Jallikattu

(Yeah!!! A long one..)

One of THE traditional sports of TamilNadu..

To explain in short, People will train bulls (from the time they were calves) for Jallikattu. The bulls will be allowed to run from a particular place. And people will attempt to catch it. If a person can hold the bull and run for a particular distance or time, then the person will be declared the winner. If nobody could, the bull will be the winner. These bulls will be used for breeding. Basically, Jallikkattu is the process of identifying cows which are stronger. And the next generation calves will be stronger and healthier as well.

Initially, this sport might have played for fun. Later, people started associating this with Pride. ie. The more confidence the owner has on his bull, the more prize they declare for the person who can win the bull. Sometimes, the owners may even give their daughters for marriage as a winning gift for the person who can win the bull. And some people take this as an opportunity to take revenge on the owner of the bull. By winning the bull, they feel like they destroyed the pride of the owner and defeated him.

When pride is involved, people will do whatever it takes to retain it. So, there may be cases where the owners give liquor/alcohol to the bulls so that they will become even more uncontrollable. Yes.. This is not a safe sport. The bulls may try to attack the people and people may get hurt. It might lead to people’s death also.

This is not a sport that was introduced a few hundred years earlier. This was being played for thousands of years. And, this is part of our Tamil culture.

Since the past 10-15 years, the animal activists say that as people are getting hurt and bulls are mistreated, they want to ban Jallikkattu. To me this seemed to be for a good cause and so I liked the ban. But, it will till I didn’t know the other side of the story..

Now the other side:

Some animal welfare organizations are imposing a ban on Jallikkattu. If the animals are their main concern, why don’t they bring a ban on Non-vegetarian food? Cows, Goats, Chicken gets killed in millions a day, all over the world.. And somewhere I heard that, when people kill animals, they’ll make the other animals to watch it. Because, this will bring fear into them and that produces some hormones in those animals. These hormones seems to improve the taste of the meat. As there is no ban on non-veg food, there should definitely be some other reason behind it..

In India, there may not be any house that doesn’t consume any of dairy products. Coffee/tea/milk/curd/butter milk/ghee/butter.. So, there is a huge market for milk in here. Market is a good place to make money. Money attracts people. And there comes some western countries who wants to make money. India has a good number of cows and they are strong. So, how can the western countries enter our market when we are self sufficient with the cows??

So, this is their analysis. List down the uses of cows. Agriculture, Milk, Jallikkattu and for food (beef). And cow dung is used as fertilizers.

Hindus worship cow as god and it is a devotional animal. Also, people consider cows as another mother for children. But, people in some other countries eat beef. Even today, if you see, 99% of the Hindus won’t eat beef. But, India having people from different cultures, they started introducing beef and some people export beef to other countries. For beef, they need cows. And they have to capture our milk market also. What they have to do? They have to minimize the use for cows.

The remaining are Agriculture, Milk and Jallikkattu.

They introduced Tractors in Agriculture. Tractors made the job of farmer easier, faster and cost effective. Also, with the invent of chemical fertilizers, cow dung is not used much in the agriculture. Now, farmers being not that rich in India, they didn’t find much use for the cows.

They introduced cows from other countries. That gives more milk (per day) and requires a big maintenance cost. Due to the big milk market, people started getting more western cows. These cows run out of milk much sooner than our Indian cows. Also, the milk they produce is not healthy for us. And, people were not aware of that. So, they slowly entered Indian Milk market.

Now Jallikkattu being the source of identifying the best bulls, and it is not completely safe, their vision turned towards Jallikkattu and this is where we are now..

Everybody knows smoking is Injurious for health. But, they didn’t ban smoking. Instead, they put strict regulations to it. Even if you take cricket, we know that players have died while playing. They didn’t ban cricket. Instead, they took precaution. Why? Because, there is lot of money involved.

Each Jallikkattu sends out a chill, down the spines of those western countries who wants to capture Indian Milk Market. That is where the animal welfare organizations come in. And now, they are trying to ban the sport.

In Spain, I think the end of bull fight is that the man kills the bull. But, in here, if a bull got injured during Jallikkattu, people consider it as a bad omen for the whole village.

Indian culture is something close to nature. It is not designed for mankind only. It is designed with the whole eco-system around mankind in mind. The practices we follow should help man and in no way disturb the eco-system in which he is in.

Pongal is a festival where we thank the entities involved in agriculture. On Pongal day, they worship and thank Sun. The next day is for the Cows. I am not sure whether there is any other country that gives this much importance to Agriculture.

When I was a kid, I used to carry an yellow cloth bag to market when I have to buy stuff. Or a stainless steel vessel for liquid items. Later came the polythene and plastic bags. Now we realize that they are harmful for nature and we are back to those older ways. Indian culture is exactly like this.

At a certain age, when our father gives us advise, we’ll think that he is old fashioned and whatever he says doesn’t suit the current time. But, when we grow older, we realize that everything he said/did was for our good and is the right thing to do. Indian culture is like the father and western culture is like the growing kid. The problem with India is that they didn’t realize that they are great. I would request other countries to learn from our traditions instead of trying to take advantage over us. Come and learn from us and we will be happy to teach you our traditions.

NEVER DARE TO TOUCH OUR TRADITIONS!! This is like keep on compressing a blown balloon. After a certain point, the pressure inside will increase and the balloon will burst and nobody will be able to make out its actual shape. And, people who are trying to touch our traditions are like the balloons.

When demonetization was announced, nobody protested. Yes.. Some people were against it. But, it was not even close to the opposition on the ban on Jallikkattu. Because, people feel that, even it is going to create some inconveniences, it is a good step toward eliminating corruption. But, we protest against the ban on Jallikkattu. Because, we know that it is NOT right.

Rules are meant for the well being of man. And to maintain the cultures. People follow rules, because they realize it is for the good. But, when you keep pressing us for something that we all know is not good, you have to be prepared for the chaos. And, you have to blame only yourself for the outcome. Because, YOU ASKED FOR IT.

If you are going to ban Jallikkattu, we’ll want to encourage the bulls and we want them to spend some quality time with its friends. So, we’ll find a place, where the owners of the bulls can come and the bulls can meet each other and have a blast. In their enjoyment, if some of the bulls ran from the meeting spot, the owners are going to ask people for help. And if somebody can get the bull, the owners will thank them with some gifts. 🙂

When you hurt nature, it will take it. This has increased in the last couple of centuries. Industries, mines, killing trees.. But, when it crosses the limit, it will come back with a vengeance. And, nobody ( I mean NOBODY) can stand against it. Once nature has shown us who is the boss, we have to start from square one. And lets try our best not to do it.

I SUPPORT JALLIKKATTU!!! Lets save Mother Nature!!!

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Why temples?

Tags

India, Indian temples, kalasam, Keppai, Kumbabhibeshekam, Kumbabishekam, lightning rod, temple, tower, Varagu

Recently, I got a forwarded message in one of my WhatsApp groups. It was in Tamil and thought of translating to my limited English..

Since 1000s of years, they used to say/do the following things about temples in India:

*) Dont live in towns without temples

*) In a town, there should be no buildings taller than the temple’s tower.

*) Every 12 years they used to do some Poojas on the temple’s towers. That we call “Kumbabishekam” (This is where my limited knowledge of english comes into play..) 😦 This should also help..

We would be thinking, there are because of the following reasons respectively..

*) God will protect us

*) There is no one above god and so this is a sign of respect

*) Refresh God’s power

But, there is Science behind it.. And that gave me one more reason to become proud being an INDIAN..

Here is the “What” part of Kumbabishekam:

The Crown of the tower in temples are made up some metals like Gold,Silver,Copper,Brass,Lead that we call as “Aimpon/Panchaloha“. These metals will be made in a shape of a cone/cup (We call it as Kalasam) and they will fill it with Millets, Rice, Salt, Corn and few food items kept at the top of the towers. Every 12 years these food items will be taken out and refilled with new ones.

Now comes the “Why”/Science part:

Why do they make the Kalasam and fill it up?

*) All these metals and millets can absorb lighting. So, each tower acts as a “Lightning Rod”. The taller the tower, the wider area it can protect. So, in some temples there will be towers on all four directions. Each of them protect a wide area of the town. If the tower is 50 meters tall, it can protect people within the radius of minimum 50m. (100m in diameter)..These towers absorbs the lightning and protect the whole town. That is the reason, for the saying “Don’t stay in a town without temples”.

*) And in those days, it used to rain for longer.. Sometimes months together.. In those cases, all the crops may be spoiled. And, the houses may also be flooded and even they wont have anything for planting for the next season Now, where do they get the seeds for the next season? The place is from the temple’s Kalasam. So savings for future.

Why refilled every 12 years?

*) 12 years is the expiry period of the seeds kept inside the Kalasam. After 12 years, millets looses the ability to absorb lightning. So, each twelve years, they refill it with fresh ones..

This procedure is being followed for 1000s of years in India. Means, Science has developed this much 1000s of years back.

On reading this, I decided to blog/brag about it and I am feeling proud (as always) to be an INDIAN !!!

My India!!!

Tags

India, Indian culture

A Biggie after a long time!!!

If you are wondering, what made me to write a blog with this topic!!

Yesterday, I watched a program in TV (accidentally while shifting channels).. They were showing the pollution (in Yamuna River) in India. And suddenly, I remembered that a few weeks back, I saw another program where they were showing about Child trafficking in India. And this chain triggered me think about the movies in which India is portrayed.. When I think about them, they show only slums or crowd. And nothing else. If you have seen any other non-Indian movies showing other than these, do post a comment.

I hope this is not a scheme by other countries to portray that India is inferior in front of the rest of the world. In an effort to say that, “Yes! We are moving jobs to India. Look, This is how India is!! Its poor, polluted, corrupt.. We are trying to improve this country!! Don’t panic. We are not ignoring you.”

Look at the positives of India.

We have nature at our side. We grow everything we need to eat in India itself. Climate wise, other than a few seasonal natural disasters that too in a few specific areas of the country, the most part is liveable throughout the year. I am not talking about the border issues. These are man-made and not natural.

We are good at whatever involves brain activities. Our ancestors were great at Astronomy, Mathematics… There has been lots of things that our ancestors have told, which after many years of research, scientists are approving that they are correct. If you think these is old, think about Mangalyaan. The most recent achievement. We reached Mars less than the auto fare and that too in the first attempt itself. This proves that we have potential.

You might have come across this. “We were using Salt and Charcoal for brushing our teeth for 100s of years. When British came, they said you do things like tribal people. Use paste and that is fashionable. Nowadays, advertisements ask, do you have salt or charcoal in your paste??” This may sound funny.. But when you think about it, we can realize that, other countries sell our technologies to us at a higher price.

I have came across some comedy TV serials. But whatever jokes they talk are only about sex. It deals with the activity or the body parts involved. Think about our jokes? They are damn funny and if there are any sexual indications in it, they have faced severe oppositions from our general public. I can quote a lots of names in our cinema that have created a trend in comedy and that doesn’t involve sexual dialogues.

Think about our tradition. Whatever we follow, or we are told to follow, have a reason behind it. Some of them are mentioned in this post. Some of them may not make sense now. But, for the world at the time of creation of these traditions,  they made perfect sense. There is no harm in following them now. But if we choose to ignore, we should be sure that we are not going to loose anything.

Now, I don’t feel proud when they say that, people of Indian origin working in So and so (non-indian) organization did this!! Or, in this place this % are of Indian Origin. These are not something to be proud of. If somebody shot the target with your arrow, you cannot proudly say that, “That is my arrow he shot with!!”. It is the shooter’s pride and not the owner’s. What we should feel is that, we missed one opportunity to realize that person’s potential or we missed an achievement.

In a movie, I heard a dialogue: “A few years back, if we dig one feet, we’ll see 100s of earthworms. We started using chemical fertilizers. And now, all is gone”. So true!! We were using natural fertilizers for 1000s of years and survived. But within a couple of decades of using chemical fertilizers, we spoiled our lands. And now, we are doing real estate in those lands. After a few more decades what are we going to eat??

India is the second top country in the world, when it comes to Population. Sounds Embarrassing or bad?? Ok.. What about “India is the second top country in the world, when it comes to Man Power”!! Feel the potential in India ? Its all about perspective. Some countries think the population perspective when they want to market their products. And some think the Man-power perspective when they want to outsource the jobs. What should we think??

To my Non-Indian Friends:

Whatever you see in the media, is not the whole India. There is a greener side to it and this post doesn’t even mention the tip of the Ice berg.

To the Indian media:

We have been ruled over by different people back to back.. French, Dutch, Moguls, British.. Inspite of all that, we have maintained quite a lot of our tradition and culture. Now-a-days, the western culture is dominating ours. Being ruled over for 100s of years have created an inferiority complex within us. We are easily convinced that our traditions are unfit for the society. It is your responsibility to break this. You should expose the reality/science behind these traditions. Your biggest responsibility is to “Implant the proudness of being Indian in every Indian” instead of focussing on only your TRP ratings. We have seen quite a few people grown only because of you. Quite a movies became a hit only because of you. So, this will definitely be like a child’s play for you.

To the corrupt politicians:

Lots of countries doesn’t have the support from nature. Still they have developed enormously. If we think about India, we have everything we need. We just need the right leaders and right plans in place. Recognize the talents and encourage them.

To Indian media and corrupt politicians:

Just like a product trial, try being honest for the next 5 years. Work towards the development of India and if the people are not satisfied with the results, go back to your own ways.. What say?? I think every Indian will agree to this deal !!!

Request to my Indian friends living outside India:

We work here. We make money. And, Yes!! There is lot of pollution and corruption in India. But that should not be a reason for us to ignore India and keep complaining about it. We know the greatness of India. We know the culture and traditions. We know whatever is being portrayed in media may not be the real India. Wherever we are, Let us follow some traditions that we like/understand and explain the advantages to our non-indian friends.

I am and always will be proud of India.. You??

Do you believe in God???

Tags

culture, Do you believe in God, God, kolam, rituals, tamil

Sometime or the other, you would have faced the question in your life. Do you believe in God? Same with me!!! I spent some time thinking about it and decide to blog about it..

This post is not the reflection of whether I believe in God or not!! Just my thought about the origin of the concept called God and the question..

If you have any comments, feel free to post!!

Long back, there could be somebody who might have started thinking about the origin of life. That person would have thought and thought and thought and would have come to a conclusion that there should be somebody who would have created life and that is God. And that person would have discussed and debated and finally convinced a set of people. And all would have agreed that God exists. And those people would have defined the qualities for God. That, God is powerful, good, helps people in need, destroys evil and punishes evil doers,… And they would have spread the concept in the hope to prevent people from doing bad things or follow somethings that would be good for them. May be if somebody refused to follow a certain practices, they would have associated it with God and said, If you do this, (only ???) then God will do good/help for you.

Also, It is quite possible that some of the God’s stories that we hear/know are actually some real “normal” person’s story and they would have been polished with a touch of God’s characteristics as and when necessary/possible.

Some of the rituals we follow and the possible reasons behind them: I am familiar only with Indian/Tamil culture. So my examples are based on that. If you have any such ideas, it would be my pleasure if you can add it as a comment.

Lighting lamps in the evenings -> Actual reason is, at that time there was no electricity. Lamps lets the travelers/passers by, know that there is somebody living nearby and if they need any help, they can approach. What we are told is, Only then Goddess Lakshmi will come to our house and give all wealth.

Using rice flour for Kolam -> Actual reason is, there are thousands of small lifes living around our house. Rice flour is to feed them. If it is for feeding, why not just dump the flour? Why Kolam? If that is your question, It could have been followed for sometime. Then, somebody with a creative mind would have thought, why to just dump it.. I can draw something so that the front of my home will look good as well. This could be the origin of Kolam. What we are told is, again, Only then Goddess Lakshmi will come to our house and give all wealth.

Using cow dung to clean houses -> Actual reason is, Insects can come to into the houses and nobody wants them to.. And, cow dung keeps them away. What we are told is, Cow is a devotional animal and so we have to do it.

Shouldn’t cut nails at night -> Actual reason is, at that time, there is no bright light at homes at night. So, if a nail falls on floor, it will either prick us or gets mixed with food. And this is the same reason people say not to throw garbage at night. As some valuable articles may get mixed with garbage (by mistake), we’ll end up throwing it. What we are told is, if you do this, you will loose your wealth/money..

Chant God’s name if you are not sleeping at night -> Actual reason is, If we are not sleeping, our mind will keep thinking something or the other. They would have thought instead of thinking about unnecessary things, let them focus on one thing and let it be God.

Fasting in the thought of God -> Actual reason is, I heard from somebody that, if we did fasting for a day in a week, it is good for our health/stomach. A rest for stomach. So, they dedicated each day for a God and gave options to people. If you pray that god, you can fast on that day..

There will be a lot more of such actions that will have an actual reason. But, they are covered under the name of God/ritual. Some people who don’t believe in God, as these practices are associated with God, wont follow these things.

If you see, most of such actions are all defined for the well being of people. Those ancestors successfully associated these activities with devotion and convinced people to follow it. And this wouldn’t have been achieved by one person or in one generation..This should have taken centuries..

To Believers: If you are following some rituals, realize why you are doing it. Somethings are not applicable in today’s world.

To Non-Believers :  If you are deciding not to follow some rituals, think again. You may be loosing something.

And coming back to the question: Those ancestors would have defined qualities for being a good person. And told people that “if you are good, God will help you, otherwise they will be punished by God and they are categorized as bad.”

So, when they meet others, if they want to know whether they are good or bad, they cannot directly ask “Are you good or bad..”.. Instead they asked, “Do you believe in God?” If the answer is yes, then that person lives his life based on certain rules and will not do evil/bad things. This is how it would have started..

But, nowadays, this question is becoming irrelevant. Reason: We know a few “Ananda”s who claimed they are saints and we know what they did and where they are now. Also, there are a lot more “non-Ananda”s who does whatever they want, and all in the name of God.. And we know quite a lot of people who denied/denies the existence of God and they have changed human life in a good way. (Either did things for others, or inspired others to do things like them.).

So, next time, if you are going to ask this question to somebody, think what you are really trying to know from them and if it makes sense to ask this question, go ahead!!

Alcoholism in movies

Tags

alcoholism, Indian culture, movies

Drinking is not an Indian culture. I don’t say that nobody drinks.. But, people will have a guilty feeling when they do.

In olden movies, the actors will drink only when they are sad or bad (villains). If the good guy drinks, either he will die because of drinking or he will quit drinking.. That kind of made sense. But, nowadays, the hero or his friend drinks. Whether they are happy or sad doesn’t matter. As if it is part of daily life.. There are very very very very few movies that doesn’t have alcohol in it in the past 5-6 years.. This sends a wrong message to the next generation.

I read that, the government makes a lot of profit from wine shops. Somehow this makes me think whether the government is indirectly forcing the media industry to have atleast one scene where somebody drinks…

If the directors say that the story needs it, how did the (g)older movie directors made movies for ages without any drinking scenes.. Can anybody show/name me a movie where MGR had alcohol?? Didn’t those stories had the so called “situations”? If he wanted, do you think he couldn’t have included such scenes? Because, he wanted to send ONLY the RIGHT messages to people. And HE STOOD BY IT.

Don’t BS me saying that this is the culture now. Still, there are millions who are afraid to go home after taking drinks and don’t drink for that reason alone.

Showing “Drinking is injurious to health” at the beginning of the movie alone is not enough.. If you really mean it, why the *** do you need those scenes in your movies??

Film industry, Movies have a greater reach. It is a powerful media.. Do not misuse it and Please DO NOT SPOIL THE UPCOMING GENERATION.. By watching the movies, we can build an opinion about those olden days.. This is also like recording the culture in history.. DO NOT DEFAME OUR CULTURE…

Our Generation Vs The current generation

This post is an effect of watching a TV show and reading an article on a magazine.

When we were kids, we have seen, used, done some things. How many of such things that the current generation know that they exists/existed??

NOTE: As I dont know the english word for some of the objects that I have seen and used, Im going to transliterate them.

For example: Maththu, Agappai, Ammi kal (Our Mixey), Aattu kal/Ural (Grinder), Ammi Kuzhavi, Mann jaadi (Clay jug), Mann Paanai (Clay pot), Yeru (plough), Kayitru kattil (Cot made with wood and rope), Maattu vandi, Nadai Vandi (Helps the kids to start walking), Bommai Kudhirai (A wooden horse that keeps rocking to and fro)… These are very few objects that I have seen and used.. But the current generation (even us) don’t use..

If you see, everything is nature friendly. Nothing will spoil the nature.

We play daily on the streets for hours together after school. What all the traditional games that we have played? Ghilli (Mother of cricket), Kabaddi, Nondi (Hopping), Pambaram (Top), Goli (I think these are called as marbles), Kannamoochi (Hide and seek), Pacha Kudhirai (Kind of high jump but over another person)…

Think about how we play on summer holidays under the hot sun and come home with litres of sweat? And, how we feel when we drink a jug of water from mann paanai and get back to our games? Do not forget to remember our moms shouting at us to come home… 🙂

How many of the kids from this generation know that such games exist? How many kids play on streets? Also, all the games makes us healthy and strong. Nowadays, every kid is into tabs, computer games and TV. And, NONE of these is good for health..

There was nothing in our grand parent’s days that is currently being shown in TV Ads and still they survived for 60+years easily without any health issues. How many of us think that we can be as healthy and strong as them at that age? I seriously doubt, that I can be half as strong as my mom when I reach her age…

The worst part is, All or most of the things we have used/done has a history of 100s or 1000s of years. But, these became close to their extinction in the past couple of decades. Think about how our forefathers passed all these on to us and how we are going ahead. What are we passing on to the next generation that keeps our tradition alive?

What changed??

Now we have electrical equipments to do everything. We think we are saving time.. But, loosing out on everything else. Health, Tradition, History, Money, Nature…

All these activities are exercises and so people didn’t need a gym specifically in those days.. Now, we have all types of equipments and people spend a good amount of money for gym too. What is the point??? Ultimately, they are NOT saving anything.. Time or money. If they think they are saving time, I would say that they are spending the saved time in GYM or doing some exercises (that includes walking). I seriously think, this is an impact of western culture. Its time to wake up.

It is difficult now as we have become addicts to those equipments. But, WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT !!!

Banana Tree

We can see in all the Tamil marriages that they tie banana trees on both sides of the entrance. Also, they will serve food on plantain leaves. Most of us know that having food on plantain leaves is good for health. But, we don’t know the reason for using tying banana trees.

Recently read that, the whole banana tree is a very good killer of germs. For marriages, there will be lot of crowd and if anybody came in contact with any kind of material that can result in poisonous effect, people dont have to run around looking for some germ killer. They can get the juice of the pulp of banana tree. In case of fire accident Plantain leaf is used to wrap the victim.

One of the things that we follow saying it is a “tradition” but actually it is a medicine 🙂