Pooja

A Pooja is generally a Hindu Prayer. It is worship to the Deities of the Hindu Religion in the form of prayer, offerings and sarcrifices. In India with its very religious population Poojas are very important. Well, interesting enough, we had a Pooja here in my new office space. Religious as the Indians are, everything (wether buildings, poeple or geographical spots) is blessed regularly in order to pray for good luck in the futer. Since the company is extending rapidly, two new office spaces are rented now and I have moved into one of them. Consequently, a Pooja was held for these new offices in order to ask the deities for continuous success and prosperity in the future. So, one day when I arrived, a young men in a traditional dress of a priest was preparing an altar on a table in one of the office rooms. He put statues of Hindu deities on the table and coverd them with flowers and colours. The rooms were filled with the odours of incences. Then suddenly everyone removed his shoes and went to this particular room. The priest started to pray. A prayer consists of a monotonuous, continuous reciting of Sanskrit verses (which nobody understands!!). Meanwhile he poured a liquid (I guess coconutwater or something like that) over the altar and fluttered around the incences in order to disperse the odour all around the place. Then he distributed rice corns and petals to every one. I must say I felt a bit out of place. Still I tried as good as possible to adapt to the local customs and follow the procedure and concentrate with the same serious concentration like my collegues on what was going on. Then, the priest walked around with the liquid and poured a few drops on every desk and computer in the office and he did the same with every person standing around in his or her socks. Finally, after holding the rice and petals in our hands for about 15 minutes and listening to the not understandable Sanskrit verses, one by one spread the these ingredients over the altar while praying and whishing whatever and again, being blessed by the priest. Again, I felt a bit out of place. But it was a nice and interesting experience. I find it remarkable that the Pooja was followed not only by my Hindu collegues but also by my Christian and Muslim collegues. Again, this incident represents the dynamic coexistence of the three religions (at least here in the south) I can and could observe very often. Thus, a toast on the Southern-Indian religious tolerance:-)

Cultural Gap

ohooo, I just realized that our CNN documentary evoked a vivid discussion on the comment forum of the page. An Indian who calls himself DT, annoyed by some, no by only one statement made in the report (that there is rubbish in the streets), called us foreign losers who do not respect the space (whatever he means with that????) of our neighbours. He further comments that if he was our neighbour he would get us arrested for disturbing peace because, as he says, peace in India is more important than cleanliness. Well, I don't really want get too deep into this discussion since I don't want to be insultive to anyone but I cannot deny myself the following statement: I come from a country which is not only cleaner but also more peaceful than India! Anyway, let's leave this as a side comment. I would rather focus on the cultural gap which is the cause for Mr. DT's irritation if not to say confusion on our 'condescending appreciations'. So, let me explain: In India it is common to tell your addressee always only what he wants to hear (or at least what you think that he wants to hear). Consequently, an Indian always expects you to tell him what he wants to hear. As a result, the only thing you are allowed to say when you meet a random Indian is: I love India!!! Well, talking about the 'uncleanliness' as Mr. DT would call it, might be all the more a very sensitive subject because of the following reason: 'Clean' is a relative definition and highly dependent on cultural understanding. 'Clean' is defined and perceived differently in Switzerland than it is in Egypt, Namibia or in Japan. Therefore, when defining a hygienical standard in a different country you need to do this within the dimension of comparison. Thus, defining a place in India as 'unclean' in front of a random Indian is not only offending him because he wants you to say 'I love India' but also because on a probablility for 99% he has never been outside of India - if at all outside of his state, city or village- and hence will lack the cultural understanding of what 'clean' means for a non-Indian. In other words, with a probability of 99% Mr. DT has never been outside of India and consequently, does not know that there are cities in the world where there are no garbage bunches all over the place with cows eating it and that poeple from these 'cleaner' places will perceive a city like Bangalore as 'unclean'. Furthermore, does Mr. DT not understand that in some other places of the world people tend to tell each other rather what they think and not what their adressee wants to hear. So Mr. DT has been irritated twice and hence the verbal loss of his highly propagated Indian 'peacefulness' becomes more comprehensible. But for the moment, enough of 'cultural-understanding-explanations'. But, in order to remain 'peaceful' with my 'peaceful' Indian surroundings I prefer not to proclaim my blog-address to every 'random Indian' as you might understand now after this detailed analysis of a further aspect of the Indian cosmos.....