Friday, the 12th of February was Maha Shivaratri. Now I don't know why it is celebrated.
May be, like most of the other Hindu festivals, it has got something to do with murder.
Haven't you noticed? Most of the Hindu festivals are there because the Lord, in his/her some form or other had killed the bad guy(s). I think in Kerala, a certain God has a certain kind of monopoly in a certain area. For example, Lord Krishna has his ways in Guruvayur. The people of Guruvayur have their allegiance pledged to him. Now people in Vaikkom would dare not, utter any name, other than "Shiva shiva". Well in my small village Lord Shankara(Shiva) rules. I have very fond memories of Shivaratri as a kid. But I had missed this for the past 6 years as I was trotting from hostel to hostel, doing nothing. The 10-12 day festivities comes to an end with the "Aarattu"(the immersion of the lord's idol in the temple pond). There is a huge procession with elephants, decorated floats, " chenda melam", "panchari melam", "singari melam" and drunkards. In short its a feast for your eyes.
All those years I used to watch this from the courtyard of a house that belonged to a Muslim family, with whom my family were friends with, even before my dad was born. Now the point is that, in our small village a festival is for everyone. There is just people and no divisions.
Kasim maama(everybody calls him so), the head of this family is one of the most cordial and affable persons I have ever met in my life. That should be the reason, why his courtyard and house were so packed on occasions like this.
I had to take my grandmother to Kasim maama's house at around 7.00 in the evening to watch the parade. We reached there and was sitting in the living room with his grand kids watching Tom & Jerry. All of a sudden a mob rushed in. Don't worry it was not the usual kind. It was mostly elderly and middle aged women and a few girls. Finding a place to sit, was a bit difficult for the ones who came in a bit late. I got up from my seat, a bit confused about what the commotion was about. Sweating profusely and panting heavily an elderly lady in the group said to the little girl holding the remote: " Koche vegam aa Asianet onu kuthi thaa. Maanasaputhri ipo thudangum...".(Kid quickly change the channel to Asianet, Maanasaputhri(the 7.00pm soap opera) will be starting soon). Now i couldn't help myself, the words came quickly of my mouth. Two words," HOLY SHIT",that is all I said. I am pretty sure that not many people in that room understood what that is. But I did get a look of disgust from one of the younger girls.
I quickly took my leave from the room. Sitting on a chair outside, I was thinking how could people watch this kind of crap and that too for this long.(the soap in focus have been aired for some 3 years running ). Now no one in my family watched this crap.They watched the even more pathetic, one aired just after this. If my memory serves me right it is called Parijatham. I can't believe my eyes and ears when I see my retired dad sitting and arguing with his mother about the moral righteousness of the lead character or how wicked the mother-in-law is. I mean, I can understand if my grandmother curses the wicked "bahu"(daughter-in-law) or fold her hands into a prayer when the lead lady is about to be subjected to domestic violence, but my own father... how could he possibly do this????!!!!
I think it is high time we pull the plug on such waste of premium airtime. Why don't they just put on a nice family movie during that time??? I usually don't like reality television. But it is a tad better than this bull crap. What do you think????
