When one of Pam’s orthopedic doctors introduced herself as Indira M. I couldn’t resist asking her what the M stood for. She laughed and said something like Mohapatra, so I asked her what that meant. (Most India surnames translate into something. For instance our home town hero Shah means “Emperor” (click here.))
Dr. M informed me that her name’s translation had to with the Hindu God Ganesha. Suspecting that she gave me a quick answer “had to do with” to avoid going into any more details, I let it slide and simply said “Ah yes, the Elephant Boy.” She laughed, said “Yes” and then promptly turned her attention to Pam to discuss her upcoming back surgery.
When asked about Ganesha, Dr. M’s response seems to be the norm from most India folks I have run into in that they are not too quick to want to talk about Ganesha. I have no scientific polling data on this mind you, but the couple of conversations I have had with Indians on the subject, reveals that they don’t want to talk about Ganesha any more than they have to. They may follow and worship the old boy as their god, but they sure aren’t too keen on talking about him.
Some of the issue may involve the fact that Ganesha is just one of several gods that Hindus have to worship. Buzzy and I learned of all this when we visited India in the 90’s. After one of many talks/explanations on their faith and beliefs, I remember Buzzy making the comment “They got more gods than they know what to do with.”
And that is the truth. Ganesha might be one of their more renown gods, but they still have several others that are just as “out there” as Ganesha (click here.)
My favorite was always Vishnu who was the inspiration for Jimi’s album cover Axis Bold As Love. Ironically enough, this album was later banned in Malaysia not for its music but for its cover using the religious iconography. Seems you just can’t do anything without offending some religious-based folks can you?
Here is the Vishnu image that the album cover was complimenting. Supposedly, Jimi didn’t care for the cover either (click here.)
As for your Sunday morning time spent here with the Buzzyblog, take a few minutes more to click on some of the links above to learn more about Hinduism and the many gods they believe in. Before you jump to any conclusions as to how crazy and absurd it all may sound, just stop for moment and think about the things that we believe in such as three Gods in one, the Holy Spirit, transubstantiation, the resurrection, Lucifer, the Virgin Mary etc.. By comparison, Ganesha and his buddies may not be so crazy after all.
Lots of great songs from Jimi and Company on Axis. However, if I had to chose one for the desert island mix collection it would this one: