for, we know not how they work....... It is the festival season here starting with Navarathri and culminating with Diwali. My rant meter goes a notch higher on one of these days when there is a giant smear fest all around. Anything that moves unnaturally may receive this rather ungainly splash of yellow (turmeric) and a cross stroke of white with a dot of red. Maybe there is a profound mathematical or statistical significance to this very elaborate organised disorder in this superposition of complex geometries. In case, you are wondering what I am referring to , it is the ayutha pooja during navarathri.
Our car also had similar designs but in white and brown - these were not created by us in an attempt to move nature, but created by nature's own natural movements. But it does not matter since they all look the same unless you go close to it to inspect! It is perhaps an attempt to invoke the supernatural especially in the case of vehicles because driving around is such a hazard and one should take all the help one can get. So much so that some drivers have splashed their entire wind shield with the yellow stuff - well seeing the traffic really does not help, does it? God knows how traffic works here, so god will take care of it through this yellow and red radar homing signals on the car!
This season, in Chennai, we have a special reason for observing this ritual. The biggest movie of the (perhaps) the year has been released and it is about a machine. Enthiran's release before navarathri may not have been a coincidence. And it gives us more reasons to believe that we should pray because our machines can turn on us. But we can always splash our holy concoction of yellow and red on the enthirans so that it makes them blind followers of our orders and therefore keep us safe. I think we really need to pray because shankar may be planning a sequel.
They are coming to get us. Collect all the turmeric and non-electromagnetic vermillion!!! This is also perhaps the reason why travellers from the western civilisation came to India in search of turmeric at the advent of the industrial age!!
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Splashing vermilion/turmeric is surely slightly less ridiculous (but perhaps less aesthetic) than tying a large banana tree to each side of your car or auto rickshaw. This must take the cake for the most ridiculous decoration ever. Of course the fact that this significantly obscures vision is irrelevant since an unobstructed view while driving is only an optional requirement. Most side mirrors are folded, the rear view mirror is mostly for decoration and hanging little dolls, so what harm can two banana trees do? Is this a case of us being a banana republic or a case of Desh ko majbooth banana hai?
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