For your husband’s long life?

My dear Billy, One of the surprising things of this world is the respect a worthless man demands from others. “Karwa Chhawt”, have you ever heard? I guess not, because it is one of those staggering things invented by the male of the Hindu species to further subjugate their womenfolk. As such, the Hindu deontology has come forth with a whole gamut of ethics, dos and don’ts, rites, rituals and ceremonies, irrational fears and stupid obligations, blind observances, all tending to keep their women under the heel and backward. One of these is the “Karwa Chhawt” whereby a Hindu woman is required to fast the whole day on a given day, normally and is allowed to break the fast only after seeing the face of her husband through a sieve after the full moon has appeared. She has to go hungry the whole day in penance and prayers, imploring God to give a long life to her husband, praying for his health, prosperity and wellbeing. Such a sacrifice might have had its raison-d’etre and significance in the olden days, my dear Billy, when husbands behaved like husbands and indeed projected the lofty image of the “Pati Parmesswar”, a concept which conferred upon the husband the status of a god. Women did not go out to work but spent their lives taking care of the household and rearing the children. A woman then depended entirely on her husband for her livelihood and existence, and it was quite understandable that she should pray for his long life and good health. However, through the ages, man has perpetuated the tradition and the ceremonies without preserving the values celebrated or symbolised by those ceremonies. He has even fed the dogs with those values. Many of the noble principles of life have been forsaken, but they are still being celebrated, like the ‘Karwa Chhawt.” It would appear that this ceremony did not exactly exist in Mauritius long ago, but has been introduced by some passing swamis, and popularized by Bollywood movies and incredible serials. The question is: Are the husbands of today worth the sacrifice undergone by their wives ? Are the wives undertaking the “Karwa Chhawt” ritual sincerely in what they are doing? Both are very doubtful. Of course, there are amazing exceptions which are rare and wide apart. But I feel that the modern wife does it for show, or simply pursues an exercise in futility by observing the day. Indeed, for whom is she asking long life and good health? For a husband that doesn’t even respect her, who batters her, beating her black and blue, who denies her the simple, basic rights that all human beings should enjoy? Many women live painful, wretched lives because their husbands feel that the only thing they owe their wives is a grudge for having married them. In many homes, the wife and the children don’t even get the minimum sustenance, while the husband spends all his money on drinks and gambling and other futile pursuits. It is not seldom that the husband will even sell his wife’s jewels and squander all the money, my dear Billy. Rather than pray for the long life of such people, it would be preferable for the women to pray for their salvation, for a change of heart. They should indeed pray God to turn their pitiful husbands into real human beings, to put some sense into their heads and make them play their parts as good husbands. I sometimes wonder, my dear Billy, if some women, instead of praying for a long life for their husbands don’t in fact curse them on that day and implore God to rid them of such nuisance at the earliest possible. In any case, most of the old traditions need to be reviewed. There are many practices that have been maintained and nurtured by sections of the population for their own advantages and benefits, to the detriment of the poor, helpless classes. Prominent among these is the Indian caste system that has been brought here by the indentured labourers. It may have had its merits and necessity at a certain point in time in India. But it has long become an anachronism which has neither rhyme nor rhythm nor indeed reason. Yet people in India and Mauritius are still observing it to gain privileges. It makes absolutely no sense especially in a country like Mauritius, where all the castes have today mingled in a long process of assimilation, especially through inter-caste marriages. Don’t you think it’s about time people reviewed their opinions about certain vestiges of the past which are ruining the present of the society at large, my dear Billy?