Idyllic Thoughts

Going to get married in three days. Thinking about the emotions and feelings that will be going on in the mind of a bride at the time of marriage, I got to wandering about the mind of Draupadi, who had to marry five men on five days. How would she have adjusted her mind to marrying someone one day and subjecting herself to marriage with another the next day? It's hard enough to accept one person fully, and what turbulence would have gone in her mind thinking about accepting five men? Did she not want to cry out to let her take her own decisions? What would any other woman, a weak-minded one, have done in her situation? I don't believe in the oft-quoted answer that she loved all the five Pandavas. It may have been possible, but not at first. May be after learning to live with them. May be it would be like doing some things out of practice and the fondness that grows of being with each other for a long time. Some one once told me that of all the husbands, Draupadi's true ...

While on the topic of culture in my last post, I remember thinking about the so-called 'civilisation' of the British. Whenever I read some English novels written in the era of the Bronte sisters, I find quite a few references to the 'uncivilised' people of India whom the Missionaries believe their imperative to 'civilise.' Civilise in the sense of worshipping Christ, wearing long robes and full-body clothing as per their custom, speaking English, eating meat, drinking wine... the list goes on. This is like the age-old story where four blind persons touch an elephant and describe it as they feel it. Why should what somebody sees as the truth be the ultimate truth? There may be truth beyond our reckoning. The British did not stop to think about the moral values of the Indian culture, the systems prevalent here and the reasons (practical and religious) behind such customs or even the innate qualities of Indians. They just saw our colour, dress, habits and customs....

Modernity speaks about inclusion and the melting pot. Willy nilly, it celebrates loss of identity. Human beings and communities need identity which demands being exclusive in clothing and language and food and habitation. Are we willing to be ‘modern’ at the cost of ‘culture’ or are we willing to be ‘cultured’ at the cost of ‘modernity’? To say that there can be peaceful coexistence between the two is wishful thinking. -- Devadutt Pattanaik in one of his articles. As Devadutt asks, surely we are willing to be 'modern' at the cost of 'culture,' not only willing, but are already implementing it fully. And as for his next question, I find many people in my immediate surroundings who believe Indian culture is the greatest and should be followed assiduously, wear Indian clothing for functions and visit temples in row, take up fashionable yoga, readings of great Indian philosophers... but regularly follow pizza culture, wear foreign clothing whenever occasion arises, go on ...

Roads for transport, vehicles to carry us to our destination, spaces to park vehicles, layouts to build houses, parks to walk our pets, hangouts to get together and chat-eat even when we aren't hungry, theatres to loosen up our stressed minds, don't you think our whole life in an urban environment is kind of channelised and engineered to follow a set route? There is a predictability to living in a city, even though the city is well-planned and quite peaceful. There is a feeling that says, here is everything that is needed to make human life comfortable and not-so-challenging to the mind. Most days when I sit in the bus gazing at the long, broad avenues lined with trees I think that human beings are always on toes to do anything for their own comfort; despite the negative impact it has on other living beings. You know, there is quite a comfort in being predictable, in treading on the well-trodden path. But there is no thrill of the unexpected. And I am straying...

Since I came to Mysore, I have been noticing one perversion in some men here -- taking photos of girls on their mobile phones in public places. Some auto drivers in Highway Circle and Hanumanthanagar in Bannimantap, some shopkeepers in Devaraja Market,... the list goes on. I do not know why they do that. And through this post I wish to caution all girls and women in Mysore about this matter. I have often avoided myself being photographed by turning away or standing with my back to them, but sometimes our attention would be somewhere else, and we would be unwitting objects for such perverts. So please take care everybody and be vigilant.

Just think back into the past happenings in your life. As you breeze through the events, you will find that each event will be somehow connected to another random-seeming event that happens sometime later. The previous event would be a precursor and cause to the next event, and the next... If the 'cause event' does not occur or if we change it, the 'result event' which occurred would never happen. A single event may thus change an entire sequence of happenings. A single decision taken by a single human being may thus alter the fate of another event happening anywhere in the universe, acting as a trigger. I thought of all this when I watched 'Final Destination' movie and realised that most things that happen to us now are the results of an event that would have happened in the past, a day before, a month or years ago. I don't know why but I feel it's like a card touched makes all other cards to fall.