The ‘iyengar’ named desire
One place where all the reddygaru, naidugaru and iyengar merge is Tirupati-the city which never sleeps. In the past 18 years I have been there only once for my first year head tonsuring which I don’t remember but in the past 18 days I have been there twice.
Just after the semester exams some of my class mates planned a trip to Tirupati (no sentiments attached! I am a non religious person…). First I said I would not come but later I also joined. We didn’t buy any tickets or book for the darshan and started without any planning.
Yesterday I went to Tirupati again for attending my friend Adithya’s poonal (thread ceremony) and returned back today. This time also I was in a dilemma whether to go or not and at the neck of the movement me and one of my flat friends started in train and joined others. One thing I like about this place is the government’s initiative in providing everything free of cost but everything is corrupted with everyone getting bribes. Even we bribed and I felt guilty and all those RDB and Lok Paritran impacts will get mounted as rubbish if this goes on. Another gruesome thing was that in many places only the jangiri like Telugu script was used, of course it happens in every state.
The first time we didn’t have any passes and so we waited in the hall for almost 5 hours for darshan where the Telugu Ramayana was played. It was amusing to see people whistling and shouting like in a cinema hall when Kumbakarna woke up. It was also the place where Ramanand Sagar taught us the basic scientific law “Two equal opposite forces cancel the effect of each other…” which could be seen to a great extent in the battle field when Rama and Ravana uttufy ambu (arrow) against each other also with the release of some energy in the form of lighting effects. My friends tonsured their heads but with my French beard, if I had tonsured I would have looked like Stone Cold Steve Austin!!!
Coming back to yesterday’s story we had VIP pass and so we didn’t have any difficulties in entering the sanctorum. We went in a jeep to the hill top and in the security check post everyone was asked to get down. The man asked me to open my bag, he opened another zip in which I had one Sidney Sheldon book which I completed reading two thirds and so I had another Nelson Demille book which had no cover. He took it and asked “what book is this?” I replied “story book!” the security looked at it for two or three times and asked again “Is this a BIBLE? You are not supposed to carry a BIBLE inside the city sir” Is our country SECULAR??? Another thing which I saw was “only Hindus allowed inside” When is all these going to change???
Half of the holidays have got over but many of the plans which I had set in mind have failed. Also went to Queensland on Sunday. It was totally crowded and we had to wait for taking our rides. I enjoyed many rides like the Go-karting where I never took my legs of the accelerator and dashed on the stacked tyres at the end. Other things like the dark house, roller coater, 3D simulation, mirror house (where I dashed my nose on the mirror!!!), water rides were all awesome. We also missed some of the rides due to the lot of Sietji’s who come with at least 20 members in a family (3 or 4 babes included too!!!) on Sundays and also the cable car though it was nice was too long saying it is Asia’s largest. I felt like traveling for hours in the open sky. Overall it was a nice day out.
21 Responses to “The ‘iyengar’ named desire”
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Hi! I am Ramanujam. I am a grad student in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech.
hai babbu nice one da.. by the way look who is saying about the iyengars … u are an iyergangaru too…how the queensland trip da… talking about the babes ..was it the reason for ur brusied nose…hmmmmmmm
babbu still many anti-secular activities are taking place in INDIA..
(ivaru perya manirathnam)..
Then setu figures wont take bath regularly machi .. leave the craze..
@samba
nice overall….still sayimg,i m secular,non-religious…
bruised nose and babe (not plural!!!)…mirror house rocks!!!
@raja
no probs!!!!
avo avo siet ji!!!!
ramanujam and not visiting thirupathi is like a contradiction in terms. the other ramanujam will frown upon this
its common in keralam. ive seen this sign in madurai-meenakshi but not in thirupathi. i visit thirupathi atleast 1′ce every year. so how did i miss this?
sadly no one knows the history of ramanujam or thirupathi. it is sort of the birth place of social reform movement where shudras, women and anybody earned to right to become a priest 1000 years before.
dei kangaru with french beard…ill not tell nyone ab tat heals adi u got frm one settu ponnu…lol…
if u go ther another time ,plez mottai adichifi ther…nd wear som jimikis(earrings) in ur ears …along wth tha french beard …u wll b lookin awesome…nd all settu ponnu will b attracted towards u…
@hawkeye
that sign was in general and as u see i have seen it lot other temples…there are still seperate sevas like jeer seva only 4 iyengars and even CM is not allowed in during that time!!!!
women becoming priests b4 1000 yrs….nice 2 hear….
@raghuveer
nice idea…but il look like some jantu!!!!
ramanujam,
there is a difference between caste and quality. iyengar is a caste, which by itself is useless. srivaishnavism is a quality. the jeer seva u mentioned is not caste based.
i have seen many ‘iyengars’ kicked out of the jeer seva.
its going to take a looooong time to reform india…:(
Shame that our temples carry ‘only Hindus allowed’ placards.
@hawkeye
i agree abt that cast n quality…about that jeer seva itz totally caste based and ‘iyengars’ being kicked out is they are supposed to shave off the mush,beard and gulls!!!!
and also have the thiruman in the forehead……if anyone of these misses then kick off…
@mark
definetly true machi….long way to go….
@badari
shame on us….all castesim should go off…even hindus are not allowed in mosques…samething everywhere…
what is ur assumption here – when you say it is totally caste based.
saying it is caste based totally violates what thirupathi and ramanuja stands for.
i know the rules for participating in saathumurai . please dont confuse my comments as condescending or big-brother’ish. i am just trying to remove an mis-conceptions that you have.
most of the 12 azhwars arent brahmins. 1 of them is actually a woman (not brahmin). gaining saathumurai entry is not a caste based privilege.
@hawkeye
yup…i know about the azhwars quite well…ok agreed n i am free of all misconceptions now …the inner me does say that everything is caste based and unless they go off INDIA will be INDIA-It Never Develops In Anything!!!
hmmmmm….wat to say “GOVINDA GOVINDA” yee matterlu dustbinlu vesu….lol
@nivya
appadi laam cheppa kodhu
LOL!!!
u the called “babbu”?
@harish
seri vidu vidu
allowing only hindus is not about secularism. it is more about safegaurding your beliefs and values.
The reason behind it is pretty similar to why you wont allow strangers into your house. For, a place of worship, just like your home, is not a museum to tour around gawking at it’s grandeur. it is rather a place where you seek peace and identity and oneness.
-Krishna
@krishna
ok agreed with ur point to some extent…but many foreigners are allowed in some places(to develop tourism!!!!)
Alas, the pity of our society. Temples are expensive to maintain. But not all temples have the previledge of being “famous” among the devotees.
So, to maintain such temples such things become a necessity. The issue is still about safegaurding(make sure it survives) our identity and values. Unless you and I stand up and safegaurd such treasures of our culture, they have extend their hands in such directions.
You dont suggest that temples which cannot look after themselves be done with, do you?
-Krishna