A Song for the Lord of the Hills

Jang 35, ``Is it OK to look lustfully at nice looking devotees``?

Jang ji, which sounds unfortunately like an ad for a ganjee, what I will suggest iis that you analyse this further.

Female devotees of the lusting or lustable sort usually come swathed in yards and yards of clothes.

Male devotees, on the other hand, are encouraged to come well bathed, oiled and topless, for viewing pleasures of all so inclined.

Now who is looking at whom lustfully, you decide on how the system plays the odds.

Therfore, jang ji, invest in some good sound knolwedge, maybe help the electric guitar player set up better acoustics or something, and yes, be looked at lustfully. Role reversal, maybe, no doubt, but if you haven`t tried it, don`t kick it.

What have you to lose other than your ganjee anyway?

Beat this....

Keralites trapped in US camp in Iraq back home
Monday May 3 2004 14:27 IST
PTI

KOLLAM: In a real life story, four Keralites who were `cheated` by job agents and taken to a US military camp in Iraq have managed to reach home here after going through the nine-month-long ordeal in the camp as slaves.

Two brothers among them, Hameed and Shajahan of Velichakkala village near here, while narrating their harrowing tale, said they were among 20 Malayalis to escape from the military camp run by US soldiers near Mosul in Iraq.

They had lost track of others, from other parts of Kerala, after reaching Mumbai last month.

``Memories of those nine months will remain as a recurring nightmare all through my life. Ear-dinning sound of bomb and shell attacks, menial treatment by gun-toting US soldiers and the uncertainty of the future kept haunting me every moment,`` Hameed told PTI.

The siblings, like other Malayalis who ended up in the camp as kitchen assistants, were victims of a job racket chain that took them to Iraq on false promise of a decent job in Kuwait.

``On reaching Kuwait city, we were handed over to another agent. He took us on a long road journey, which came to a halt at a check-point. We were then asked to board another bus. Finally we reached a city and from the sign board of the hotel we came to know that it was Iraq. And that was the beginning of the hard days,`` Shajahan said.

``We soon realised that we were cheated by the agents who had taken us on a visiting visa to Kuwait and from there to Iraq through a local racket. We were deceived as it was difficult to get workers for mundane chores in war-torn Iraq,`` Hameed, who like his brother is a meat-seller here, said.

The brothers said in the first four months they were not even allowed to telephone or write home. Though they were told that Rs 12,000 would be send home every month, not a single dollar was paid directly.

With life becoming unbearable and any risk worth taking, they got out of the camp last month and reached Baghdad with the help of an Iraqi truck driver. From Baghdad they moved to Fallujah by road and then to Jordan and Doha before landing in Mumbai on April 28.

``The journey from Baghdad to Fallujah was really frightening. On way our vehicle was blocked by Iraqi resistance soldiers. We were asked to kneel for hours under the blazing sun. Finally they let us off saying that they were doing so just because we are Indians,`` Hameed said.

Shajahan said on their way home they came across a batch of eight Malayalis who were being taken to Iraq. From a brief chat it became clear that their passports and visas were with the agent.

``We thank the almighty for helping us to get out of the hell. Not a single day did pass without shedding tears. But it is sad to know that innocent job-seekers continue to fall prey to the designs of greedy agents,`` Shajahan added.

these days i love going to the temples..specially since the noth-american south-indian temples have improved their ventilation and camphor burning.

the first time i was also very much puzzled by the priest queries about gotra and nakshatra. if you dont know, the priest mumbles something like ``shubha-gotra`` (good gotra). so, is not gotra only available to the brahmins who trace their ancestors to a speific sage?

temples are great for people watching, the proud newly-weds showing off their spouses, the old sinners doing a ``touba`` while holding both their ear-lobes and kids being kids. then there is the tussle between north-indian ladies who want a more close contact with the idols (i.e. touching feet of the idol placed deep in a sanctum) while the south-indian priest strongly disaproving of such nonsense, may carry a new baby or so for a closer communion. there is always some dr. bangalore subramaniam playing electric guitar against palaghat shankar on ghatam (to me is sounds like they are against each other) in the basement auditorium.

one thing i still dont know but have been afraid to ask is ``is it ok to look lustfully at visiting nice looking devotees``? once that question is solved favorably, my visits will be more spiritually fulfilling.

and then i heard that if you get a ``car-seva`` done, (a puja for your car by the temple priest, involves breaking a coconut, and is therfore dangerous to new car paint), liberty mutual is giving a 5% discount for auto insurance.

Hamid mian #31,

``faith is a personal matter between man and his demons ``

Just loved it!!!

``kind of like a divine peep-show ``

Thats what an archana is. Just that the preist alone gets to peep and in some cases money too.

Adios

mittarji. . .

i remember when my eldest brother had read the book, and seen the movie, and raved on and on and on about it. i should have satisfied my curiosity there and then. . but better late than never. and i have always enjoyed alan arkin in everything i`ve seen him in. : )

noorie:
...better still, see the movie Catch-22, with the jewish alan arkin in it.

dost-mittar,

…. i don’t ridicule faith – it is organized religion that deserves our scorn ………… faith is a personal matter between man and his demons and doesn’t hurt anyone unless the man decides to go and sacrifice his son or torment jewish bankers plying their business on the street ……

……. i really don’t see any redeeming quality in organized religion other than the fact that it has supported many artists who wanted to paint obscene fat women playing with naked winged cherubs ……….

……. and please don’t ask me how to separate the business of religion from personal faith – the two have become so intertwined that it seems impossible ………..maybe the japanese can come up with a coin operated booth which you can set up at every street corner and for a quarter you can experience an intimate 3-d relationship with the god or goddess of your choice ……… kind of like a divine peep-show …………..

i don`t know that i want to necessarily master hamidm`s posts, but i will get to catch-22 as soon as i can get to reading for pleasure again. thank you!

: )

Yes, please read Catch22 right away if you wish to master hamidm2 posts.

That would help a lot.

Ofcourse, it is a Jewish conspiracy.

veeresh #25

i haven`t even read catch-22 as of yet. . .do you think that would help?! ; )

hamidm2 #various
Cheesy though this may sound, IMO, this article is not about the weakness of the protagonists` faith, it is about the largeness of their hearts. They are secure enough in their faith to be open to other things. You don`t have to told this of course because you are just fooling around.

Nazar Hayat Khan asked:
Why should the Lord himself be needing special prayer from a priest. The Lord is himself is the giver of all things? I am a little confused.

Nazar Khan -
The Bhagawan does not need prayer.
Here is a simple explanation:
In the South - when people go to a Temple , they ask for an Archanai to be done
- all that happens is that the purohit/archak (priest) then asks for the persons
birth star and gotra and name. The priest then utters 108 names of the Bhagwan
(it is called ashtottara-shatha naama or literally 8 more than hundred) and gives
some prasaad back. The birth star is easily known - any astrologer or astronomer :)
will tell you. Not many people know their gotra (or lineage) so they ``Kashyapa``
or ``Shiva`` etc....thats all ...

In the North, because of invasions - most of the old-temples have been destroyed
manuscripts and temple-families were also extinguished so the practices there have also
been weakened. You will find more continuity of tradition in the south.

BTW, all this puja stuff is for the laypeople - because we are in this world - and we ask
for the worldly things - for a Sanyasi ( or a renunciate ) no puja is really necessary.

This is a simple explanation - more later when I have time.
until then ....

hamidm2 # 20:- boss, your triple decker cube root puns are being seriously. Maybe it is time for a hamidm3 to come along and provide an explnation of :-

1) Full frontal air-brushed fuzzy lens meaning for us serious types.
2) Hidden sarcastic teaser meaning for us ummah types.
3) Actual beaver split wide-open meaning for us irrelevant types.

Choose a type, or is there a fourth, too?

The future is simply not what it used to be, hamidm2. Everybody has not mastered Catch22 as yet, either.

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CoolAL,

i had meant to respond to your post earlier, but was distracted by hamid mian. thank you for sharing more about your friend. i wonder how different it would be if he had taken different drugs (some drugs aren`t the cure, but the problem), but i know that it isn`t always possible to recover completely from encephalitis. he must be very proud to have such a brilliant daughter. : )

hamidm:

what more can i say? i usually find your satire quite amusing, but then there are times when i find you are, please pardon the expression, beating a dead horse. that is an awful expression to use. it should be struck from the books, and our minds. . .oh well. . .

Hamid,

I wonder why you did not choose to quote the next two sentences....

..My mom and now his mom are fully convinced that their prayers did the trick. The rest of us are not quite ``convinced``. However, we don`t see any reason to argue.

Maybe, I was not very clear...Our neighbors did not ``convert`` to hinduism nor did anyone think that ``Ram trumps allah`` as you indicate. Life went on as normal after that but the two ladies insist on paying a debt of gratitude at this temple. The ceremony is quite simple, they offer archana in my friend`s name that is all.

You have to understand it is not the god in general -- there are hundreds of temples of the same god all over Bangalore -- but it is that particular spot, the temple and the day on which the archana is offered. The archana is offered purely on a voluntray basis and does not require my neighbours to do anything else...

You also can rest assured that my friends recovery multipled the small temple`s legend by a thousand times. I am sure a lot of people who had similar situations came and prayed at this temple and their loved ones did not make it, but try and tell that to my mom..

I don`t know how to put this, but a lot of people do ``things`` -- rituals, ceremonies, prayers, archanas -- that seem religious but have nothing to do with religion per se. These ``things`` are done to get ``good luck`` and ward off ``bad luck``. It cuts across all religions. I have known muslim and hindus light a candle at one church in Bangalore before taking exams for luck. I have seen Muslims walking around with sai baba lockets. I am sure you will find several examples of Hindus visiting dargahs to get the luck if there are local legends. Ram or Allah are the last things on the peoples` minds when they perform these rituals and ceremonies. Mark my story as one example of the above described phenomenon.