TRIBUTE: In keeping with the BJP policy of reviving Hinduism, the entrepreneurial and influential Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Coimbagore has been praising the engineering and architectural skills of ancient Indians, who built grand temples like the Jagannath Puri temple in Orissa.
By Rajan Narayan
AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when it became clear that a Bengaluru or Coimbatore-based Sadhguru is re-writing history on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For a Saturday following the week when I discovered that an unprecedented amount of co-ordination is needed even to make a cup of tea. For a Saturday following the week when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had declared that no covid masks need to be worn till the end of the tourism season on January 2, 2023. For a Saturday following the week when there are more tourists in Goa than locals with even the new Zuari bridge becoming a tourist attraction. For a Saturday following the week when the Olive Ridley turtle was scared away from Morjim beach for unlike the Goa government it does not like tourists and loud music.
AND a few stray thoughts on when it became clear that a Bengaluru-based Sadhguru Jaggi re-writing history on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I was shocked to see a video on YouTube with the Sadhguru insisting that Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress leaders made a mistake in declaring Sunday as a weekly holiday.
According to the Sadhguru who recently claimed to have completed 40 years of enlightenment, Sunday suited the British because it was the day they went for mass. But the Indian government should have changed the pattern of weekly holidays consistent with our own culture and traditions. The Sadhguru has a theory that during certain months depending on the planetary configuration a feeling of weakness sets into the body. It is, therefore, necessary to take a special diet mainly consisting of herbs and fruits during this period. Sadhguru would like us to believe that the functioning of not only our bodies but the entire world depends on the planetary system.
Primarily he is trying to present his own version of astrology. In the Hindu tradition, no marriages are performed without consulting the stars. At birth in the case of every Hindu an astrological chart or kundalini is made which indicates the position of various stars at the time of your birth. Compatibility is linked to whether the stars of the boy and the girl are in conflict or not in conflict. With the little I know of astronomy, girls who have the planet Mars in the ascendant, are supposed to be very unlucky.
According to the Sadhguru the pattern of holidays should be changed to suit Indian traditions and culture. Sadhguru’s contention is that our holidays should follow the lunar calendar. That the most powerful place of the lunar calendar is the full moon which draws a lot of energy from all of us. So the Sadhguru thinks that the day before the full moon, the day after the full moon and the day on the full moon, should be the weekly holidays to bring it in line with Indian culture. The other set of holidays should be around Amavasya when there is no moon.
The Sadhguru is recommending two days of holidays during Amavasya. It is a scientific fact that the moon has its pulls and pressures on the earth. This is dramatized by the high tides and low tides of the ocean waters. Not only Hinduism but the festivals of Islam are also linked to the moon. Which is why on the occasion of Ramzan or Bakrid Eid the festival is celebrated the day when the new moon is sited. Apparently, nobody gets married on a full moon day or Amavasya. Though it would be fun to get married on a moonless day to the light of candles.
The Sadhguru has also started a parallel series on the engineering genius of ancient Indian architects and engineers. The Sadhguru quotes an example of several ancient temples sculpted out of a mountain or a single rock and talks about the skills needed to put a 20 mtr slab on the top of a three-storied temple. Admittedly temples like the Jagannath temple at Bhubneshwar and the Kailash temple are outstanding examples of craftsmanship.
But similarly, you can imagine the time and effort that must have gone into building the Lal Kila and the Taj Mahal. The Sadhguru will of course say that these structures were made by Hindu labour. Though historically some of the wonders of the world are creations of Muslim architects like the pyramids of Egypt.
MAKING A CUP OF TEA
AND a few stray thoughts on when I discovered that an unprecedented amount of coordination is needed even to make a cup of tea. I am making new discoveries now that I am going through a period of singledom with the better three-quarters partying in Mumbai. I have discovered how much coordination even making a cup of tea involves. We start off by putting a container of water on the gas stove to boil the water. You got to keep watching the water lest it overflows and puts off the gas. Since I am using tea bags for convenience I have to ensure that the tea bags are put in the heated water in the mug at the right moment and wait for the tea to get color and tea flavor. I have fortunately spared myself the task of boiling milk which would have required even more attention as milk has a tendency to boil over and we have to watch out. I am taking the shortcut of using condensed milk. The result is not as satisfactory as a kadak chai made by the better three-quarters.
It is quite besides the fact that I have to concentrate for at least two to three minutes and because I am a new comer at fixing a cup of tea, I take 5 minutes to get my cup of tea ready. Many disasters can happen. The tea bag can bust. The water can spill over. I inevitably forget to close the lid of the condensed milk can. This means a feast for the ants. Perhaps I would be better off if like the pav-wallah who comes and presses his horn in the morning for customers, there were chai-wallah who came around honking their horn to sell chai in the morning to those challenged by making a cup of tea. I have developed more respect for the housewife and the amount of concentration cooking requires. Excepting that over a period of time, it becomes an automatic reflex for the fairer sex and their coordination is much faster and automatic. At 76 I have realized that with age the biggest casualty is concentration and coordination.
NO MASKS TILL WHEN
AND a few stray thoughts on when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant declared that no covid mask needs to be worn till the end of the tourism season on January 2, 2023. Clearly, Pramod Sawant is more interested in tourism revenue than the risks if covid makes a comeback to Goa. Pramod Sawant is being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Because if covid-19 rises and there is a lockdown Goa will lose much more than it would gain from tourism. All tourist affairs are extremely crowded affairs like EDM concert Sunburn which is starting today at Vagator Sunburn village.
We do not understand how Sunburn has been exempted from the rules of noise pollution. The Sunburn which is brought to Goa by the advertising agency Percept is primarily an electronic music festival. The performers are now disk jockeys. Unlike live music where lyrics are important, the object of EDM seems to literally drive you into a trance. The music is louder and louder and more and more rhythmic which forces you to get up and dance.
However, I do not believe it that anyone can dance for hours at a time without the help of narcotic drugs. A young lady from Bengaluru died just outside the venue of the first Sunburn so called music concert organized in Goa. Unlike the traditional rave parties at places like Hill Top at Vagator, Sunburn, caters to the bold and the beautiful and the rich and the powerful. Or rather their children who are very curious about drugs and trance parties. The tragedy is that except for the professional users of drugs many music revelers are innocent about how the gamut of recreational and killer drugs affect their senses. Nor can they discriminate between genuine and adulterated drugs. The most dangerous are the synthetic drugs. For women out on a partying holiday the most dangerous drug is ketamine.
One lesson for young women is to get their own drink from the bar and keep it with them at all times, never to leave it unguarded. Ketamine comes in liquid form and one drop of it in your drink could make you physically vulnerable and helpless. Worse, you don’t remember what happened the next day.
It is high time that Goa legalizes virtually harmless drugs like ganja, otherwise called marijuana or grass. This is in the form of a powder which people stuff into an emptied cigarette and smoke. Doctors in Goa claim that grass has medicinal value. A nephew of mine has an official prescription for consuming specified quantities of grass. It is drinks and drugs which are the greatest risk to Goans as many young people in the coastal belt are engaged in the drug trade. All governments in the state are selling nasha in the land of greenery and beauty.
ZUARI BRIDGE, TOURIST ATTRACTION
AND a few stray thoughts on when there are more tourists in Goa than locals with even the new Zuari bridge becoming a tourist attraction. An enterprising vendor even put up a huge fridge on the new Zuari bridge to cater to the petty needs of tourists. We wonder if beer was on sale and of good quality. On Christmas day all good Christians were either in their own homes or in their in-laws home. But the streets and the beaches were full of tourist. A Youtube video quotes a young well-to-do tourist enquiring where he can party. The tourist insisted that the only reason to come to Goa was to drink and party. Even in beach belt Anjuna and Vagator locals have to wear ear plugs and stay at home while tourists party wildly a stone’s throw away to mind-blowing so called trance music. Nobody is asking if this kind of hypnotic music is doing the ears or the brains any good.
Perhaps the best solution would be to permit only live music and ban electronic dance music otherwise known as EDM trance. It is the DJs, the new stars who are paid astronomical amounts, who come from the world over to mix the music and stone the young tourists who come specifically to the nightclubs for the trance music experience, and which can only so often end in tragedy.