[Leica] Mylapore

Jayanand Govindaraj jayanand at gmail.com
Tue Apr 3 18:28:06 PDT 2018


It is coming to a head because of politicians stirring things up, as we have a General Election coming in 12 months, and media, as usual, getting overly hysterical about it. Let me assure you it is no different from what used to happen in Northern Ireland - just the tribal stickers are different - we call them castes instead of variations of a religion! Do not forget there are over a billion people here, so there are inevitably more racist and religious nut cases in number, though definitely not as a percentage of the population. Nobody takes guns here and randomly shoots down everything in sight, as well

Cheers
Jayanand


Sent from my iPad

> On 04-Apr-2018, at 01:41, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
> 
> Fascinating, Jayanand, but, for some of us outside India, the caste system seems very restrictive, and certainly doesn't appear to be just a tribal arrangement. The murder a few days ago, reported by the BBC, of a Dalit in Gujurat - by higher Kshatriya caste men - because he had the temerity to buy and ride a horse, sticks in the craw more than a bit.
> 
> Douglas
> 
> 
>> On 03/04/2018 02:25, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG wrote:
>> Douglas,
>> Thanks for looking.
>> 
>> That thread is very strong, actually. I should also be wearing it, as I am
>> also a Brahmin, but I do not (though both my sons do!). It is just a
>> caste/tribal distinction nowadays, nothing more, nothing less. It is
>> incredibly useful, though, both as a safe place to hang house keys, and as
>> a backscratcher.
>> 
>> All the old caste distinctions, which, as originally envisaged, 3000 years
>> ago, were really all about slotting people into work areas where they could
>> be most productive, are all gone. It is really no different to the class
>> divides in Western society, except it was codified, and flexible as
>> originally envisaged.. Over the millennia, the caste orders became
>> ossified, and rigid, and you were born into it and could not escape, even
>> if you wanted to. Today, they are just tribal distinctions, though very
>> much alive and rigid in societal norms, fighting for the most part for ever
>> increasing Govt handouts (so what is new?). So much so, that even
>> Christians and Muslims have retained their original castes after conversion
>> here, and still maintain the distinction.. It is probably one of the more
>> successful societal orders in human history, having lasted the longest,
>> being pretty stable, and still thriving, at that!
>> 
>> Cheers
>> Jayanand
>> 
>>> On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 6:33 AM, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Fascinating, Jayanand.
>>> It was a good shot of the man, and I suppose wearing that easily snapped
>>> thread indicating his priestly caste is also an age old barrier to physical
>>> work too?
>>> 
>>> Douglas
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 02/04/2018 11:45, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Don, Jim, Robert, Philippe, Alan, Bharani
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks for looking.
>>>> 
>>>> Actually what the person is reading is interesting. It is a magazine on
>>>> traditional Hindu religious philosophy published locally, not in Sanskrit
>>>> or Tamil, but in English!
>>>> 
>>>> To decode the image a little further, the thread over his left shoulder
>>>> (actually should be nine threads knotted together) indicates that he
>>>> belongs to the Brahmin caste, and the vertical lines of ash on his
>>>> forehead, which signifies a trident, means that he is a worshiper of
>>>> Vishnu, one of the supreme trinity of gods in the Hindu pantheon,
>>>> collectively known as Trimurthi.
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Jayanand
>>>> 
>>>> On Mon, Apr 2, 2018 at 9:46 AM, scleroplex via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Wonderfully timeless.
>>>>> Bharani
>>>>> 
>>>>> Message: 12
>>>>> Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2018 21:31:58 +0530
>>>>> From: Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com>
>>>>> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>, PSM
>>>>>          <psm-1857 at googlegroups.com>
>>>>> Subject: [Leica] Mylapore
>>>>> Message-ID:
>>>>>          <CAH1UNJ1raZdJNmxwXevBHwmbnUDLrON6PRdeJc6yyAkmqnTVbw at mail.
>>>>> gmail.com>
>>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>>>>> 
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> 
> 
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