What's in a name? Plenty, it turns out. Now, that's something I'd never even suspected. I mean, while I knew that a name like Jestin Azhagusundaram would not really sweeten the tongue that utters it, I never realised that it would make him die a few years sooner! Poor chap, his fate was decided right after he was born and he had no way to stop it.
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In Hinduism, it's an accepted practice, and sometimes even recommended, to have an image / statue / icon of your favourite deity in your altar so that you something to help you focus your thoughts on it. There's an elaborate set of rituals on how one must take care of such an object, which is considered not different from the very God whom it represents. In other words, the image / statue / icon IS God. For those of you coming from Christianity or other reasons, this may seem quite heathenish, but that's quite all right, considering your credo. Anyway, it's not my intention now to expound on idol worship and its pros and cons.
I'm here to talk about (rant, if you will) something that ticks me off. Quite a lot! With such a wealth of meaning behind the use of idols, it's a disgrace when one dances brazenly in front of an idol, that too under the guise of devotion. It speaks of many things - stupidity readily comes to mind - but what I mainly think of is the insolence of the whole thing. Wait, let me come to the point.
It's the Vinaayaka Chathurthi (Ganesh Chathurthi anywhere north of South India) season and in this moronic city, the morons take to the streets and start their kootthu (that's revelry in Tamizh). If revelry is their primary motive, I wouldn't be filled with so much loathing, but when they display the God's idols and then play "Dhoom machaale" and then dance in a demeaning way to the beat of that song (a rather mindless one at that, I must add), I find that my tolerance has been breached. What takes the cake is the organisers of these so-called religious festivities get drunk in the nights before the revelry starts!
When are we ever going to learn to be truthful to a concept or an ideal? These humans! Yuck!
There I was, sitting quietly in front of my laptop, and involved in my daily post-office routine of reading news, checking mails, talking to people, etc., when loud noises from downstairs disturbed me. Within a moment, I realised that it was human noise (yeah, I'm way too quick) and that it was most likely in response to some cricket update on the idiot box (India is playing a match against England now). Even as I was thinking why people must shout to let their happiness (or frustration, as the case may be) be known, I was assaulted by similar, animal-like bellowing from below, presumably from the same house. Twice, mind you!
Undeterred by the feeble attempts to distract me, I let my mind come back to the new line of thought that it was trying to pursue. So, why exactly do people who are merely watching a sport on TV shout out loud when something happens on-screen? Would they do the same if they were alone at home? Or maybe alone in a marooned island (ignoring for the moment where they would have gotten a TV in such a place)?
My powerful brain did its thing, and gave me an answer within a few seconds (I told you I was quick): No. They wouldn't do that if they didn't have company. Not satisfied by my own intelligence, I probed further, this time into my own mind: would I have shouted out loud while watching a match on TV alone? I thought back to such instances, and remembered that though I haven't screamed, I have definitely let out happy / frustrated comments. So, to be fair, I reasoned (for I'm a reasonable man too), it's not beyond the realm of possibility that what commenting is to me, shouting could be to others. Hmmm, interesting!
However, my brain was still not satisfied with this simplistic explanation. I longed to bring my knowledge of Transactional Analysis in the picture. People shout, I told myself, mainly because they want to be stroked. Now suddenly, that made more sense. It also fit in with why people tend to shout / scream more when in the presence of others, no matter who the others are. The so-called "mob psychology" is essentially the craving of a stroke-deprived people to be recognised for something, anything, that would elevate them from the mundaneness of anonymity. Pretty smart, huh? (I told you I was smart!)
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