Sunday, September 03, 2006

This is Ganpati time in Pune. There's a lot of fun and pomp in the air. Ganpati means a lot of tradition. Because of all the things you don't do, right on top is that you do not piss off the Elephant God. People shall follow the tradition to a T. So much that if there's so much as a missing lotus leaf, it's anathema. Kids are taught right from childhood the aartis and shlokas that go along with the festival. The discipline is such that if you offer someone prasad, the right hand automatically comes forward, because you do not (under any circumstances) take prasad with your left hand. Even Muslims who do not believe in idol worship know that you do not take prasad with your "southpaw".

 

If matters related to God can bring about such strict discipline in us desis, why is it so tough for them to wait the few extra seconds at a traffic light? Why does one need to pee on the road? Do we need a new God who can instill the fear (of God) in them to get some discipline in their public behavior? What happened to all those supposed godmen, swamis, imams, reverends and other men of God? Where are they when we need them? How can Fire be anti – Hindu but breaking traffic lights is not? Why do you need to enforce singing of Vande Mataram but have no qualms urinating on it? How is the length of Sania Mirza's skirt un-Islamic, but bombing your fellow people while they are at work not? People often told me when we were in the US, that I might get very disappointed with India.

 

India is fine. It's the Indians that are making a mess of it.

 

 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

whats with all the peeing!!! Previous post, this post.

T 1 said...

update! had a chat with niks the other day. great that he is also in Pune

brij said...

Unluckily most Indians have never found following rules ever work to their advantage. Hence they break rules. And then others find following rules are not to their advantage. and they break the rules. And others find ... ad infinitum

Anonymous said...

miss Ganpati days in pune. Good point about Indians. We need a fear of God or something else to do the right thing. If parents set an example themselves then the next generation may be a little better. Though with so much population and poverty putting strain on resources people don't care anymore. In the US if there were not enough public restrooms people might have resorted to peeing wherever, you gotta go when you gotta go!!