NotProudToBeIndian.20160205
For any Indian, the inability to think for himself or reliance not on the self but on the outside agency leads him to believe in astrology, necromancy, and goodness knows what other absurdities. You must have seen many of Indian Ministers, provincial and central, rarely undertake anything without consulting their favourite Brahmin (Priest). Actual incident was quoted for the guest of some Governors. These learned men and acute politicians, who had one time crossed swords with British functionaries, postponed well-planned tours, and thereby upset all the arrangements, because their private spiritual detective, the palmist and horoscope reader, had told them that the day chosen for departure were inauspicious. Believe it or not, a famous Secretary, running a big government department, refused to attend a meeting because, on his leaving the house, a donkey had brayed on the left-hand side. This was an evil omen!
There was a woman Governor for whom, as a special treat, a peacock had been killed. When she heard that she was to eat it she threw up her hands in disgust, "You wicked man" she told her host. "How could you destroy such a beautiful bird?" Later on, when she was offered a fan made of the feathers of the same sacrificed creature, she accepted it with a broad smile.
Sunder T.
