------------------------------------------------------------------------
* * * 2007 ANNUAL GOANETTERS MEET - GOA * * *
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHERE: Foodland Cafe - Miramar Residency - Miramar, Goa
WHEN: December 27, 2007 @ 4:30pm
More info:
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2007-December/066098.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's getting to be Christmas time in Goa, and there is going to be
lots of opportunity in the pastime described below :-)
Outlook, Dec 17, 2007
Idle Worship, Or The Non-Residents Role Play
Come winter, and Indians will genuflect before the visiting hordes
of NRIs ...
Ramachandra Guha
A new festival has been added to the Indian ritual calendar. Like
Dussehra and Diwali, it is a winter festival, but unlike them the
gods it honours are living beings, who appear before us in flesh
and blood instead of being frozen into stone. This relatively new
addition to our lives is called NRI puja. It takes place in
December, a time when thousands of Non-Resident Indians briefly
become Resident Non-Indians.
As a middle-class, English-speaking South Indian, I am always part
of these festivities myself. For half my family serve as deities;
the other half as worshippers.
Whether I like it or not, I am placed by default in the second
class. Fortunately, whatever personal apprehensions I have about
participating in this annual puja are overcome by the force of
professional obligation. As an Indian who chose to live in India,
I might affect scorn for the migrants, but as a social scientist I
must take cognisance of a phenonemon whose social significance
grows with every passing year.
The first thing to note about this puja is that it has space only
for a certain kind of NRI. Those who live with Arabs in the Gulf
or with Fijians in the South Pacific do not qualify; still less
those who have made their home with humans of African descent in
the Caribbean. To be worthy of worship, an NRI must live with
people whose skin pigmentation is, in the Tamil phrase, paal
maadri, literally, the colour of milk.
Among the gods who visit us every winter, three deities tower
above the others. Analagous to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, we have
Salman the Creator, Amartya the Preserver, and Sir Vidia the
Destroyer. Just as Brahma gave birth to the world, Rushdie gave
birth, through his magnificent novel Midnight's Children, to an
innovative and globally influential school of Indian writing in
English. Like the god he resembles he appears to have done little
since—but, for that first and fundamental act of creation, we
worship him still.
Vishnu the Preserver is supposed to have had 10 avatars. His
successor probably exceeds him in this regard. Sometimes he comes
to us as a Bangladeshi (by virtue of the fact that he was born in
Dhaka), at other times as a Bengali, at still other times as a
Global Indian. Other roles he has assumed include economist,
philosopher, sociologist, historian, and seer. Like the god he
resembles he comes to cheer us, to console us, to chastise us.
Siva could set the world ablaze with a mere blink of the eyelids.
His modern successor can destroy a reputation by a word or two
said (or unsaid). As with Siva, we fear Sir Vidia, we propitiate
him, and we worship him. Who knows, if we are diligent and devoted
enough, he may grant us some favours in this world (or the next).
In the Hindu pantheon there are three main Gods as well as 33,000
lesser ones. Through the month of December, the Holy Trinity are
sighted from afar—prayed to, occasionally touched, but rarely
spoken to. But how many Indians get to go to Badrinath anyway?
Their regular prayers are offered to more modest deities who live
in or visit the smaller shrines in their own villages or towns.
Among these lesser gods, the first and by far the most numerous
category consists of the Family Show-Off. This is the man—less
often, the woman—who went early to the West, usually the United
States, to study, work and earn. He makes trips home every few
years—at first coming alone, then with Indian wife acquired
through traditional channels, and finally with one or two brats in
tow. When these family NRIs appear, we, mere permanent residents,
are obliged to pay homage, altering our own lives and work
schedules to do so. It is striking how naturally we slip into the
role of worshippers; they, as naturally, into the role of the
worshipped.
--
I wept because I had no answers, until I met a man who had no
questions -- John David Stone
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spread the Christmas Cheer, even when you're not here!
Send classic greetings to your loved ones in Goa.
EXPRESSIONS - 2007 Christmas Hamper
Visit http://www.goa-world.com/expressions/xmas/
Or e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
