Your Friendly Philosopher & Guide

But then saw the age of the blogger – just 24 – hence thought his ignorance is completely justified. Just because you can write few software codes, just because you can hack into someone else’s computer and just because you make 4 times the money your grand father made – doesn’t mean you become more intelligent than our ancestors. Still in the age of computers – we drink water & not 250 KBPS broadband Internet connectivity and we still eat rice & not Compact Discs.

“Celebrate her embarrassment?” Nature’s blessing to have made a woman capable of becoming a mother is an embarrassment? Scientifically if a woman doesn’t attain puberty – she cannot conceive, and she can never have kids. I have seen a family going through hell when the girl in their family didn’t attain her puberty till the age of 18. They ran from one doctor to another, injected many medicines, spent loads of money and only then she could have her periods! There was celebration after she finally attained it. Meaning – she was ready to get married and become a mother. If nature does it, we call it embarrassment, when a doctor induces it we call it an achievement?

I get many woman clients who have sadness written on their face because they don’t have kids even after years of marriage. And the main reason for the delay is – they don’t get periods on time. Women with irregular menstrual cycle are prone to various health problems & also become obese in nature. So from now kindly don’t call woman’s puberty a thing of embarrassment, if our mother’s hadn’t had it on time – we would have never born!

Now the second part –

In South India when a girl attains her puberty or has her first menstruation, the parents call upon all the relatives, and the people around their vicinity to celebrate the function. It always used to be a public function, so that everyone could see the girl.

There were basically two important reasons why they did this –

*One because everyone should come to understand that the girl is no more a kid, but capable of getting married. Hence from now treat her like a woman and not a child. When everyone in the vicinity knew about her, the chances of the girl being exploited by men reduced a lot.

*Secondly to announce that she is ready for marriage and capable of becoming a mother. Hence if anyone was interested can approach their family with a marriage proposal – things became easier that way.

There is/was no need or necessity to put your picture on the Internet and see yourself morphed into a nude picture later!

Nature doesn’t abide to government’s rules. Government approves 18 years to vote and 21 to get married. Funny – a person can decide about the nation when 18, and can decide about his/her life only at 21? Government’s moves were not to help people, but were to reduce the population and increase the vote bank.

And the docs huh! They think they are the ones who create & save human lives. They claim a woman is not physically or mentally fit to get married young. Nonsense. In that case my grandmother could have never had 13 children and lived till the age of 70 with one husband (She was married at the age of 14). And when it comes to mental fitness - people should not be going in for divorce when they get married after the age of 21! Divorce are more these days than few decades back - why is that? Have we stopped growing with age?

And here is another beautiful concept, which never existed in the North. Though the scriptures (Bhagwatgeeta) has a mention about it.

Maternal uncle (mother’s brother) always had a major part to play in a niece or nephew’s life. On the day of puberty ceremony the maternal uncle is called to tie walls of coconut leaves around the girl (called Olai in Tamizh).

(Similar to how tying Rakhee (raksha bandhan) is a symbolic representation of protection of women by their brothers in North India)

In fact it is still believed that the maternal uncle has more rights on his niece or nephew than her/his parents.

The wall is symbolic to show that –

*the maternal uncle becomes a protector of her niece from now (not necessarily get married to her)

*if she marries someone else and becomes a widow later, the maternal uncle can remarry her and give her social security

*if the girl’s parents die, the maternal uncle becomes solely responsible for the girl. He can either get her married to the guy of her own choice or if she agrees can marry him itself

*if by chance the maternal uncle is in love with the girl, and the girl is in love with someone else – then the guy should win over the maternal uncle through power or some competition

Earlier physical power was an important criterion to get married to a pretty & rich girl. Sita got married to Ram, only after Ram proved his power by breaking the bow of Shiva. Not that it has changed now. With time – the physical power has been transformed into money. So today women prefer men who have more money or the capability to make more money. Money is another form of power.

Another question is why should a maternal uncle have so much right on his nephew or niece. Astrologically too the lives of maternal uncle and niece/nephew is closely linked. With the birth of niece or nephew the maternal uncle gets substantial lift or drop in his life, depending upon the horoscope of the child born.

The Bhagwat Geeta Part

An invisible voice told Raja Kamsa that his 8th nephew will bring bad luck to him. Hence he killed all the 6 kids that were born to her sister Devaki, while the 7th (Durga) flew off warning Kamsa about Krishna’s birth and survival.

Kamsa could not kill Krishna, and it was Krishna who came back after he grew up to put an end to Raja Kamsa. This is a perfect example about how you cannot change your destiny even after knowing it, and also how maternal uncle and nephew’s lives are interlinked!

(When I was writing this particular blog, I got a call from one of my best friends (a North Indian), and when I told him about the topic of my blog, he laughed his ass off. He said, how can you even think about celebrating a puberty ceremony? This is what I call ignorance. An intelligent person always comments after analyzing a situation and not from the face of it. That way even I could laugh my ass off – by saying how can looking at Moon through a chalna (that rava, maida filter) increase husband’s life span, when these North Indian ladies perform Kadwa Chauth? But I won’t laugh – because I have not yet analyzed that).

To be continued….

*Why women were asked to sleep on floors (of course mats were used) during menstrual cycles

*Why women were not allowed to enter kitchen & temples when they had periods