I did not know this concept of "mane devaru" until we shifted to a town called Haliyal. We had a friend pillu. Of course he was very short and used to be always in our house and used to call mom jayavra taayi (jaya's mother).
Once he told my uncle that their god is Mangesh and asked uncle who is his god. Uncle replied our god is kudresh. (manga in kannada is monkey and kudre is horse ) .
But even funnier things were happening in Haliyal. During ramadan times our friends used to tell that such and such person was sick. So he had prayed and got better. So he will be carrying - hold your breath - alla devaru on his head in this festival. So this person would surely carry the god during ramadan procession. And some others both Hindus and Muslims would walk on burning coal during this time. I don't think they would have never thought they were doing something for communal harmony.
And the furniture price was economical there. So our grand mother who had come to Haliyal wanted a wooden sofa set to take home. She went along with my father to the carpenter's house who was a muslim. And she - a fifty year old brahmin lady drank tea in their house.
And all these happened around thirty fives years ago. What happened in the mean time? What happened to our people for whom religion was nothing more than a label?
I forgot more recent events. We - me, husband and son were in Muscat - capital of a gulf country Oman for 6 years. In our apartment building, our son had three friends - Shabbar, Swati and Clinton (Not William Clinton but Clinton Noronha - a five year old Mangalore kid). The kids never thought about the religions of each other. Nor did their mothers. We used chat together, eat together. For us we were not hindu, muslim and christians. We were Indians in a foreign country and hence close friends. Swati's mother who is a typical TamBrahm used to be very close to Zara. Could the same thing have happened if we were in say Bangalore? So does even our religious fanaticism knows when to show and when not to show its ugly head?
Once he told my uncle that their god is Mangesh and asked uncle who is his god. Uncle replied our god is kudresh. (manga in kannada is monkey and kudre is horse ) .
But even funnier things were happening in Haliyal. During ramadan times our friends used to tell that such and such person was sick. So he had prayed and got better. So he will be carrying - hold your breath - alla devaru on his head in this festival. So this person would surely carry the god during ramadan procession. And some others both Hindus and Muslims would walk on burning coal during this time. I don't think they would have never thought they were doing something for communal harmony.
And the furniture price was economical there. So our grand mother who had come to Haliyal wanted a wooden sofa set to take home. She went along with my father to the carpenter's house who was a muslim. And she - a fifty year old brahmin lady drank tea in their house.
And all these happened around thirty fives years ago. What happened in the mean time? What happened to our people for whom religion was nothing more than a label?
I forgot more recent events. We - me, husband and son were in Muscat - capital of a gulf country Oman for 6 years. In our apartment building, our son had three friends - Shabbar, Swati and Clinton (Not William Clinton but Clinton Noronha - a five year old Mangalore kid). The kids never thought about the religions of each other. Nor did their mothers. We used chat together, eat together. For us we were not hindu, muslim and christians. We were Indians in a foreign country and hence close friends. Swati's mother who is a typical TamBrahm used to be very close to Zara. Could the same thing have happened if we were in say Bangalore? So does even our religious fanaticism knows when to show and when not to show its ugly head?
Comments
Post a Comment