Can we buy god?

This is a question that was planted in my mind ever since I witnessed a particular incident more than 2.5 years back. I was at the ‘Bikshandar’ temple, a century’s old ‘Lord Balaji’ shrine near my house, with my friend Jagan. We were there to seek the blessings to the Lord when we were spectators to a very peculiar event. A family of 4 was going from altar to altar with the priest in tow. Every time the priest had completed the pooja and retreated with the flame (‘deeparthanai’ in Tamil…not sure what it is called in English), the mother distributed crisp 10 rupees notes to the sons and instructed them to place it in the flame plate offered by the priest. During the entire period, the boys were fixated on getting the notes from their mother and depositing them! All the while, the priest was gleefully pocketing the notes while strenuously putting up a fake smile for the family.

The fact that the family was assigned an exclusive priest and that the priest practically ignored other worshippers [including self and friend] made me feel bad. I have always thought of temples as schools where everyone was equal and treated likewise regardless of their social or economic status. It was then I realized that god can actually be bought. Our temples, especially the really old and famous ones, are turning out to be hangouts of the rich and famous. Special entrances or enhanced entry fee [and by extension quicker access] and exclusive poojas for VVIPs are the order of the day in these establishments.

As I write this post, I am starting to realize that money is actually replacing caste. In the past, the caste you were born into determined whether you allowed entry into a temple and if so your roles and functions inside. But it looks like your economic status will be increasingly dictating your access to religious places and the services rendered. It looks like one evil replacing the other. What are your thoughts on this?

An interesting incident

Hi All,

More than a month back, I travelled from Bangalore to Chennai by a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation [KSRTC] bus. I was carrying some luggage with me and had promptly left it in the luggage compartment as per the instruction of the driver. The driver collected Rs 500 from me for the luggage and promised me a receipt at the end of the journey.

I kept pestering the driver and conductor for a receipt throughout the journey but to no avail. They just gave me some frivolous excuses and boomeranged my requests every time.  I was pretty perturbed by their behavior but could not do much due to the fear of being thrown off the bus. At the end of the journey neither the driver nor the conductor made any effort to issue a receipt. The driver just returned Rs 150 to me and stated that Rs 350 was the ‘charge’ for the luggage!

Upset with the proceedings, I decided to take up this matter. I shot a mail to the complaint email stated in the KSRTC website. Truth be told, I wasn’t holding my breath. C’mon this is India.. a place where even physical complaints don’t get investigated and now you are expecting a virtual complaint to be taken seriously..get real dude!! I wouldn’t blame you if that was what you were thinking. My fear that my complaint will go unattended was further cemented when I did not even get an auto reply acknowledging my email.  So this probably was an email which is not monitored at all.

Days went by and hope receded like a low tide. I thought of sending a 2^nd email or perhaps calling them up. But the realist inside me started taking charge to ensure no such thing would happen. Just when I thought all hope was lost, I received a call from a person who claimed to be a ‘case officer’ from KSRTC. He informed me that my case was looked into and was found to be genuine. He further informed me that since no receipt was issued, KSRTC was willing to refund the money I paid for the luggage. Again I was not holding my breath but to my surprise I did receive a refund from them a couple of hours later! A week later I received an email from the Divisional Traffic Officer, Bangalore Central Division. I am reproducing the email below verbatim.

Sir,

                Re: Your email complaint has been verified in detail

We are in receipt of your email complaint dated 28^th August 2012. The matter has been examined in detail. Necessary disciplinary action has been taken against the driver who performed duty on that day. And the conductor of the vehicle is suitably warned and instructed to behave politely with passengers. Sorry for the inconvenient caused to you on that day and continue to travel in KSRTC buses in future also.

Regards,

Divisional Traffic Officer,

Bangalore Central Division

I have been reflecting on this incident the past few weeks. It seems to be that the game changer in all this is technology. It was an online complaint that made me approach the KSRTC people in the first place. I wouldn’t fancy myself standing in a derelict government office full of cynical officers discouraging you from the launching a complaint. Let bygones be bygones sir…Probably a bad day for you…Locating that office itself would be quite a challenge and even I were to find it, we all know where complaint papers go the second we leave. Straight to a dust filled cabinet never to be opened again. So technology brings convenience.

Additionally, being physically present at an office exposes me to retaliatory attacks from the very people I am complaining against. Who is to say these people don’t have friends on the inside. So technology offers yet another thing: anonymity

Finally, accountability also comes into the picture. I have a proof of the email and the relevant people/department cannot refuse in the future that they did not receive a complaint or lost it somehow. So the government officer looking into this case has to account for this complaint and the consequent action (if any) was taken.

It is clear that infusion of technology into governance has several benefits for the citizenry. I really hope that the amateur steps taken by our central government and state governments see their logical conclusion.

P.S. Not sure if I need to say this..but I am going to anyway…

In the interest of full disclosure, I am in IT professional so I have a positive bias towards technology. Also, deeper penetration of technology into governance would benefit me, albeit indirectly and in a minuscule manner.

Subordination of women in Indian societies

This has been a topic which i feel has not been discussed at length in various fora in india due to myriad reasons. Combine that with my recent urge to chip with my 2 cents worth, this topic becomes a potent candidate for my blog!

Through this post i wish to explore the instances of female subordination and reasons why manifestation of such practices are tolerated in our society. The below content might make some queasy but what the hell...what good is a blog post that doesnt stir up things...!!!

Subordination is defined as being subject to an authority or belonging to a lower/inferior class. There are several instances of this in our society. Women have never really been masters of their own lives. They have been taught to look up to their fathers, husbands or brothers and follow their words verbatim. Have you ever wondered why women address their husbands as 'ji', 'yennaga', 'ri' with all these words meaning to show respect to the person being addressed. Why this inequality in a relationship where both partners are supposed to be pillars of strength for each other and where love and affection matter more than respect. To answer this question we must dwelve deeper into the place where it all started.

Yes the marriage. Indian weddings are blatant examples of female subordination and all this happens in the garb of preserving tradition and culture. A couple of years back, i was at a friends wedding and I was aghast when i saw the bride prostrate at the feet of the groom when he presented her with a saree. There are other practices like the bride 'serving the first meal' to the groom. Then are examples of how still many women in our country dont even get much freedom in choosing their own husbands. They are not even active participants in the very discussion that matters most in their life! Fathom that! I could rant on but you get the point. Subordination is entrenched and instituitionalised in our society. The traditions have been framed in a way to ensure total subjugation of the female kind and any questioning of the practices tantamount to questioning of the culture or the religion itself.

It is quite puzzling as to how as a society we tolerate these retrograde practices and why not many corrective steps have been taken to rectify the situation. At this juncture, it is only appropriate that we compare of our women folk with their western counterparts, just to make sure that this scenario is only an India or more broadly a Asia/Africa specific one . Western women have seen magnificient strides of improvement in their lives. Most are masters of their own lives and have the last word on what they want to with their lives.

Now there are several reasons why this subordination has been decimated in Western socities, the usual ones being improvement in the economic status of women, better educational qualification etc. I wish to highlight one more angle to this debate, the role of women themselves in eradication of subjugation. Yes, agreed that change was more forthcoming in Western socities but where change wasnt given on a platter, Western women fought hard and attained it. They continually questioned status quo and wrangled their lives away from their male brethern. But sadly Indian women either didnt do that or were not successful enough.

Now i dont want to be seen as blaming Indian women for the condition they find themselves in today. Most of the blame must be approportioned on the system that setup the elaborate web of subjugation and kept it up even in these contemporary times But Indian women as a whole dont seem to be much interested in fighting for control of their lives and are willing to accept things are they are. This attitude needs to change and until they come out with all guns blazing, i am afraid things will only get worse from here...