As children, we used to throw ‘undrallu’ (boiled rice floor balls) on to huts and thatched roofs, because there will be mice (there were rats or mice on our tiled roof as well). As you know, Lord Ganesha’s mount is the mouse. We used to believe that Lord Ganesha would be propitiated if his ‘mount’ is fed with undrallu. It boils one’s blood that food grains are rotting in this country, where, according to www.thehungersite.com, three people die of nutrition deficiency every minute. The Supreme Court asked the government to do something about the situation – like distributing food grains free. Food grains which are otherwise rotting for lack of adequate storage arrangements.
The god-awful government gives two hundred rupees subsidy on cooking gas, to all and sundry; in the process screwing up the bottomline of public sector oil companies. However, it feels that economic principles will be affected adversely if free food is distributed to the poor. Dr Manmohan Singh also told the Supreme Court for good measure not to interfere in policy matters. The policy of this country is dictated by a woman of foreign origins, and we cannot dictate terms to the high priestess.
As I write this, there is a Big Fight on television; someone just pointed out that in the one hour that the battle is on (on television), 171 children would have died of hunger; two farmers would have committed suicide, God knows for what reason. There are seven more (according to the calculation that three per minute deaths occur due to hunger and malnutrition), who go unnoticed by caste-based census! There is food rotting in – actually outside – the storage facilities, and people dying on the streets. And the good doctor Manmohan Singh says: “Let them eat cake!” The rats and bandicoots are not complaining. Lord Ganesha will be happy with this situation too, perhaps. And the middle class, of which I am a proud member, will go back to sleep – having agreed with the vociferous appeals of those on television to stop hunger deaths, for at least as long as there is surplus grain.
I go to www.thehungersite.com once in a while and ‘donate’ a cup of rice: all it takes is to click the button that says donate a cup of rice. And my job done as a columnist, I go back to sleep – having feasted on Undrallu…
Id Ul Fitr and Ganesh Utsav on the same day
It is a double dhamaka for Hyderabad (and other parts of the country): Ramzan and Ganesh utsav on the same day. The good news is, there is no news of communal rioting as of this writing. I did not do the puja properly this year but I think Lord Ganesh would understand. It is actually about Id Ul Fitr that I wanted to write about today…
It was the year 1999. I was in Singapore and a friend from Hyderabad used to hang out with me when I had my daily quota of beer. Then we both would eat dinner together, and vend our way home. Then came the month of fasting. I said to Shahad (his pet name, real name – Rafat): “Look brother, you have given me company when I was drinking although you were not drinking; I will give you company in your fasting, though I am not a Muslim”.
However, I made some modifications to my ‘roza’, namely, not eating in the morning before the first prayer (too lazy to get up at that hour); having coffee and cigarettes during the day (and of course water); and swallowing the salivation. But, I was steadfast in not drinking during the whole month, and eating only in the evenings. The millennium thingie happened that year during the month of ramzan. And Rafat and I were probably the two young people who did not get drunk the night of December 31, 2000. Indeed, after the month of ramzan I continued with my abstinence for another six months. That is the longest dry patch in the past one decade and more.
Suffice it to say that faith moves mountains. Commitment, integrity, and such things are not taught: they come out of oneself – one either has them, in which case they will be manifest at one point or another. Or, one doesn’t have them. Unfortunately, my abstinence lasted only for 6 months. I made the mistake of getting onto an Indian Airlines flight to Hyderabad after that, and the air-hostess ‘auntie’ threw three cans of beer at me; that is where I lost my balance.
Yes, another important thing is balance: it is easy to shoot past the mark; but it is difficult to stand firm in the middle.
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