Are women second class citizens in India??

Chandigarh may be one of the prettiest cities of India but what I read last week makes me feel that it is probably one of the "ugliest" too. It has the dubious distinction of having the worst gender ratio in the country ( 877 females per 1000 males). Delhi our national capital and Haryana that otherwise prosperous state are the two other regions in the top three of this list of shame. Prenatal gender-determination is a crime according to a law passed many years ago but it seems female foeticide is rampantly practised in these areas. This is one national problem which is caused as much by the rich & educated as by the illiterate & poor. The law of demand and supply has already taken over in these North Indian states - girls now command a monetary premium (reverse dowry) & brothers are sometimes forced to share a common wife, just like in MAHABHARAT - (though for entirely different reasons).

Do we as a community have a "return on investment" kind of approach when it comes to our natural preference for male children?? Are we so guided by this बुढापे की लाठी philosophy that even mothers agree to abort girl foetuses ( like scoring a self goal)?

Females have been discriminated against in every society (encompassing all religions) during the progress of human civilization - the main reason of course was that males wrote all the rules. Did you know that females got the right to vote as late as 2006 in Kuwait, 1971 in Switzerland, 1946 in Belgium, 1945 in France, 1928 in Britain and 1920 in USA? Females are barred from becoming a Pope or even an Imam in a mosque and are generally accorded an inferior status in rituals of all religions. Have you ever heard of a female शंकराचार्य? It is estimated that over 60,000 women were once burnt by Christians by branding them as witches. In the Hindu system of सती, women were literally murdered and then glorified. Islam even today refuses to grant alimony to a divorced wife. Politically, all parties are so blatantly hypocritic that for years they have been proclaiming gender parity but when it comes to reserving 33% seats for women in parliament, they turn a completely blind eye towards the issue.

Coming back to the burning problem of female foeticide, we have seen that mere passing of laws has not worked - maybe we should allow capital punishment to be given to such offenders. But I really think that the time has come for religions to "pay back" for the years of gender - disparity that they have been indirectly advocating. It is high time that opinion leaders like रामदेवबाबा , श्री रविशंकर , आसारामबापू & all शंकराचार्य loudly declare that :

[1] Any Hindu family that demands dowry during marriage will be ex-communicated; [2] It is not true that moksha can be achieved only when a SON lights your funeral pyre - a daughter is equally eligible to do so; [3] Anyone found aborting a female foetus or assisting such an act will be ostracised and no one will have रोटी - बेटी का व्यवहार with such families.

Religion has such immense power over people's minds that it is capable of bringing about this social transformation - unless of course if the religious leadership is itself not convinced about gender disparity being an issue worth paying attention to.

Blowing off candles on a birthday!

According to Indian culture, extinguishing a burning light (ज्योत बुज्हाना) is considered very inauspicious. So strong is this belief that in most Indian movies, a flickering & finally dying lamp is symbolically used to warn the audience of someone's impending death. Why do most of us then encourage such an act on a birthday - which is considered an auspicious occasion??

I sometimes wonder why adults should consider their own birthdays as occasions for celebration. Adults normally celebrate "achievements" and you did nothing to bring yourself into this world - did you? It is ok for your parents to celebrate your birthday - you are indeed their achievement. Moreover each passing year brings us closer to the FINAL DAY - if anything, this should be a day of contemplation ( I almost said "condolence"). Birthdays were ok when we were kids - drooling for those gifts & chocolates.

Let us come back to the mystery of extinguished candles! This is actually an ancient Greek custom which we have copied without really understanding its significance. According to the original practice, the birthday boy / girl is supposed to close his/her eyes and make a silent wish to GOD before opening them and blowing off the candle. The smoke from the extinguished candle which rises upwards is supposed to "carry" that wish to GOD.
Don't ask me why only the smoke (visible to the eye) can carry your wishes to GOD and the hot fumes (which also rise upwards while the candle is burning, but are invisible to the eye) cannot!

Can you now tell me why we use only a cake to stick those candles in? Why can't it be a can of श्रीखंड or शीरा or some of those other mouth watering Indian पकवान ?

Significance of प्रदक्षिणा (परिक्रमा) in a temple

Most of us follow religious rituals blindly without making efforts to understand why we are called upon to do things in a particular manner. Our elders never explained things to us when we were young (they probably were never told by their elders) & we seem to be continuing the (in)glorious tradition. Religious practices are sacrosanct and analytical discussions are strongly discouraged but I sincerely feel that if we are expecting real or perceived benefits out of them, we should not shut our eyes under the excuse of being faithful to our ancient culture.

Two things about the प्रदक्षिणा need some explanation: [1] What extra benefits are expected to accrue by going round the idol in a temple? Why isn't just standing and praying sufficient? [2] Why do we go around in the clock-wise direction only?

Many relate this practice to the mythological story of how Ganesha won the race against his elder brother Kartikeya (when both were challenged by their parents - shiva and parvati, to go around the world in the shortest possible time) by just doing a प्रदक्षिणा around his parents and claiming that they were indeed his world. Devotees in a temple are surely not a part of any race and going around the world (the idol) does not have religious significance in terms of any salvation that Hinduism wants us to achieve.

The crux of this practice is summed up in the following two liner

यानी कानी च पापानि जन्मान्त्रक्र तानी च
तानी तानी विनश्यन्ति प्रदक्षिण प् दे प् दे

Roughly translated, it conveys a beautiful idea. While going around the idol, you are calling upon GOD to ensure that with each footstep that you take , HE cancels or destroys one sin that you have committed in this or previous births. Obviously many of my friends who take pride in going around 11 times must be BIG SINNERS since they require so many more steps to cancel all their sins. This also explains why one has to go around on foot while doing प्रदक्षिणा.
Whether the sins actually get cancelled is besides the point... shouldn't the believers have this thought at the back of their mind while doing the प्रदक्षिणा ?

Now friends I want you to investigate and tell me why we must go around in the clockwise direction only?

Jana gana mana - the meaning

Rabindranath Tagore himself has strongly denied that the poem (which incidentally has five stanzas - the first one of which was adopted as the anthem) was written in honour of King George V, the then ruler of British India. We must therefore leave it at that.

It is true however that Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru chose this to be the national anthem instead of "vande mataram" because [1] He did not want the new nation to begin on a controversial note as would have happened due to strong Muslim objection to bowing (vande..) to the motherland (mataram) because Islam prohibits doing so before anyone other than Allah - (I think the objection persists even today) & [2] The ease with which "jana gana mana.." can be understood, sung and played by a band.

Amit Shesh in his comments has rightly said that probably because of the difficulty in a lay person singing the US - star spangled banner - it is mostly confined to expert renditions at football matches. Now for the full verbatim meaning:

जन गण मन अधिनायक जय हे , भारत भाग्य विधाता
May you , the leader of leaders (adhinayak) of our people, communities and minds and the determiner of Bharat's destiny (bhagya vidhata) be victorious (jaya)

पंजाब सिंध गुजरात मराठा द्राविड उत्कल बंग
Here everything is obvious except maybe Utkal (Orissa), Bang (whole of undivided Bengal including present Bangladesh and the seven north eastern sister states) & Dravid (whole of south India

विन्ध्य हिमाचल यमुना गंगा , उछ्छल जलधि तरंग
We have here two famous and representative mountain ranges and description of the oceans which have high rise waves (uchhal tarang). All this is basically describing our country so that we ask all of it to be blessed.

तव शुभ नामे जागे , तव शुभ आशीष मागे
We awaken oursleves taking your name and we ask for your blessings

गाये तव जय गाथा
We sing the story (gatha) of your victory (jaya)

Here onwards it is a repetition of the above words until we end the anthem with a clarion call for his victory (jaya he ...).

So our national anthem is a sort of prayer (to the almighty GOD - the determiner of our destiny and the controller of our souls) to bless our nation.

Jana Gana Mana... our national anthem

I am amazed that most young Indians (& I think old ones too) do not know the actual meaning of our national anthem. There has to be something seriously wrong with our education system, if this is the end result. It is also a prime example of how we attach a lot of importance (pseudo, as it actually turns out to be) to standing at attention (even in cinema halls before the movie begins) to show respect to the national anthem & virtually treating this act as some sort of a measure of our patriotism - without understanding how exactly we are praising our motherland. I challenge all you bloggers to send me the meaning (verbatim) of the entire anthem. I would of course be glad to post it here but would first like all of you to try and find it yourself.