Just something I noticed offhand that seemed rather odd to me.
I have noticed that people in the more secular Kerala have started observing symbolic gestures that I noticed were more commonly performed by North Indians.
FOr example, a perfectly ordinary looking young man travelling on a bus makes a symbolic religious gesture by touching his chest twice and then his upper abdomen when he sights a temple through the window. Older men make more dramatic gestures like folding their hands in reverence and then touching the forehead under similar circumstances. Christians are not far behind in adapting this new trend. They fold their hands and make the symbolic gesture of the holy cross on sighting a church from a moving vehicle.
What if they hadn't happened to notice the abode of God and instead had picked thier nose, or worse, farted?
Would than then amount to blasphemy?
And what about the passengers sitting on the other side of the aisle on the bus? Should they be deprived of performing the same symbolic ritual just because they happened to sight a garbage dump on their side of the bus while the pious fellow on the other side of the aisle crossed his hands in relgious fervour for having the luck to sight a temple/ church at the same time?
These symoblic gestures to sound to me little less than hypocrisy and sycophancy. I hope we imibe the more sensible of symbolisms from other cultures.
5 months ago
4 HITCHHIKERS:
i feel all that is just like the placebo effect, so if it gives them the feeling that it works, then let them do it..... no harm done
Well seems like a placebo will do when you could have helped yourself.
Well, it does make them happy... Kinda like double-checking that lock, huh?
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