As TASK has found some success in wrangling divine endorsement for its cause, I have one more job for it in the same line.
It so happens that Friday is casual day in most companies, which means that young women like to wear jeans, T-shirts and other non-Salwar Kameez pieces of apparel they look most fetching in.
It also so happens that Friday is the day devoted to the worship of Goddess Lakshmi. On this day, traditional women perform the Pooja and wear the saree as a symbol of their piety.
It is obvious that this tension between tradition and modernity – rather the clash between new tradition and old tradition – is an inefficient outcome for all concerned. It causes clashes at home between young women and their parents and deprives some women of the opportunity to wear either sarees or western wear. Most importantly it represents an enormous lost opportunity for an advance in the battle against the salwar kameez, for if Lakshmi’s day and casual day were on different days of the week, the number of salwar kameez days would be down to three.
Now, one might claim that new tradition must give way to old tradition, because by definition the older one was there first, but in this case, I believe that Lakshmi should yield and occupy another day, preferably Monday. After all, it makes much more sense to propitate Her at the start of the week before we start chasing Her.
Therefore, I request TASK to kindly do the needful
Can’t we have competition? I mean set up new temples for the new generation! Where young people can come and pray in jeans or less, where Rock Bhajans are played, where Aarti is conducted with laser shows, where dakshina can be paid via Paypal or credit card…
India is getting its mega malls. When will it get Amrikan-style Mega Temples?
Nitin,
you’re behind the curve. Tirupati Devasthanam is already accepting donations via mobile. (Deducted from balance on prepaid, and added to your monthly bill on postpaid.)
Rock bhajans are sadly still lacking, but Vaishno Devi is notable for having mata-bhakti lyrics tacked on to Hindi movie song tunes (making them ripoffs of ripoffs in many cases).
As to jeans, I believe the Guruvayoor deity finds them as undesirable as salwar-kameezes. So there is scope here.
The best hindi film -to-bhajan ripoff that I have heard is from a Devasthaan called Jyotiba in Maharashtra…it is set to the tune of Didi tera Dewar deewana from HAHK and it goes (in Marathi):
Baba mee jaanaar Jyotibaa la
Yetyaa SS Chaitra Poornime laa…
(Daddy I will go to Jyotiba at the next Chaitra Poornima.)
Thought I should inflict this on others. Feel much better already.
that might be true in tech firms, but if you are a journalist on the desk, then u get to forever dress badly in informal clothes.