of blogs, bo and buddha...

if i am blogging, this must be tuesday or if its tuesday, i must be blogging… though the dateline has a mind of its own. haven't figured out how to fix that yet! meanwhile, i fix tuesday as my blog day..
its buddha jayanthi , a holiday and for the first time in weeks, i am neither carrying work home nor waiting at some cramped air port, which i guess is as good a time to blog as any, except that the content may be unduly influenced by the bo of your hum-suffers...on my last trip, i actually requested a change of seat for this reason on kingfisher airlines...the pyt seemed embarrassed but eventually obliged by sending me to the last seat in the last row ! what if there had been no empty seats in economy? would they have upgraded me? does the promise of comfort or ‘world class experience on indian skies’ cover this? is one indemnified ? i face this often in cars and taxis, which reek of it and the choice is between an olfactory attack or one by the elements as you roll the car windows down. a good way out, i figured is to carry a vicks inhaler, but don’t forget to fake a few justifying snivels, if the source of the invasion warrants it ( colleague, friend etc..other than the cabbie, that is)

still on bo; i have just returned from a multimedia workshop for open and distance learning professionals at tamilnadu open university at chennai-one of the participants, who teaches a beauticians course did a lesson on bo and talked about one dr. hilary jones ,a dermatologist who calls bo a socio-economic epidemic ! and worse, enlightens us that the person exuding this does not realize it at all! besides the bath and fresh clothes routine, other recommended remedies include rubbing 0.05% chlorohexadine solution in the armpits and even injecting botox! howzzat? only trouble is, the person has to do this him/her self- like you cannot sneak a choloro-thingummy dab or quickly jab botox into the offending site. and as jones has already researched, the skunk knoweth not its scent!!

i did mention the buddha, did i not? and not just for drama and alliteration either- some of my friends have taken to buddhism lately, a couple of them, today. it seems to be really catching on here in dilli-they say there are some 17-18 chapters in dakshni dilli alone! they meet regularly and chant . i wonder what people take away from a religion? the rituals come first and sadly, oftentimes nothing comes next! not being a practicing hindu it is somewhat difficult for me understand what the rituals actually do for you. my (en)chant-ing friends claim that the chanting brings peace upon themselves and others around them-so in a way, i am covered i guess by these 17-18 chapters around where i live. and they are turning vegetarian too-though, the countries with buddhism as their main religion almost eat anything that moves! while with any mention of the buddha only peaceful images 'flash upon that inward eye', some of the most oppressive human rights violations happen in countries where most people are buddhists-like china, tibet, myanmar. i know that sounds like a shallow and deceptively rational argument conjured up by a teenager. perhaps, a profound truth lurks there. we only take away from our religion, what we bring to it.
we take away hatred when we bring exclusion , claiming ours to be the best or only truth; we take away intolerance when we vest in it uncompromising form and rituals, and we take away inner calm when we concede a point of control outside ourselves.
no, i am not turning a buddhist yet, but on this buddha jayanti, i resolve to learn more about the religion.
so long! watch this space (on tuesdays)