Gerald D'Cunha

E very religious ritual or social custom has a meaningful origin behind it. After hundreds and hundreds of years, when we follow a ritual or a custom, we, generally, forget the meaning behind the ritual… We just follow, often, for fun and, often, for fear (what will people think if we don’t follow it?”). Like, we Christians light candles before we pray at home or church… whether it is in a pitch-dark night or in a broad daylight… Like the priest who  bends down on Holy Thursday to wash the feet of the ‘twelve disciples’… Why were the candles lit in the early days of Christianity? Because, Apostles and Christ’s early followers were being persecuted by Roman authorities. So, they had to hide in dark caves and light candles while praying… And, today? Jesus, the Master, just bent down and washed the feet of his disciples… to show them the way to become the greatest of all is by becoming smallest of all… It was a spontaneous, spiritual gesture about humility, ...

Pic.: Chirjiv Nagpal T here is a popular proverb in Kannada. It goes like this:   “Rogi bayasiddu haalu… Vaidya heliddu haalu.”   It means: The patient craved for milk… the doctor prescribed, too, milk.   I would, often, hear it from my mom, when I was a small boy back in our village… Whenever I and my brothers would jump in joy on seeing some favorite dish prepared by her… She knew how her little-ones had craved for it… So, with a mischief in her eyes and a silent joy in her heart, she would dish out the folklore: “Rogi bayasiddu haalu… Vaidya heliddu haalu.”   Another occasion on which we would hear it from mom was when we came back from school and jumped before her: “HEEEEEEEEEY! No school… Head Master died (Or a Trustee, a Minister or just a torrential rain!)”   Mom knew how badly her little-boys hated to go to school that morning… how they wished someone important had died or some tragedy had struck our town! ...