Sudheendra Kulkarni in The Indian Express:
“One way of understanding India is to understand our festivals. They tell us about India’s civilisational continuity… Each of our festivals represent mythology’s leap into modern times, an epic’s entry into our lives.
“Our festivals tell us about the importance of thanksgiving to the Creator. They tell us how to discover happiness, harmony and life’s meaning in ourselves and in our relationship with others, with nature, with the cosmos.”
Read the full column here: To know India, know its festivals
Somewhat related:
http://www.languageinindia.com/oct2007/nagamandala.html
Last year I was in Bangalore for Deepavali- full of noisy crackers, smoke and lots of children with burns- well I was in Vanivilas Hospital – in all the hospital casualty departments- Wonder what that says about India to the starry eyed Kulkarni- obviously the guy is still hooked onto the India Shining myth.
Don’t be in an unholy hurry to knock our vedic gypsies. Remember that Murali Manohar Joshi, the BJP education maestro, was well on his way to make astrology a part of higher education offerings.
Who will head astrology departments at our universities–the Gowda family’s retainers or Yediyrappa’s saffron sages?
Incidentally, why does the Gowda family visit Shani temples in Tamil Nadu? Aren’t the Kannada ones good enough? Besides, Shani is ubiquitous in Kannada Nadu–at traffic junctions in Bangalore, near toll gates everywhere.