Una verdad simulada

Whats with the invocation nonsense prevalent in our country? No event starts without praying to the higher authority. Its a cultural nite, there’s invocation; technical festival, invocation; workshop, invocation again; international conference, damned invocation there too.

And then there will be saraswati puja and ayudha puja and what-not… just another set of excuses for people not to work.

And then there is a 15-day thing where students will come in black dhotis and refuse to work because their deity has promised them research bounty after 15-day sanyaas (followed, of course, by a visit to the temple).

And what’s so holy about termite mounds? The campus adjoins a protected forest; termite mounds come by the dozens. Praying to the termites won’t turn your D-grades to A-grades. Or perhaps you are praying that the termites attack my office and destroy your answer papers before I grade them???

And dear colleague who justifies this under the name of “culture and tradition”:
Lighting a diya is tradition
Aarti and garlands (however much I consider them a waste) could be tradition

But a clearly religious thing: prayer / puja is neither cultural, nor secular and it definitely flies in the face of science.

Tags: General //