The castist Church!

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I know its been some time since I have ruffled some feathers. So here I go again.

It all started out because of this issue called “marriage”, and when it was determined that I like my peers had attained the marriageable age, the proposals have started pouring in putting me on the defensive.

These proposals have added a new word to my lingo, “caste” (I am a nadar if you must know) which has never been a part of the my conversational jargon, suddenly finds itself in preeminent position.

The fact of the matter is that there is a can of worms waiting to explode in the church in India, atleast the ones that the generational Christians belong to. It has always been a open secret that caste has always factored in the church inspite of no theological grounds for differentiation between people.

Some may argue that the denominational split in the Christian church gives some leeway for castism to be practiced within the church. Some other appeasers of castism use the example of the tribes of Israel, which cannot but be called asinine.

Before I get ahead of myself, for the uninformed the connection between my proposals and caste is that in India, its not just enough to have the same belief system (as in religion) but you need to be part of the same ‘caste’ or social system. Theoretically Christians and Muslims don’t have the caste system. Which has prompted various ‘lower caste’ people to convert to Christianity, Islam and Buddhism.

The fun part of it is that the generational Christians have always been following the caste system specially when it comes to marriage and such. I can’t speak for Islam or Buddhism but the non-castist nature of Indian Christianity is a farce.

So why this sudden outburst from your’s truly? Because I just snapped, because I just want to make a stand, because I am crazy and most importantly because the God I know does not differentiate. And if he does not differentiate who am I to do so (Romans 14:4)?

I cannot stress enough the negative and demoralising effect of castism in general, but to have it as part of my creed just makes my blood boil. Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it … and the Indian Christians haven’t learnt anything from their western counterparts. I know it would be hard to wipe away, people being people, but looks like there is nobody ready to tackle the issue head on. What about me? me … I am nobody, I can’t even convince some of my own close relatives of the oxymoronic nature of a Christian caste system! So I do what I do best write about it and hope I can break down a few walls in the process.

I definitely have some earfuls coming my way for this post, but then again I got a thick skin and it is always funny to watch people defend something that is indefensible.

Those to whom arranged marriages seem incomprehensible, this additional castist corollary would only add to the mystery.

So here it is the gist of the whole post, castism has no place in Christianity … for that matter no place anywhere else.

This is a call to arms against dowry and castism. Somebody has to so its gonna start with me!

“I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.” – Mark Twain

“Ideas are fatal to caste” – E.M Forster

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Leaving Saint Louis!

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So the change has been effected and I cannot reiterate enough what a big pain moving is!!! Atleast when you stop being the agile, mobile person with only two suitcases to your name!! The last two weeks have been so hectic and I have done so many new things and learnt a couple of trades that could help me with a job, if one day Computers stop working … I can drive a truck or become a porter!!

I didn’t know how much I could be stretched till today. The whole moving looked out to prove Murphy’s law. Started out with U haul giving me a 26Ft truck instead of a 10ft one. I couldn’t even cover the whole surface of the truck with my stuff. With the trailer on the back it was next to impossible to reverse on this!! I didn’t know how friendless I was in Chicago till this move. Having mad Mike help me out in STL, it was so much more of a pain when I could get neither friends nor movers to help me unload in CHI!! Only goes to speak of my organising skills I guess! To top it all off U Haul decided to have fun with me by having me run around town for well over three hours in that blasted trucktrailer searching for a UHaul center that didn’t exist.

Well the flip side to it all was that Murphy’s Law wasn’t really proved ’cause Mike made my loading and starting out a grand success, while I had a good Samaritan help me with unloading the couch and another helping me find the right UHaul place.

Actually the whole thing was an adventure, now I can boast to my grandkids of how I single handedly unloaded the whole truck (Ofcourse I am going to exaggerate) and maneuvered that huge truck with a trailer in city roads. Before the move I was fretting how I would going to effect it without any help on the way (a couple of my friends even called me a whiner!), but then at the end of the day when it was all done, it was not bad I guess these are the kinds of things that build character and also helps people say that they have been there done that!!

A few things I learnt on this move:

  • If you are driving something tall watch for the over passes and trees 😉
  • If you are driving something with a trailer the don’t go anywhere where you have to back out off!!! I tried … 50 feet in 30 mins!!!
  • Lifting the bed, don’t dig into the covering … they tear
  • Using UHaul … don’t!!! Uhaul service is horrible!!! I might even start a award series for this 😀
  • dollies don’t help if you have stairs
  • Spread out your books on different boxes … in a single box they weigh a ton!
  • If you don’t need it throw it away … including that PC magazine from 1995 that you still plan on reading …
  • If you can throw out the heavy stuff do it
  • Don’t let people who haven’t done it, sucker you into believing how easy it is, and why you are a whiner for even thinking you need help!
  • Finally if you can live off of two suitcases … do it!!!

At the end of the what matters is if the juice was worth the squeeze, in this case the move worth the new place, so far the biryani I have been able to get is making me say yes!!!

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