In my village we have the Gangamma festival. In June.
We women carry a small basket on our heads. The basket has a few sticks a matchbox, a pot of rice soaking in water, some sugar.
We women sit near the Gangamma idol under a neem tree, and cook pongal, on a wood fire we blow up. The smoke hits our face from every direction as the wing blows.
We women then walk around the neem tree shading Gangammas idol. Three rounds. Its a thorny patch, and we walk barefoot. Our feet are badly scratched.
We women offer the pongal to the goddess.
When are the secular sisters going to tell us that we are oppressed. That we women bear the smoke from the fires, and that we walk barefoot around our god. That we are victims of patriarchy.
When are the secular sisters going to forcefully save us from our gods, our faith, our roots ? Through the Court maybe. Through their human chains maybe.
Please answer, so that we can be prepared to fight for our god, Gangamma. And ourselves.
The battle has just begun.
Between Roots and Arrogance of the Deracinated.
Vivekanandan Thilagaraj My kuladeivam is also Gangamma. We are migrants from Andhra who settled in Kovilpatti long long long ago
Aparna Krishnan So when Elites, who know neither God nor Gangamma, come to prove to us that we are foolish, oppressed and victims of Patriarchy, victims of Gangamma ...
That is the day the battle lines are irrevocably drawn.
Vivekanandan Thilagaraj The Telugu speaking community of Tamilnadu have Goddesses as Kuladeivams. For us they are Ammavaru. For the elites it is an alien concept for they know not their heritage nor ancestry.
Kavitha Nistala Gollapudi Vivekanandan Thilagaraj I disagree with your statement that elites don't know their heritage nor ancestry. The meaning of God and its power is different for everyone. I think it's good not to generalise the term elites.
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Aparna Krishnan And they, the Elites, pride themselves on that. As God is a superstition, and Roots something to be uprooted and thrown.
Anyway the bugles have been sounded, and people have taken their positions.
Mamatha Balasubramanian I have such good memories of Gangamma parisa at my grandma’s place in Kuppam. I don’t think any other festival is celebrated with as much fervor there, not even Deepavali.
Gangadharan Kumar Elites are so de-racinated and shallow it's not even funny. It's colonialism by McCaulay's children. They don't even try to understand issues at hand, but will have strong opinions with little knowledge.
Aparna Krishnan Their arrogance has no limits.
Their agenda of saving us from ourselves is utter impertinence.
Anyway the battle lines are drawn. And the native narrative is getting more clear by the day.
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