LTTE: Reconcile or Regroup

I was visiting london for this weekend. On Sunday in London, I saw a rally of south Indians. It seemed interesting. I looked carefully and I found they were waving LTTE flags. So, they were sri lankan tamils.

I went into the rally and caught hold of a Sri Lankan Girl distributing a news letter “Tamil Guardian” for free. Somehow, I started chatting with her. I asked her many questions,

“Look at that banner, It says Black July’83. what happened then?”

She told me story of 83′riots. Singhals(ethnic group) were suppressing Tamils(another ethnic group) and one day riots broke out and in result many dead..

“What is going on? I thought LTTE is dead.”

“No! It is not. It has been wiped out from Sri Lanka. But there are many supporters around the world.”

“What are you doing here?”

“We are here demanding fair treatment of refugee of recent war and reorganize the liberation movement.”

“Is it possible to keep Sri Lanka intact and keep tamils happy?”

“I am afraid not because Singali Govt will never treat us equal.”

“What is the mood here?  Tamil people are tired of war or they are still excited about LTTE.”

“You can see around. This is a small group. Some times we gather rally of millions.”

“What do you think about Prabhakran?”

She proudly said, “He faught for us. He led the resistance.”

“Do you rate him great man?”

“Humm…”

“Well! in the light of his crimes not only against the govt but also against tamil peoples…”

“Who else was leading? We had no other option.”

“Prabhakran killed all the oposition with in Tamils and even within LTTE”

“Ya! Thats true but still he led us.”

“As you acknoledge that he was not so great man. Why you guys making  a Myth of him here. Look! kids are wearing his T-shirt, yound men are wearing locket with his face on it.  Why do you guys have to create myth. Isn’t it truth good enough?”

“Are heros not everywhere? They help us to mobilize people for our cause.”

“I smell another phase of violence.”

“No! No! …”

Did I tell you that she was really beautiful.

Ganesha: The elephant God

Ganesha is one of the most popular God in India. Its statue has body of a chubby child and head of an elephant. You can find it everywhere. Almost all sects of Hinduism worship Ganesha. For foreigners, this God is cute and comic, which fits with current standards of coolness. Sometimes, you can find his picture in adverts in Europe.  Here is a picture, in which Ganesha is advertising for a super market.

Ganesha promoting Migros

So recently, I went to an Indian restaurant. I found a picture of Ganesha on the menu and  I started telling his elephant head story to others. I made grave mistakes in my story and an Indian intern caught me. I was bit embarrassed. Then, I went back and read about Ganesha. I found amazing things about Indian scriptures. I mainly read this book.

Ganesha was not the main God in early vedic tradition. Some claim that he didn’t even exist then. The main evidence is that he wasn’t mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabharata at all. His myths were invented in 5th century and became the pop God of the time. The puranas(mythical books) were written about him. Someone also came up with Ganesh GITA. There was also a cult which believed that Ganesha was the highest God.

The most interesting fact is that these puranas are inconsistent with each other. There are multiple versions of same mythical events.  For example, how was Ganesha born? Some sources say, his mother Parvati wanted a child but father Shiva didn’t. In a sex session, Shiva somehow feeds his semen to mouth of god of fire instead of her womb. This act made Parvati angry and she created Ganesha out of her neckless. From other sources, the sex session was interrupted by Vishnu, another God, and semen falls on the floor. This time Vishnu was complicit with Parvati. So, he does some magic and that semen drop became a child. This is one example. Every small piece of detail about him has multiple versions.

Its interesting! Next time I will tell people the correct story.