The coconut climber's blog

"What is your caste ?”

I remember staring back a little surprised. In front of me was one of the world’s biggest Godmen. To say I was nervous back then was an understatement. I used to wonder back then just how far her powers went – could she read my mind ? Did I just have to voice my prayers mentally and she’d hear it and reply? Could she look into my eyes and see my flaws ? Would she say I was unworthy of her blessings.. surely there were worse people than me in that hall, right ?

 In between these fervent thoughts, in this private gathering, she posed me this question. I answered her. She smiled. She was pleased. My caste was relevant that day to the topic of that gathering - my feelings for a girl. She said so. I believed her. I was pleased my low caste was worthy of her smile and her approval. I was happy that God was happy with me and my answers. In my defence, I had no prior experience of being the fly in the spider’s web.

Two years later, I joined an institution for my post graduate studies. And for the second time in my life, I found myself being asked a question that was meant to determine how I would be treated.

“What’s your caste ?”

“I’m a Thiyya.”

“Is that a low caste ?”

I stared back at the senior doctor as he waited for my reply.

“No, we’re actually the highest class in Kerala. We’re the top most of the lot.”

He seemed happy with the answer, as two years earlier a God woman was too. He walked away. During my brief tenure under him, I was treated as any junior can be expected to be, but comments of being of ‘poorer blood’ never reached me.

Of course, I wasn’t exactly lying back then. You see, we Thiyyas are pretty high up there. We’re basically the coconut tree climbers as far as I gathered. The ones who climb up the tree and get you the coconuts for your daily meal. So you see, there really ain’t much higher than us up there on that coconut tree. I am high class blood.

My caste should have mattered neither to a Godwoman who’s preaching love nor a doctor who’s taken the Hippocratic oath. But it did. Both decided my future based on my caste. And I let them. If I had to meet them today, I’d have told the doc that I was infact low class blood and didn't care  and I’d have told the Godwoman that I was high class. Just so that I’d have a nifty story on how I proved her divinity wrong without burning myself.

Everyday, in every field, we’re moving forward, exploring avenues which our parents never had the opportunities to. Yet we hold on to the ties of our past. That is of course natural, perhaps even essential, but is it really that difficult to see which are the cultural ties that need to be cut and which we should retain ?

1. Do you really believe that being of your particular caste or religion makes you the best person around in God’s eyes, unlike the others ? That God doesn't listen to the others who pray because they aren't praying to your God ?
   
2. Do you really believe that a woman having her periods should be deemed unfit to enter a temple to pray to a stone idol
3. Do you believe that an inquisitive Indian should not be allowed to enter a temple because he is a Christian ( Padma Bhushan winner singer K.J.Yesudas, whose devotional bhajans ironically are the first sounds that greet these Gods in so many houses across India ) ?
   
4. Is a friend who’s converted her religion suddenly no longer your friend, or at best someone you can meet outside but can’t take home to visit your parents ?
   
5. Is it really ok to insult ‘meat-eater religions’ sitting in your potato-and-peas pious home, while doing animal sacrifices on holy days to appease the Lord ?
   
6. Do you really believe that your religion is the only REAL religion and that other religions are foreign (Christianity ) / evil ( Islam ) / demigod worship ( Hinduism ) / insignificant ( Sikhism ) / devious ( Jews ) / not even a religion ( Buddhism ) ?
   
7. When you vote to elect someone in the government, is it because of his policies for the development of the state or his religious inclinations and your love/fear towards the latter ? 
8. Do you believe the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya will satisfy God ? Will it atleast satisfy your religious convictions ?
9. Last but not least, in the future, would you be ok marrying off your only child to someone from another faith ?
   

 I guess I’ve rattled a lot of questions out there. These are all scenarios which have played out in front of my eyes at some point of my life. I'd really like to know your opinions on all these . As always, I don’t want the ‘right answer’. I just want a honest answer.