Sabarimala verdict:
I am born in Chennai, grew up in a predominantly telugu
speaking household , married and settled in Karnataka.
Had not much interaction with kerala state, either in work
area or in the family or friends area. Have a lot of Malayali friends, but I suppose
like me, they are also more interested in living their day to day life than sit
and ponder over their state or language or temples on a daily basis.
Till now…suddenly its kerala all over the news. First it was the floods. Extremely bad and
definitely needed and still needs all our attention to rebuild the society.
Then it was the sabarimala verdict.
The day verdict was announced, I felt happy. Really happy.
Now sabarimala can be accessed by me. That’s all I thought. People who know me,
will know , I like temples. However they mistake that with traditionalism. Atleast,
I have not claimed to be a traditionalist. I just do whatever was taught to me
by my parents and follow the culture as much as I can. I have never fought for
others to follow or even induced my kids into this routine.
I grew up in a predominantly male society , belonging to a
particular sect, which gives more importance to alienation during periods. So, I
was asked to sit in a corner, not touch anything , during my periods. Every
single time, it was a torture. Every
time, I felt like some criminal. Every time , I felt the shame of having
periods. It took a long time and thanks to my in-laws family, who never
followed that, to get rid of the guilt attached to the most basic biological
event of a female body. I really don’t understand the negative aspect of that.
Infact if anything, it is cause for celebration. That is my personal view. Let
us ignore that for now.
We are used to going to Tirupati. We go to all south
temples. We never plan a journey during our monthly periods time. Even to a
near by temple, we never go during our monthly periods time.
Now sabharimala is open to all. Irrespective of gender. Like
any other temple. Like Tirupati, like kasha, like kanchi, like manasasarovar,
like badarinath, like kedarnath. So, we will plan accordingly. We will never go
in our periods. That is all there is to it.
I was reading some posts on fb, about the #wewillwait
movement. I respect your personal opinion. Lots of people don’t visit temples,
because of various reasons, economical, health wise, atheists, etc. Its their
choice. They don’t start a movement.
I read a post, which
was widely circulated, saying, if women follow men in their pilgrimage, the man’s
spiritual quest will get tainted. Isn’t this lady saying , akin to saying , rape is women’s fault.
No one wants to disturb the tradition of the temple. If we
cannot go through the 18 steps we wont. I have heard men, casually walking into
the temple, without following the deeksha. They do get darshan from another
side. (its all hear say for me. I never had the opportunity to check it out) We
can do that. Ladies who cannot follow the 40 days deeksha can definitely go
around and see The Lord.
As a woman, who has first hand experienced the guilt and
shame of having monthly periods, always being told that touching me during
those days, would make the others impure, I really feel joyed by this verdict.
