visit to Sriperumbudur on the occasion of Sri Ramanujars 1000 jayanthi--birthday
Went off to the bus stand dropping my blogging [barricade half way] as hub decided to visit Sri perumbudur on the occasion of Sri Ramanujar,s 999 th birthday,which actually falls tomorrow viz 10 th May but pre poned it by a day to avoid crowds .Sri peumbudur is his place of birth.
Got a AC bus.A woman got in, the plaster on her nose and her throat on left side caught my attention.She had no bindi .Was she of mino community?Was i being stalked in the bus ,?She shooed away a short puny man with tilak who was suspiciously hovering too close to me and stood on the gap between my and hub/s seat.All seats were taken by then so a lot of standees.Very smart in a sari but looked weary.She then started speaking in hindi to her father. Oh i got it ,since 2014 i have been adopted by a powerful father and a powerful mother and people indicate as to who they represent .Being bindi less didn't mean that she was not a hindu as people up north even in my college days never put it on thier forhead till they got married unlike in south where girls have to wear bindi from infancy.Not only girls but also boys and men who decorate their foreheads with vibuthi, chandan, kumkum,sreechurnam , black camphor and, thirumun.Nearly most boys and men sport a tiny length of vibuthee on thier forheads .
In early 2015 when i was off the blog on our return from the first annual ceremony of my b.i.l in the city the young auto driver started lamenting loudly that whilst his mother repaired and set a old punctured tyre of his auto right and it was still running a friend cum lessor who had taken his other auto to repair and set it right had dropped it midway and had absconded and that friend only had to request his mother to repair it and she would have done it gladly.He had a picture of Jesus on his auto and said that he often visited a famous Amman temple in the suburbs.Religious theme in to my life was started to be spread pretty thick since my b.i.l's demise in 2014 .earlier on a sudden discussion regarding the date of Rama rose between me and my neice at laws.when the ceremony got over .They insisted that it was 7 lakh years as per tradition and i said it could be a exaggeration and at the most he would have lived 10.000years back.when i told them that one has to follow the worlds findings regarding date of human civilisation and this is dated at 10000 years .since i believe Rama lived and walked around this land and ruled it i have to give him the date which i can believe and my training and readings in History about the date of human civilisation which is generally agreed upon by various scholars across this world. This offended them and a lot of arguments flowed though both of us agreed that he was a living person but differed on dates.They felt i was questioning hindu traditions ,epics, and hindu concept of time and i felt that they were not applying thier mind and were unduly suspicious and blind to findings ofWestern scientists regarding the date of dawn of civilisation in this planet.
Maybe this conversation was heard as i am a forcibile public property since long and not liked by those who wanted to tune me .A hindu who believes in 7 lakh years as date of Rama can be easily tackled as foolishly traditional and be made fun off and brush of Rama as a figment of imagination but can that be done to a hindu like me who is convinced western dating is right and therefore very convinced that Rama's date can be established without feeling either appolegetic about it the way liberal practising hindus would or fume and froth the way traditionalists would..
i have observed that it is the liberal practising hindus' , who are in awe of certain aspects of other religions and find our religion wanting . i have never felt Hinduism wanting in any manner and was never in awe of any other religion.
ok back to the bus .As we neared Porur a landing in the airport was clearly visible from across the open space which has radars and radio station of the airport .Though houses have come up all over , this place is still left free the way i remember it when i lived here.Was that hindi speaking woman deliberately blockin g me and my hub?She got off few stops later.The board of the stop caught my eyes --Central reserve police.
Felt a sudden sinking .Was she one?Aern't they used in tackling rioteers and naxals?.Was i being shielded from naxals?
Then another woman a lively one started to speak to her mother and stood near me.And the spectacled youth behind me shifted his seat in the corner and sat behind me .He too spoke to his mother!
earlier in turning on the main roads in the city i would get ahead ache in left side [maybe that specs boy gave it]and as i turned automatically towards window i saw a police man glaring at me .This happened thrice.
I glanced around others in the bus.Looked wistfully at faces of midle aged women with their cares written al lover it.Would i ever get back those golden days?When my cares were my own, my joys , my thoughts , my emotions were my ownal minejust like those of other womenWonderful private life.who made me trade it off so forcibily?Even if i have powerful persons reading my writings for preceptionsor ideas will that eevr equal the liofe of a non entity, leading a life of ordinary cares , not thinking beyond family and relatives and at times neighbours and nothing extraordinary?Extraordinery like unravelling this co-ordination of flights, implants rfid and so on .Yes i was pushed in a corner and i am intelligent enough to unravel it yet my dumb comon place life before all this was what was truly satiating.An ordinary normal life where one is the queen of one's house how much ever small it may be .Even a beggar woman living on a pavement leading a life in full public glare has the luxury of privacy of thoughts which i don't .
Her thought could be about next meal and mine considered high like on philosophy or sceintific intelligence like finding out about the trap thrown over me but where is the privacy of those thoughts , leaving that alone i don't even have the privacy to think longingly of my next meal or snack which she has !
The temple was very crowded Villagers lay in exhausted heaps in all the vacant spaces in this temple which is dedicated to kesava perumal and thayar [consort] and has a separate sannidhi for Sri Ramanujar.As i waited for gates to open a spectacled midle aged middle class man came in angle and i felt a sting Either it was he or was being used.Controlled my rising temper and thought even here?Don't these people have any shame ?
Started chanting Narayana loudly.As i stood before Ramanujars moorthy i hoped to gather a glimmer of his strength to overcome the hurdles to chanting the mantras he had proclaimed to all .
The perumal sannidhi was closed Thayaars was open .indicating perumal--father's disapproval.
in the outer perumbulation with walls full of paintings and stone floor of the passag e filled with villagers sleeping off thier exertion in pulling the rath earlier in the day i saw and heard a old man sitting amongst his sleeping frineds , singing about Ramanujar and Alanvandar in simple Tamil .it was neither the 4000divya prabandhams or slokas but could be a family or folk song handed down through generations .He was singing with full devotion and it moved me , instantly wiping away the insult to Sri Ramanujar by stinging me in the parts that are the special targets of my harrasers, in his temple.
I also realised the respect and reverence these Vaishnavaite acharaya command since ages amongst ordinary folks. and i had been thinking that only people like me who have descended from family of scholars and belonging to brahmin caste have such reverence and knowledge.Lost my supercilliouness very happily as vaishnavaites are very few to come by .Felt a kinship with all those simple villagers .
thought would iconic leaders of present day be remembered thus by a villager 1000years later?History books are full of accounts of heroic kings like asoka ., chandra gupta or raja raja chola but does any one remember them with such affection and devotion?
My chappal had gone missing like it did in my visit to Srirangam temple in 2015.Punishment?Hubs was safe and secure,
Walked barefoot on pebble strewn street to a mantap where ramanujars utsavar was placed .Then took a auto and bought a slippers.waited near a shop as hub went to atm a glum youth literrally chased me away to next shop by sweeping and dumping garbage near me .As we stood on opposite side for bus a mosque behind the shop i was chased away. Why?Maybe fear of some one nastying those entering for prayer by nastying me and linking the two.
Bus never came .went to high way .Saw plane take off .now i am always watching planes Took few snaps and soon heard that chup chup-sound of reverse backing of car -yet to unravel this .But i do remember that in 2014 september after days of dehydration i had gone up to get away from the confines of the house that had become morbidly sticky,As i sat facing east gazing at the sky the 3rd floor neigh --woman brah came and started to walk in 8 formation vigourously i ignored her and was in my trance.she even bumped against me .and then stopped to hear something it was that chup chup sound .She left as it got over.when i got up to leave felt a pain in my throat like as if it was slit.
Got a ordinary bus.It got stuck in traffic near Ramachandra hospital vehicles on opposite side were moving.So many! Where was the money for all this?i remember all this area as sleepy little towns and villages with saccely any tarffic on the roads in -1990'.Now there are flats and flats, big brand shops, restaurants , gyms and road brimming with cars and other vehicles',So there is money to be made for the industrious and those focused on making it and goods available to buy and use
It was hot and humid and no breeze.Mind went back to the temple and the devotees.and upcoming elections .I am sure they will all vote so would every person from lower strata.What are they voting so enthusiatically I don't buy papers observation that it is due to high sounding words like democracy is at play and so on .They are voting becuase they want and expect some benifits from persons they are voting for Since they are getting it like cheap food grains or pension or some such upliftment they are voting. so sincerely . Why was i not all that intereseted[ before this brush with politicians that has simply made me lose all my trust] in voting .My basic needs are taken care of unless i am delivered of those promises like clean good roads , also low prices, easy housing,etc upto my level what is the point of voting?Roads corner will be dirty , pavements ,roads encroached -it is always right of lower and poorer classes over our rights .Nothing will change.So what is the use of voting?
When i said this to my dozing hub he got wild and and remonstrated that whether one gets anything in return or not we have been given a democratic right which one must exercise even be it nota.
Then thought of my problem =fascination of politicians with my views etc.Few weeks back in adiscussion with hub im predicted that dmk will win all urban seat here and in cuddalore due to floods.hub didnt agree .he siad aidmk will sweep. i was firm but after few days amended it to if not whole of chennai thye will get this seat and few others. hub firm on sweep.and when toi also published survey i was happy .if my prediction falls flat so would this crack pot chases, questioning i am subject to ,So hope amma really sweeps and doesnt concede even one seat thus denting my image of a seer ,which has become a dead weight around my neck.At least i will get one step nearer to my freedom.
As i sat on in that cramped seat fanning myself with a paper saw a man stare at me from reflection of the mirror near the windshield .deliberate.I stared back .no use he kept on staring.The wait was prolonging on and on .Was it due to me?i changed position sitting slanting on the seat to air my back .immediatyely traffic gave way and we were moving .We were going South east wards and i guess my left side of face was facing east and right north west .it was easy movt henceforward . A gas truck with blue cylinders that kept keeping pace [we were seated in row behind driver] fell back
Came to that open radar space .Saw a plane take off.Was i being co-ordinated and in a tug of war ?did that shift in my seat change something? what ever i started to feel the scrathches near heart .Now on it was bullets that were keeping pace .sudenly realised that i had kept my bag on my lap nera left .changed it to right and scrathces stopped .Was too tired to get angry at people who are using religion to make me scratch all over postponing my anger .
At stop ddint get auto so walked through the tunnel like road due to metro work and wasnearly blown off by vehicle whizzing.some how walked that length and got back home.
The mentally handicapped boy was sitting in the temple.My reception committee earlier the young advocate of my flat received us at the turning by turning his scooter .
written on 9.5.16
.
Got a AC bus.A woman got in, the plaster on her nose and her throat on left side caught my attention.She had no bindi .Was she of mino community?Was i being stalked in the bus ,?She shooed away a short puny man with tilak who was suspiciously hovering too close to me and stood on the gap between my and hub/s seat.All seats were taken by then so a lot of standees.Very smart in a sari but looked weary.She then started speaking in hindi to her father. Oh i got it ,since 2014 i have been adopted by a powerful father and a powerful mother and people indicate as to who they represent .Being bindi less didn't mean that she was not a hindu as people up north even in my college days never put it on thier forhead till they got married unlike in south where girls have to wear bindi from infancy.Not only girls but also boys and men who decorate their foreheads with vibuthi, chandan, kumkum,sreechurnam , black camphor and, thirumun.Nearly most boys and men sport a tiny length of vibuthee on thier forheads .
In early 2015 when i was off the blog on our return from the first annual ceremony of my b.i.l in the city the young auto driver started lamenting loudly that whilst his mother repaired and set a old punctured tyre of his auto right and it was still running a friend cum lessor who had taken his other auto to repair and set it right had dropped it midway and had absconded and that friend only had to request his mother to repair it and she would have done it gladly.He had a picture of Jesus on his auto and said that he often visited a famous Amman temple in the suburbs.Religious theme in to my life was started to be spread pretty thick since my b.i.l's demise in 2014 .earlier on a sudden discussion regarding the date of Rama rose between me and my neice at laws.when the ceremony got over .They insisted that it was 7 lakh years as per tradition and i said it could be a exaggeration and at the most he would have lived 10.000years back.when i told them that one has to follow the worlds findings regarding date of human civilisation and this is dated at 10000 years .since i believe Rama lived and walked around this land and ruled it i have to give him the date which i can believe and my training and readings in History about the date of human civilisation which is generally agreed upon by various scholars across this world. This offended them and a lot of arguments flowed though both of us agreed that he was a living person but differed on dates.They felt i was questioning hindu traditions ,epics, and hindu concept of time and i felt that they were not applying thier mind and were unduly suspicious and blind to findings ofWestern scientists regarding the date of dawn of civilisation in this planet.
Maybe this conversation was heard as i am a forcibile public property since long and not liked by those who wanted to tune me .A hindu who believes in 7 lakh years as date of Rama can be easily tackled as foolishly traditional and be made fun off and brush of Rama as a figment of imagination but can that be done to a hindu like me who is convinced western dating is right and therefore very convinced that Rama's date can be established without feeling either appolegetic about it the way liberal practising hindus would or fume and froth the way traditionalists would..
i have observed that it is the liberal practising hindus' , who are in awe of certain aspects of other religions and find our religion wanting . i have never felt Hinduism wanting in any manner and was never in awe of any other religion.
ok back to the bus .As we neared Porur a landing in the airport was clearly visible from across the open space which has radars and radio station of the airport .Though houses have come up all over , this place is still left free the way i remember it when i lived here.Was that hindi speaking woman deliberately blockin g me and my hub?She got off few stops later.The board of the stop caught my eyes --Central reserve police.
Felt a sudden sinking .Was she one?Aern't they used in tackling rioteers and naxals?.Was i being shielded from naxals?
Then another woman a lively one started to speak to her mother and stood near me.And the spectacled youth behind me shifted his seat in the corner and sat behind me .He too spoke to his mother!
earlier in turning on the main roads in the city i would get ahead ache in left side [maybe that specs boy gave it]and as i turned automatically towards window i saw a police man glaring at me .This happened thrice.
I glanced around others in the bus.Looked wistfully at faces of midle aged women with their cares written al lover it.Would i ever get back those golden days?When my cares were my own, my joys , my thoughts , my emotions were my ownal minejust like those of other womenWonderful private life.who made me trade it off so forcibily?Even if i have powerful persons reading my writings for preceptionsor ideas will that eevr equal the liofe of a non entity, leading a life of ordinary cares , not thinking beyond family and relatives and at times neighbours and nothing extraordinary?Extraordinery like unravelling this co-ordination of flights, implants rfid and so on .Yes i was pushed in a corner and i am intelligent enough to unravel it yet my dumb comon place life before all this was what was truly satiating.An ordinary normal life where one is the queen of one's house how much ever small it may be .Even a beggar woman living on a pavement leading a life in full public glare has the luxury of privacy of thoughts which i don't .
Her thought could be about next meal and mine considered high like on philosophy or sceintific intelligence like finding out about the trap thrown over me but where is the privacy of those thoughts , leaving that alone i don't even have the privacy to think longingly of my next meal or snack which she has !
The temple was very crowded Villagers lay in exhausted heaps in all the vacant spaces in this temple which is dedicated to kesava perumal and thayar [consort] and has a separate sannidhi for Sri Ramanujar.As i waited for gates to open a spectacled midle aged middle class man came in angle and i felt a sting Either it was he or was being used.Controlled my rising temper and thought even here?Don't these people have any shame ?
Started chanting Narayana loudly.As i stood before Ramanujars moorthy i hoped to gather a glimmer of his strength to overcome the hurdles to chanting the mantras he had proclaimed to all .
The perumal sannidhi was closed Thayaars was open .indicating perumal--father's disapproval.
in the outer perumbulation with walls full of paintings and stone floor of the passag e filled with villagers sleeping off thier exertion in pulling the rath earlier in the day i saw and heard a old man sitting amongst his sleeping frineds , singing about Ramanujar and Alanvandar in simple Tamil .it was neither the 4000divya prabandhams or slokas but could be a family or folk song handed down through generations .He was singing with full devotion and it moved me , instantly wiping away the insult to Sri Ramanujar by stinging me in the parts that are the special targets of my harrasers, in his temple.
I also realised the respect and reverence these Vaishnavaite acharaya command since ages amongst ordinary folks. and i had been thinking that only people like me who have descended from family of scholars and belonging to brahmin caste have such reverence and knowledge.Lost my supercilliouness very happily as vaishnavaites are very few to come by .Felt a kinship with all those simple villagers .
thought would iconic leaders of present day be remembered thus by a villager 1000years later?History books are full of accounts of heroic kings like asoka ., chandra gupta or raja raja chola but does any one remember them with such affection and devotion?
My chappal had gone missing like it did in my visit to Srirangam temple in 2015.Punishment?Hubs was safe and secure,
Walked barefoot on pebble strewn street to a mantap where ramanujars utsavar was placed .Then took a auto and bought a slippers.waited near a shop as hub went to atm a glum youth literrally chased me away to next shop by sweeping and dumping garbage near me .As we stood on opposite side for bus a mosque behind the shop i was chased away. Why?Maybe fear of some one nastying those entering for prayer by nastying me and linking the two.
Bus never came .went to high way .Saw plane take off .now i am always watching planes Took few snaps and soon heard that chup chup-sound of reverse backing of car -yet to unravel this .But i do remember that in 2014 september after days of dehydration i had gone up to get away from the confines of the house that had become morbidly sticky,As i sat facing east gazing at the sky the 3rd floor neigh --woman brah came and started to walk in 8 formation vigourously i ignored her and was in my trance.she even bumped against me .and then stopped to hear something it was that chup chup sound .She left as it got over.when i got up to leave felt a pain in my throat like as if it was slit.
Got a ordinary bus.It got stuck in traffic near Ramachandra hospital vehicles on opposite side were moving.So many! Where was the money for all this?i remember all this area as sleepy little towns and villages with saccely any tarffic on the roads in -1990'.Now there are flats and flats, big brand shops, restaurants , gyms and road brimming with cars and other vehicles',So there is money to be made for the industrious and those focused on making it and goods available to buy and use
It was hot and humid and no breeze.Mind went back to the temple and the devotees.and upcoming elections .I am sure they will all vote so would every person from lower strata.What are they voting so enthusiatically I don't buy papers observation that it is due to high sounding words like democracy is at play and so on .They are voting becuase they want and expect some benifits from persons they are voting for Since they are getting it like cheap food grains or pension or some such upliftment they are voting. so sincerely . Why was i not all that intereseted[ before this brush with politicians that has simply made me lose all my trust] in voting .My basic needs are taken care of unless i am delivered of those promises like clean good roads , also low prices, easy housing,etc upto my level what is the point of voting?Roads corner will be dirty , pavements ,roads encroached -it is always right of lower and poorer classes over our rights .Nothing will change.So what is the use of voting?
When i said this to my dozing hub he got wild and and remonstrated that whether one gets anything in return or not we have been given a democratic right which one must exercise even be it nota.
Then thought of my problem =fascination of politicians with my views etc.Few weeks back in adiscussion with hub im predicted that dmk will win all urban seat here and in cuddalore due to floods.hub didnt agree .he siad aidmk will sweep. i was firm but after few days amended it to if not whole of chennai thye will get this seat and few others. hub firm on sweep.and when toi also published survey i was happy .if my prediction falls flat so would this crack pot chases, questioning i am subject to ,So hope amma really sweeps and doesnt concede even one seat thus denting my image of a seer ,which has become a dead weight around my neck.At least i will get one step nearer to my freedom.
As i sat on in that cramped seat fanning myself with a paper saw a man stare at me from reflection of the mirror near the windshield .deliberate.I stared back .no use he kept on staring.The wait was prolonging on and on .Was it due to me?i changed position sitting slanting on the seat to air my back .immediatyely traffic gave way and we were moving .We were going South east wards and i guess my left side of face was facing east and right north west .it was easy movt henceforward . A gas truck with blue cylinders that kept keeping pace [we were seated in row behind driver] fell back
Came to that open radar space .Saw a plane take off.Was i being co-ordinated and in a tug of war ?did that shift in my seat change something? what ever i started to feel the scrathches near heart .Now on it was bullets that were keeping pace .sudenly realised that i had kept my bag on my lap nera left .changed it to right and scrathces stopped .Was too tired to get angry at people who are using religion to make me scratch all over postponing my anger .
At stop ddint get auto so walked through the tunnel like road due to metro work and wasnearly blown off by vehicle whizzing.some how walked that length and got back home.
The mentally handicapped boy was sitting in the temple.My reception committee earlier the young advocate of my flat received us at the turning by turning his scooter .
written on 9.5.16
.
Labels: Travel
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5:07 AM
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