An avial of a post..

..is what happens when I have nothing much to say..

Why, you ask? Well, we have been outdoors almost all the time, since the last few days. We went on drives, waded through a little stream, enjoyed ice-creams, and generally basked in the warmth.  Warm weather was finally here, but then like all good things, did not last long. It is back to business as usual today, cold, wet and windy.

The two of us testing waters 🙂

Chicken pox seems to be doing the rounds here, and one of Poohi’s friends has got it. So Poohi was really upset, apparently she wants to ‘eat chicken pox too, coz I love chicken too’!

The other day, we had been watching NDTV’s We the People, on the same gotra controversy. Just wanted to add my share. I cannot comprehend why it becomes necessary to force people to live by other people’s standards. Why can’t it be left to individuals to decide what makes sense for them? And does it make any sense at all, in this time an age? Why is it considered being ‘city-bred’ and ‘urban’ to think like this?  Does it mean that people living in villages have no right to think for themselves? If some people believe that same-gotra marriages are not correct, let them not get married to someone of the same gotra/village or whatever works for them. But forcing entire communities to follow rules like this, is a little difficult to stomach. More so, is the support that they seem to be getting from various sections of society.  Bones has unearthed Naveen Jindal’s interview on this. He actually seems to be support of the Khaps when it comes to same gotra marriages.

Today apparently Arya Samaj has come out with something bizarre. ‘After khaps, it is the Arya Samaj that has shocked couples in Haryana. A section of the sect has decided to ban marriages without consent of parents and villagers.’ .

Apparently in addition to dis-allowing same gotra marriages, they will also refuse to solemnize weddings without consent of parents and villagers! They also go on to say that ‘ Love marriages are harmful as in such weddings youngsters just see the beauty and not the nature and qualities which should be the basis of marriages,” said Baldev.’  And I wonder if women play any role at all, in any of these decision making.

It is funny, isn’t it that, Arya Samaj came into being as a reform movement within Hinduism, is today talking about going the reverse way?  What is your take on this? It just makes me sad that we Indians are supposed to be tolerant people, and yet, we have so many such diktats cropping in various parts of the country. Are we increasingly becoming more intolerant or is it just that now with the media, reporting all this, it is just looking that way?

*avial – a mixed vegetable dish

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