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Fortunately
the impression of NRI’s in the American Society
is very good. Indians are regarded as very
bright people. Indian students excel in the
American schools and Indian professionals lend a
big hand in making America tick. Despite being
successes, Indians are a minority community and
they have to work doubly hard to maintain the
positive impression that people of other
ethnicities carry in their minds about Indians.
It surely can be hard to keep up, but many NRI’s
do take the pains to do it. They keep up their
properties, plant flowers and keep their yard
looking nice. They do not keep oil leaking
clunkers in the driveway. Their cars are clean
and in good repair. Their kids are respectful
and domestic violence in Indian families is
virtually unknown. Not a hundred percent of the
people live up to this ideal, but it is obvious
that if we are not doing it already, we all need
to – because we are judged by how we conduct
ourselves. Every culture has their shortfalls.
We can not continue to support our shortfalls
because some other culture also messes up.
Nothing ticks me off more than seeing a person
of Indian ethnicity being picked by the police
up for shoplifting or drug possession; or seeing
Indians engaging in uncivic behavior (eg.
spitting paan on the pavement in front of Indian
stores). As if the erring NRI isn’t enough of an
aggravation, news comes from India occasionally
that harms our image as a people in the global
community. For instance, we occasionally get
news of women being burnt for dowry, or a little
girl being married off to a dog! Then, come the
images of the Karni Mata temple (in Deshnoke,
Gujarat), that is teeming with Rats. Seeing an
Indian man eat from the same plate that is
crawling with rats on your TV in your living
room, is to say the least, very disgusting and
demoralizing. One hopes that no one else is
watching that channel at that time. But Alas!
many watch the ‘Discovery channel’ and when you
say that you are from India the next day to
someone, you have this thought gnawing on you,
“Does this guy think I share my food with rats?"
Media has a tendency of warping the truth. It
focuses on the worst attention grabbing
sensationalizing news while ignoring the
richness of culture and the importance of
‘sanskar’ in Indian day to day life.
Now aborting female fetuses selectively is
another shameful thing that ranks alongside the
dowry deaths in our society. I just heard the
news that I had been waiting to hear for years.
In a sting operation, the Government of India
finally nailed a couple of doctors for
selectively aborting female fetuses and threw
them into jail. I hope that this does not become
a witch hunt, but I sure do hope that enough
pressure is brought to bear on the forces in
society that encourage such a nasty practice to
go on.
I also hope the VHP will take action in changing
traditions in the Mata Karni temple and get rid
of the Rat business. Hinduism can thrive very
well with out the disgusting show of “Ratophilia”.
If one tradition was meant to be broken, then
this one is. Who is better than VHP to do this?
After all a house should be cleaned by the
inhabitants!
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Comments: |
I have not seen many NRI Indians
doing shoplifting or crime. However,
several Indians do some trivial
nuisance very often like returning
items they buy after using it,
disconnecting service (like internet
and phone) after free use and
sometime don't follow traffic and
other discipline. Such activities
are really bad as few people here
represent 1 billion people back
home.
"Rat in Temple", drinking gomutra or
water after washing feet etc. are
nasty business in the twenty-first
century. If at all they want to
follow tradition they will have to
come up with some innovative idea
like "keeping one good breed big rat
in temple", "drinking mineral water
after touching bottle to feet" etc..
Killing girl fetus is a unforgivable
sin. At least person committing this
should be tried for second degree
murder. Girls number is already on
decline in most of the states and
further killing will change
demography very badly. This also
shows what we preach (Durga, Devi
etc) and practice are very
different.
This article is very good and
thought provoking. - Manoj Gupta
- Mar. 30, 2006
The rats in Mata Karni Temple may be
disgusting to someone but for me or
many other westerners I met here is
a matter of strangeness and
uniqueness. After noticing such
events, my westerner colleagues want
to visit India at any cost to
experience it and other events like
Elephant riding, Snake charming etc.
In Mata Karni Temple, what you see
is love between Human and Rats.
There is no bloodshed and hatred and
most importantly it doesn't harm any
one.
Also I like to highlight: Not all
people drink Gomutra or washed feet
water. And whoever drink Gomutra or
washed feet water, they don't do it
always, may be few times in lifetime
during pilgrimage.
And in my personal opinion drinking
Gomutra once in 5 years or 10 years
is far better than drinking Coke,
Pepsi, beer, and rum every day.
For me, the disgusting things are:
1. During one Keralite festival,
people pierce the body parts with
sharp weapons such as knives, swords
and walk bare foot under the dreaded
summer heat.
2. Muharram Procession, in which the
followers torture their body parts
and do blood bath.
3. Easter, during which many
Christians crucify themselves by
piercing nails all over their body.
4. Navroj festival celebration in
Afghanistan, in which they play with
live animal as if it is a football.
5. Bull fighting in Spain, in which
the westerners enjoy with pride the
bloodsheds of innocent bulls.
6. Hunting of Birds by American Vice
President Dick Cheney for enjoyment.
I will rather take my kids to Karni
Mata Temple than to show them the
blood-fest events listed above. -
Tarakeswar Dubey - Mar. 30, 2006
Drinking gomutra and the dirty water
off someone’s feet are disgusting
activities. I remember a few years
back one of my American colleague
stunned me by asking whether it is
true that even the Indian prime
minister drinks cow’s urine (he was
referring to our ex-PM Pandit
Morarji Desai). Also, lot of weird
customs are propagated and supported
by either the fanatics, ignorant or
the people with vested interests. I
think every culture has it's own set
of disgusting activities that need
to be fixed. - Som Vishwakarma,
USA - Mar. 30, 2006
First of all I must congratulate the
writer for posting a very good and
debatable topic.
I have not been to the Mata Karni
temple, but if that is the tradition
they follow there, it's your choice
to go or not to go there.
Yes, drinking a cow's or your own
urine does sound disgusting. Did you
know that in the Ayurvedic tradition
of yoga, drinking one's urine is
called amaroli? And urine has an
effective antibacterial, antifungal
and antiviral agent. Our lack of
knowledge of our own culture leads
to people raising eyebrows. Had you
this knowledge, you could cut right
through people asking questions and
shut their mouths up. And you could
have added that Mr. Morarjee Desai
lived a 99 years.
If there is an issue of child
marriage in India, there are issues
of child abuses in the countries
stating themselves to be developed.
In a few trials the child abusers
have even been set free by the
judges. My point is that this is not
only the problem of India but the
entire world and we should feel
ashamed every time a wrong deed is
done to a child, be it India or
America.
I would also like to comment that we
Indians are not the only ones buying
things and returning them. I often
see people of other races do that,
even the white people. Why should we
blame only the Indians? And, when we
use free stuff, what is the nuisance
in that. After all we did not do
anything illegal.
Learn to look at the good aspects of
your country and be proud of it.
There are several issues which still
keeps us as a developing nation, and
I think that the first step towards
a better India is to realize what
are the things we should really feel
ashamed of. - Anjali Prasad, USA
- Apr. 1, 2006 |
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