Skip to main content

Bastards, Saints and India


This cartoon fascinated me.  Just like most cartoons in The Hindu, this too unfolds the infinity before us, the ordinary mortals.

The sadhu and the sadhvi are supposed to live a life of renunciation.  They should be somewhere in the Himalayas braving the snow and the landslides.  Or in some jungle covered with a gargantuan anthill.  Acquiring the wisdom that they failed to acquire in the normal course of life.  Instead they are in the Indian Parliament calling some Indians bastards.   

The Parliamentary proceedings in India have been stalled for days because of one such saintly woman who became a sadhvi by climbing up the elevator of success with the help of the Prime Minister rather than climbing up the arduous stairs of austerity and contemplation.  Or plain hard work like a few of us Indians.

In the meanwhile the government of India, under Mr Modi’s dynamic leadership, had already cut down Rs 11,000 crore from the Education budget.  Education is not important.  Becoming a sadhu or a sadhvi may help.  (Sanskrit is important in that process.)  Becoming a trader will help better.  Becoming a politician will surely help.

I am a bastard teacher in this country.  Bastard, because I belong to that category  officially designated by Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti, Union Minister appointed by Mr Narendra Modi.  Teacher, because that is my profession for the last three decades. 

Thank you, Prime Minister, for giving such wonderful laurels to your citizens.   

But look at the cartoon once again, please.  The halo keeps changing even before the people are dead.  Today’s hero is destined to be tomorrow’s bastard, especially in your regime. 
Labels:

Comments

  1. www.lifepartneracademy.comDecember 7, 2014 at 1:03 PM

    It was indeed a humiliating and embarrassing remark from a Parliamentarian. Wonder if future parliamentarians will have people from all factions except the smart and educated class.

    Teachers are next to parents and there's hardly any respect to this profession unfortunately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 7, 2014 at 3:43 PM

      Even if one is not highly educated, one can be civilised, I'm sure. A sadhvi has to be more than civilised. Such remarks coming from a sadhu or sadhvi make us sit up in shock.

      The profession of teaching was mentioned only to imply that I consider it my identity. Such identities are also under threat these days, it looks like.

      Delete
  2. IndraniDecember 7, 2014 at 6:30 PM

    That is too unfortunate about the slashing of budget for core sectors. Really worried what negative effect this is going lead to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 8, 2014 at 9:37 AM

      I'm afraid Mr Modi has got his priorities all wrong. He may bring in some economic achievements and also succeed in making Pakistan a more intimidating enemy. Beyond that, he is likely to do a lot of harm to the country - that's my perception.

      Delete
  3. Kokila guptaDecember 8, 2014 at 11:13 AM

    we beat ourselves in derogatory remarks, uncouthness and barbarism ... corruption, misdemeanour and not being human ko to hum bahut pehle hi peeche chod aayen hai... it one of the many the lowest of lows which we can go ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 8, 2014 at 1:42 PM

      Perhaps, it is more about winning Brownie points, Kokila. I think the BJP workers are vying with one another to get noticed by the PM who has already become a Superman. They are making such statements merely to get his approval. He opposes such statements in public but appreciates them privately, I guess. See the kind of people whom he promotes to higher positions.

      Delete
  4. UnknownDecember 8, 2014 at 12:23 PM

    I was so impressed with our prime minister when he spoke to the students of our country on teachers day. I have no shame in admitting that I like our PMs style of working. This time though I am at a loss of words, how does it make sense in cutting the budget? Teachers are already paid peanuts, there aren't enough schools and now this budget cut. Working when kids are small is important for us to have a good set of citizens, this cut is going to harm us in many ways, specially our future.

    Sadhu and Sadhvis in today's world are people who are entire caught in every aspect of every sin, but they wear the saffron color and are given respect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 8, 2014 at 1:43 PM

      Priorities are changing, Athena, as I commented above.

      Religion is a commercial enterprise today. Nothing to do with spirituality. See the ways Babas are being exposed.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 4

The footpath between Park Avenue and Subhash Bose Park The Park Avenue in Ernakulam is flanked by gigantic rain trees with their branches arching over the road like a cathedral of green. They were not so domineering four decades ago when I used to walk beneath their growing canopies. The Park Avenue with its charming, enormous trees has a history too. King Rama Varma of Kochi ordered trees to be planted on either side of the road and make it look like a European avenue. He also developed a park beside it. The park was named after him, though today it is divided into two parts, with one part named after Subhash Chandra Bose and the other after Indira Gandhi. We can never say how long Indira Gandhi’s name will remain there. Even Sardar Patel, whom the right wing apparently admires, was ousted from the world’s biggest cricket stadium which was renamed Narendra Modi Stadium by Narendra Modi.   Renaming places and roads and institutions is one of the favourite pastimes of the pres...
11 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 3

Street leading to St Francis Church, Fort Kochi There were Christians in Kerala long before the Brahmins, who came to be known as Namboothiris, landed in the state from North India some time after 6 th century CE. Tradition has it that Thomas, disciple of Jesus, brought Christianity to Kerala in the first century. That is quite possible, given the trade relationships that Kerala had with the Roman Empire in those days. Pliny the Elder, Roman author, chastised in his encyclopaedic work, Natural History (published around 77 CE), the Romans’ greed for pepper from India. He was displeased with his country spending “no less than fifty million sesterces” on a commodity which had no value other than its “certain pungency.” Did Thomas sail on one of the many ships that came to Kerala to purchase “pungency”? Possible.   Even if Thomas did not come, the advent of Christianity in Kerala precedes the arrival of the Namboothiris. The Persians established trade links with Kerala in 4 ...
10 comments
Read more

Five Microtales

1.        Development             Chamar, Lohar, Mehtar and many others stood at a distance, along with their families, and watched their huts being pulled down by a bulldozer. They were asked to leave the place where they had been living for decades. “The government has taken over this land for development works,” an officer said. Chamar, Lohar, Mehtar and the others spread their bedsheets under a flyover over which flew opulent vehicles of development.   2.        Impersonation             The old woman went to the Women’s Welfare office. She wanted to register herself for the Prime Minister’s monthly welfare scheme for the old and unemployable women. She placed her thumb on the scanner for Aadhar authentication. “Not matching,” the officer said. She was arrested for trying to impersonate. Sitti...
8 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 1

Inside St Francis Church, Fort Kochi Moraes Zogoiby (Moor), the narrator-protagonist of Salman Rushdie’s iconic novel The Moor’s Last Sigh , carries in his genes a richly variegated lineage. His mother, Aurora da Gama, belongs to the da Gama family of Kochi, who claim descent from none less than Vasco da Gama, the historical Portuguese Catholic explorer. Abraham Zogoiby, his father, is a Jew whose family originally belonged to Spain from where they were expelled by the Catholic Inquisition. Kochi welcomed all the Jews who arrived there in 1492 from Spain. Vasco da Gama landed on the Malabar coast of Kerala in 1498. Today’s Fort Kochi carries the history of all those arrivals and subsequent mingling of history and miscegenation of races. Kochi’s history is intertwined with that of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, the Arbas, the Jews, and the Chinese. No culture is a sacrosanct monolith that can remain untouched by other cultures that keep coming in from all over the world. ...
7 comments
Read more