Even before social media denizens could 😮 or share the news that over one lakh students in Kerala left the caste-religion field in their school admission forms blank, the news that it was a technical error quietly came and stayed put within the folds of the print newspapers.
I did a partial cart-wheel because it said teachers may not have filled these because the fields were not ‘mandatory’! Yess!! Caste and religion have caused so much strife that many of us have come to believe that we are casteless and without a religion. But the happenings in the last few weeks make me wonder if these really are so condemnable.
As D, his brothers and uncle prepared to leave for Haridwar last week to immerse the remains of his father, my father-in-law at Har-ki-pauri in the Ganga, there was a lot of apprehension about how they will need to be wary of the pandas who would ‘pounce’ upon them and force them to perform unnecessary rituals and 'snatch' their money.
But the scene there was contrary to anything they had anticipated. They were asked who their kulpurohit – the priest of their clan – was. Since none of them knew this, they were asked for their caste, sub-caste and native place – these too were gleaned by making multiple phone calls home and idhar-udhar. But finally, when the subcaste and native place were established, they were lead through the narrow bylanes into the house of a young priest who opened his ledgers and …this is where the hair on my arms begins to stand, every time (!)… showed them one hundred years old records of their family.
The priest told them that 95 years ago, their grandfather had come from Daud Khel, District Mianwali, Pakistan to perform the last rites of his brother! There were records of several other, subsequent visits of family/extended family/clan members to Haridwar. The pandit also asked them to meet him whenever they return so he may update all records of births and marriages too.
They still write by dipping the nibs of their pens into a special ink. So of course, the IT people from Bangalore had to tell them that they should digitize the records. Ha!
And ignoramus me! Living without a clue about this and trying, with the help of elders and cousins to trace our ancestors on both sides and draw family trees...
I did a partial cart-wheel because it said teachers may not have filled these because the fields were not ‘mandatory’! Yess!! Caste and religion have caused so much strife that many of us have come to believe that we are casteless and without a religion. But the happenings in the last few weeks make me wonder if these really are so condemnable.
As D, his brothers and uncle prepared to leave for Haridwar last week to immerse the remains of his father, my father-in-law at Har-ki-pauri in the Ganga, there was a lot of apprehension about how they will need to be wary of the pandas who would ‘pounce’ upon them and force them to perform unnecessary rituals and 'snatch' their money.
But the scene there was contrary to anything they had anticipated. They were asked who their kulpurohit – the priest of their clan – was. Since none of them knew this, they were asked for their caste, sub-caste and native place – these too were gleaned by making multiple phone calls home and idhar-udhar. But finally, when the subcaste and native place were established, they were lead through the narrow bylanes into the house of a young priest who opened his ledgers and …this is where the hair on my arms begins to stand, every time (!)… showed them one hundred years old records of their family.
The priest told them that 95 years ago, their grandfather had come from Daud Khel, District Mianwali, Pakistan to perform the last rites of his brother! There were records of several other, subsequent visits of family/extended family/clan members to Haridwar. The pandit also asked them to meet him whenever they return so he may update all records of births and marriages too.
They still write by dipping the nibs of their pens into a special ink. So of course, the IT people from Bangalore had to tell them that they should digitize the records. Ha!
And ignoramus me! Living without a clue about this and trying, with the help of elders and cousins to trace our ancestors on both sides and draw family trees...
No comments:
Post a Comment