Lord, himself, perhaps!

2. My nephew is at the Pooram site and has been feeding me with real time clips through his cellphone supplemented with commentaries. Live coverage of a different kind and it was top class! 

Narendra Modi - My perceptions.

Election 2014 will go down in history as one in which a population - disenchanted with widespread corruption, a paralysed government and the resulting apathy towards all political parties in the way they played petty politics - was suddenly galvanised into action wherein they took unprecedented interest in participating in the elections. The singular factor that brought about this turn around was the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi. The contest, as we stand at the last phase of the elections, has come to be a face off between him and the rest!

He's indeed come a long way from what he was just a few months back - the chief minister of a state not fully known all over the country except, perhaps, for the ignominy of the Gujarat riots of 2002 that took place under his watch. The reasons are many but the following definitely played a role:-

          (a) No political party thought that he would be anointed the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate. They
               expected massive convulsions within the party what with leaders like Advani, Joshi and Jaswant
               Singh pressing for their rightful positions at the helm! That such things were nipped before the
               kick starting of the campaign showed his mastery in assuming the leadership mantle.

          (b) The UPA governments I and II, with the backing of the state machinery, tried to bring him
                 to book for his alleged complicity in the '02 riots - a deliberate attempt at inaction when his state
                 burned, presumably to teach the Muslims a lesson and show them their place - failed miserably
                 with the Special Investigation Team set up by the Supreme Court giving him a clean chit. The
                 efforts of the Sanjeev Bhatts and the Teesta Setalvads failed to indict him, planting a certain
                 amount of doubt among the common man as to whether the stories that were spun out were
                 just that.

          (c) The development that Gujarat has seen over his years as Chief Minister was a fact evident
               on the ground and tom-tommed by even the statisticians of the union government. People began
               asking aloud as to why such a development model could not be pursued in the other states too.

          (d) The grave error on the part of the Congress bigwigs to ignore him completely in their campaign
                speeches at the initial stages.

          (e) The sidelining of Manmohan Singh by the Congress bigwigs resulting in massive scams, policy
               paralysis and complete inaction of the government. The people's disenchantment was swift
               especially after the fact that all policy files were scrutinised and decided by Sonia Gandhi was
               brought to light.

I happened to follow his interview with Arnab Goswami on 'Times Now' this evening. He came across as one who'd a clarity of thought, strong and not wavering on convictions with a thrust on development and governance.

He's shouldered the entire campaign activity of his party by presiding over 400 rallies and making public appearances, all over the country.

Let's see as to what India gives him on the 16th of May and I wish him the best. He deserves to be given a chance to lead this country.


Tailpiece.

One thing is for sure. There's gonna be a sea change in the way politics will be played in this country after elections '14!