Hiya All
Here I am bloggin my thoughts, ideas, journals and ofcourse my inevitable ramblings. Greatly appreciate you'll stopping by and add comments if you will. See ya!
Here I am bloggin my thoughts, ideas, journals and ofcourse my inevitable ramblings. Greatly appreciate you'll stopping by and add comments if you will. See ya!
Do I need a Tape
Posted 28th January 2008 at 07:32 AM by Anandchitra
to shut my mouth?.To keep myself from voicing what is right or to bring to attention any deviants?...o.k. I will start from the beginning. This past sunday when we went to the temple we saw a cordoned off section in front of the Diety area. Our temple is constructed that when you enter you will be facing all our dieties lined against the back wall. The dieities are placed in an elevated platform and in front of them there is a smaller elevated tiled platform and then after there is the carpeted hall area. So the Sanctum area is elevated. This cordoned off rope was placed in the carpeted area and said very clearly Please do NOT enter past this line. This message was displayed in 2 places.
Being in the committee I was already aware of this step being taken. It was to keep of people who did not think twice about making a mess near our dieties. Although the mess could be in the form of kumkum or paper or chandan or rearranging the puja items, that is not desrired or accepted by our resident priest.
I totally agree with this since coming from the South access to the inner sanctum is prevented to all devotees. As far as I am concerned access should only be given to priest and if need be some volunteers who help priest. This by itself has become a very big controversy. There have been huge demands for this ban to be removed and access restored to all and sundry.
So I was standing near the rope cordon when a young woman moved the rope and entered that area to go upto the dieties to place a plate of USED flowers. These flowers had been used by the priest in the previous days puja's and had been kept aside to be distributed to all devotees at a table kept apart for this specific purpose. So since I was standing right there I opened my mouth (what a dumb thing to do) and said to her" If possible please avoid stepping into the restricted area"..And there the tirade started..She raised her voice and went on"Who had the right to restrict access and why and when ".. and went on like that. Also she felt justified in returning the used flowers back to the diety and did not see any wrong and was very offended with me because I said that was not the right thing to do. Well ofcourse I had enough common sense in not continuing the argument and left it at that.
As soon as I came back home I narrated this incident to husband and then my son wanted to take a poll opinion on whether I did the right thing or not. My husband very clearly thinks I should Have just Shut up and not said anything in the first place. My son thinks I did the right thing by voicing my opinion. My mother thinks that I should clearly Shut up and even suggested I buy a strong DUCT TAPE for further use. My father thinks enough is eonough. We always are the ones to shutup so he is happy that I atleast DARED to voice my opinion. That my opnion was totally squashed is another matter. So what do you think? Should I buy some strong tape to plaster across my mouth to prevent further voicing or did I do the right thing? All answers entered will be counted towards the poll results..
Being in the committee I was already aware of this step being taken. It was to keep of people who did not think twice about making a mess near our dieties. Although the mess could be in the form of kumkum or paper or chandan or rearranging the puja items, that is not desrired or accepted by our resident priest.
I totally agree with this since coming from the South access to the inner sanctum is prevented to all devotees. As far as I am concerned access should only be given to priest and if need be some volunteers who help priest. This by itself has become a very big controversy. There have been huge demands for this ban to be removed and access restored to all and sundry.
So I was standing near the rope cordon when a young woman moved the rope and entered that area to go upto the dieties to place a plate of USED flowers. These flowers had been used by the priest in the previous days puja's and had been kept aside to be distributed to all devotees at a table kept apart for this specific purpose. So since I was standing right there I opened my mouth (what a dumb thing to do) and said to her" If possible please avoid stepping into the restricted area"..And there the tirade started..She raised her voice and went on"Who had the right to restrict access and why and when ".. and went on like that. Also she felt justified in returning the used flowers back to the diety and did not see any wrong and was very offended with me because I said that was not the right thing to do. Well ofcourse I had enough common sense in not continuing the argument and left it at that.
As soon as I came back home I narrated this incident to husband and then my son wanted to take a poll opinion on whether I did the right thing or not. My husband very clearly thinks I should Have just Shut up and not said anything in the first place. My son thinks I did the right thing by voicing my opinion. My mother thinks that I should clearly Shut up and even suggested I buy a strong DUCT TAPE for further use. My father thinks enough is eonough. We always are the ones to shutup so he is happy that I atleast DARED to voice my opinion. That my opnion was totally squashed is another matter. So what do you think? Should I buy some strong tape to plaster across my mouth to prevent further voicing or did I do the right thing? All answers entered will be counted towards the poll results..
Total Comments 30
Comments
 | Not required to buy a tape mam. What you said or did is perfectly right. Whether the other person has takes it in a good way or revert back in a wrong way is their problem. Regards Sri |
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| |  Dear AC, Rules are made to be followed.......(I am not saying that we should follow all the rules, exceptions are there too) and not following the rules means, you are insulting the rule framer........Being a social animal, we should respect these frames.......and whoever is not following the rules should be warned of the consequences....... I would say, you have done a very good job by restricting (tried, at least) the lady.......kudos to you....... But every rule should come with a warning (if not followed, penalty should be paid), as most of the Indians never feel obeying any discipline unlike the westeners.......so, please include another line just below the line restricting the entry "Violation of this will result in penalty of $50". Regards. |
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| |  Now I can breathe in peace..thanks sweetie Meetu..lov ya.. Can you believe the gal of these ladies..they are all very over educated as well..and really gave me an earful so much that i was shocked into speechless state..I did not even try to restrict I just Requested..now I know not to repeat the same mistake again..btw she has more blonde highlights ..does it make a difference:).. |
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| | Dear AC, My vote goes to - You did the right thing and nothing but the right thing, in the right manner, with the right intentions! How about that? Too many rights in one day hmm?  All of us, at least sometimes, should be keepers of the law and rules. Of course the rules that make sense. Like this one. I liked Meeta's penalty suggestion. Given that we Indians generally tend to defy rules, you may actually have a chance to try Meeta's suggestion one of these days! SS |
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| | AC, No offense meant to desis, but in general we don't respect rules in our own country and amoung our countrymen. We don't even spare our places of worship when it comes to following rules. If a line has to be formed, then people fall all over and push and pull. A couple of years back at a Thanksgiving Sale, I witnessed some rude behaviour. At first there were two desis in the line. And as hours progressed, many started joining these two. The ones who joined later would ideally have to join the end of the queue. But since they were friends to the first two, they simply joined in. And when the store opened, they were running in like cattle. You made your point to the lady and if she did not see through, it was her lack of civic sense. |
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| | you should have gone all the way, no need for the duct tape. |
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| | yes madam i agree with u did the right thing. i think rules are to be followed maybe a few years of military training will do wonders in everyones life as far as discipline is concerned. maybe we are suffering from too much freedom and affluenza. |
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| |  What u did was 100 % right, AC, nothing wrong in what u did.This is something i see in Temples quite often.They always require a person behind to warn,correct and to make them respect rules.In Madurai Meenakshi Temple,in Amman Sannithi police constables used to be always present to correct queues.If they are not there a day then there will be total chaos.One thing i can tell U is even if u see the same lady the next time too,U can strongly warn her,lets us see whether she understands atleast at that time. |
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| | Thanks for cheering me up with all the "RIGHT" words ..SS.. you said it nicely..dont understand why they dont get it...ITs a joint effort by all of us here and it is our temple and our property..all these people are extremely well to do..big jobs..and you know they behave so differently outside the temple..You really have made my day thanks.. |
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| | Sri Thanks for telling as it is..You said it right..we are not responsible for the manner in which the other person takes it..still we feel so put off inspite of doing the right thing.. |
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| | AC, You go girl. All the way, i would have dragged the lady and made her read the notice a 108 time right then and there in front of all the other worshippers( who i hope respected the new rules). Anyway, do not let this one person detter you from doing the right thing. Being a hindu she should understand why we do not offer used flowers etc to god. Can't believe it. If she dares come to the temple again and does the same mistake again, please make her do, like a compulsory " volunteer" for the temple on the most busy day!! |
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| | Ac, no duck tape, just duck the tape! And then, follow Vandhana's advice verbatim. Make all those who protest the loudest to volunteers, compulsary! May be along with the Do Not Enter sign, it should be written in small print...about the above mentioned condition! L, Chamla :)) |
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| | We don't even spare our places of worship when it comes to following rules. If a line has to be formed, then people fall all over and push and pull. ...dear Nivedi..You have said it better than I..but i dont get it though..you know all of them are so well educated in high paying jobs..why why why.. |
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| | Affluenza..thats it I guess and too much freedom too..You said it Amudha and to the point..thanks for blogin here.. |
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| | Hi AC, as a member of the commmittee, you did the right thing, otherwise you have no right to be there. You can tell that person that you one of the volunteers and so had the right to correct a person as far as the temple is concerned. If every body keeps mum, what will happen? |
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| |  Dear AC, Looks like Chenniya's unreasonable people are spread all over the globe. How funny that she did not follow the rules and had to be angry when you told her what to do. You did the right thing as u knew what the rules were.If they cannot follow the rules they shud not protest. Keep going AC!!! |
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| |  dear AC, i and u both know u r right, see this is what jey is asking you, how you whip up ur blog to get so many response did u see that there in the forum??... while reading i couldn't help laughing...sunkan |
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| | Nooo.. I did not know I was right..Really Infact I was so upset thats why it became a topic at home..I still feel I should have kept my mouth shut and am going to do so next time..and believe you me there will be many next times.. But everyone here has made me feel better and you are sooo shweet in reply too..luv yur avatar matching for Valentine hmmm?? |
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| | Cheeniya's Unreasonable people ??? I took a back turn when I read yurs Janani..Thanks for the cute reply.. |
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| | Varloo You have spoken in such great clarity that I am rethinking my stand now..I thought why get mixed up in all these politics.. but youre right..if everyone takes a step back it will not work the right way..way to go Woman !!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Recent Blog Entries by Anandchitra
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- Shove from Nest (10th November 2008)
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