Education and Tradition can co-exist
Wow, what a lame name for this entry, but it is actually what im trying to write about, so oh well, no need to be cryptic and try to write in my version of Hindi. In Puttaparthy, i met up with some of our dear friends from the US, the Mother, from Vermont, her son, daughter-in-law and their two young children. Though, having other very well educated, and also traditiona/religious Indian/Hindu friends, I knew that the two were not contradictory, but for some reason, spending time with these friends, I was struck anew by this not earthshattering, but often overlooked relationship, I’ll share a few examples.
I was invited over to their room for lunch, or rather, i showed up roughly around lunch time (at the ashram this is essentially the only time to show up, or else close to breakfast or dinner, or else they are always offering food, im not sure which) and of course they offered me lunch, and i was hungry so eagerly agreed (when Im not hungry, and in a similar situation, at a gracious Indian hostess’s house, it’s a more difficult decision, do they really want to feed me? should i eat something to be polite, or decline to be polite because they really are just offering to be polite? Actually, in most cases, especially when offered food, off the street for example, made with street water and therefore containing lots of little things to make me sick, i have no problem “being rude” and turning it down which was, as with the case of the first family we stayed with,rudely pushed upon me, who unlike our friends were nearly starting an argument and taking personal offense as to why I didn’t wan the deep fried and raw mixture they were consuming with zeal on the street corner, as if they had made it especially for me, but this is truly a tangent, and rant and really has nothing to do with our lovely friends, who are like family and in whom whose room I felt warmly welcomed, so back to the who tradition thing ).
So, I, being the guest, am served first, by daughter in law,–steaming ivory-colored rice (too much, some of which i put back in the pot, not sure, again if it was better to let it sit on the plate or to do this, but even if i made a big fau paw, im white and therefore allowed some level of cluelessness ), the delicately spiced green beans and mustard seeds, dhal, something called, i think kadi (isnt that the homespun clothe Ghandi advocated, or was the Khadi?, those h’s will get you every time, which is probly why only Indians call their country Bharat, and the rest of us find the H-less word “india” easier to say). The mother was also served and eating so I started, and soon the husband came in (wait, dont think we ate without a prayer, well actually we didn’t say “brahamar Pranam” a food prayer I was expecting, but preceeding the meal, all conversation had stopped for a 10 minute prayer/song puja in front of an alter). The Husband, like his wife, grew up in the US. He went to a prestigious prep school, Ivy League University, and just finished a 9 year medical recidency in a specialized type of heart surgery (was there a PhD in there along the way? maybe that was his brother, or sister who has double MD specialities, but you get the idea). His wife — whose first language is English, has very light skin and is also college educated — and he, had an arranged marriage, if im not mistaken had not met before hand. When the doctor/husband came in he was also given a plate, along with the daughter. The husband (rather half heartedly?) offered to feed their young son, but the wife insisted, and, though hungry, tried to feed the fidgety child before she would eat herself.
“Beta, eat this dhal, no ice cream now . . .” So, the point I’m thus far trying to make, in case it’s not clear by my scattered prose, is that, the term “traditional” is often used as a synonym for uneducated and shouldn’t, if this family can serve as an example. At UVM, while reading about theories of development “traditional” peoples was a term used at odds with “scientific” or western. While in some of the more enlightened texts, we learned for example, that the term is misused, for example that picking bananas on a plantation in Honduras, is not “tradition” it is a forced occupation do to, for example, the United Fruit Co. buying up most fertile land. But the point is, most of us, probably myself included, believe that education and equal rights, and science and money and all these wonderful American things, while supposedly are there to give us the choice to live however we choice, leads to the choice of “freedom” — not of housewives, not of religious “rituals”. But, friends like these, who are able to chose are CHOOSING to meld tradition and modernization (not that they aren’t bound by family pressures — by that too is a choice to some degree, or is it?)
Later that day, when the husband left to go back to the hospital he’s volunteering at, the four of us (wife and two kids and myself) headed out to a local museum. After five minutes of walking the mother and kids suddenly stopped and took off their sandals and walked around and bowed to a statue of Lord Ganesh. The gold painted murthi, a human sized, standing plaster statue showed the pleasant elephant head atop a man’s body, complete with dhoti and round belly. A wreath of flowers had been left by previous prostrators. These people don’t, as is commonly believed — think that the statue is a God itself, that there are superhuman powers in the innanimate object. Rather, being devout Hindus, they see the one God’s manifestastions in many forms, and this statue is a representation of that divine power, which is in fact present in everyone. Though I understand, and in fact agree with these beliefs (though don’t personally feel a connection the statues of most of the forms popular in India) i was still taken aback by the immediate, almost mechanical response to the statue. As we passed more statues, the kids dutifully took off their sandals and prostrated on the cement as the mother also bowed andexplained the significance, what the form of God/Godess represents and why he/she was important, what we can learn, etc. Finally we took a different route to the museum, because, as the mother explained “we’ll never get there this way, there are too many gods.” Their devotion, and more so, the deep knowledge and understanding they posses about Hiduism was quite impressive. The mother seemed to know each how the seemingly overwhelming number of forms were important and related. Even when i was discussing the ant problem in my room with the kids, and explained that my neighbor had given me some chalk to draw a line across the door, the mother explained, “that’s called a ___ line, it’s from the story of ____[Hindu Gods], when so and so told so and so not to cross the line” — so infused is Hinduism in the society that even the cockroach chalk relates to the sacred stories,! (But obviously i have a ways to go on my Hindu mythology or I’d remember the names).
So, what’s the point? That these highly succesful, highly educated, second generation and thoroughly integrated Americans hold to the traditional values of India, is for one, quite impressive, and really surprising. Though of course, in all religions many people practice out of superstition, fear of god, or hopes for boons, and perhaps ( I don’t know) those who truly believe and practice out of faith are the minority, it seems that for many, at least worldly “success” is counter to religion and “traditional” family style. Will their daughter — bright, prococious, interested in everything from Hindu mythology, yes, but now the third generation — be content to do (the honorable, but still less glorified) job of raising her children, with all the love and patience of her mother? That is a question many of the now college- educated girls in India are facing, and it is certainly a difficult one to contend with.
Tags: Travel
nabrams
Leave a Reply