Friday, January 13, 2006

You too Mr. Sujatha?

Thambraas (Thamizhnadu Brahmins Association) held their Silver Jubilee celebrations on Dec 24th & 25th. The meeting was not widely reported, I read only an excerpt from Sundaravadivel's Tamil Blog. All these caste association meetings have a set pattern - huge crowds, some celebrity from that caste talking nonsense, proclaiming that their caste is powerful, so many MLA seats, generally issuing some incendiary statements. We are used to this racket.

But to see Sujatha, a writer whom I idolised for sometime, participate was a big let down. And he went on to write in his weekly column, that there are similarities between the problems faced by Brahmins and Dalits. By what convoluted logic, he only knows. You too Mr. Sujatha?

11 comments:

Nilu said...

Why not him?

The more logical explanation is, Chen, you have grown up to realize idolizing is immature :P

Chenthil said...

Heard you, Grand Old Man :-)

Anonymous said...

have you considered the possibility he is right.

how about lack of representation in public life ? this assembly has the maximum brahmins in over twenty years. can you guess how many MLAs ? Two (H.Raja and J.Jayalalitha). did you also know that DMK is closed to brahmins - even if they are reformed to the point of kamalhasan ?

how about enduring caricature and ridicule every single day ? for example, suryan fm's iyer maami joke + talk program during morning and evening prime time.

in tamilnadu backwardness and forwardness mean nothing. it is just a measure of the how much "tagudu" your community has got.

Anonymous said...

sujatha's problem is he is a brahmin..no matter what he does his critics will view him only through that prism..

guess he confronted that by embracing it :-)

Nilu said...

Anon,
There was another person called Subramanya Bharathi. Please extend your analogy.

Anonymous said...

And all the mockery of brahmins in movies and mega serials.
Can you walk on the road happily after mocking Muslims and Christians?

Enna Chen, there are so many devar kootani's and kounder kootani's and the usual christian kootani near the beach and you dont write a post about it and for once brahmins do it, you ridicule that.

-Siva

Anonymous said...

I don't see anything wrong in Sujatha doing it. It's his prerogative, ain't it?
So we don't like him doing so. We walk away and don't read him anymore.

I agree with siva

Unknown said...

Anon, if you dont like what someone is doing you don't have to just walk away. If its Sujatha's prerogative to talk so, then I would say its Chenthil prerogative to say why disagrees with the wonderful Mr.Sujatha.

Chenthil said...

I had been on tour for four days, so no replies.

Vivekanandan, Lack of representation in Public life is because they don't want to dirty their hands in politics and stay away from it. Also because the population is spread such that they don't have a consolidated vote bank. Caricature and ridicule - well every community has been caricatured, christians as villains, chettiars as money lenders, muslims as terrorists - just for example.

Anon, actually he wasn't seen through that prism (atleast by me) till this incident.

Anon 2, the meeting per se is not my problem. As I mentioned, such incidents happen in all caste conferences. It was the presence of Sujatha that made me write this post. Read the title again, and do I know you?

WA, thanks for your support :-)

Anonymous said...

nilu,

your explanation "idolizing is immature" is a thought provoking statement.

am able to emphatize chenthil. public figures like sujatha could have avoided this.

anaon 3:

Anonymous said...

I read the artcicle by Sujatha in Vikatan. Solomon Pappaiah and Anbazhagan had visited. It's all not about knowledge - but Wisdom that Brahmins were and are after. These silly postings and You too Sujatha are totally unwanted and silly. One honest sincere brahmin or the Brahman is enough for World Peace and Happiness. And there are many persons out there.