"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (05/28/91)
India has long been a favorite of Western writers largely
because its society and culture displays nonstop contrasts to a
Western mind. The recent funeral of Rajiv Ghandi is no exception, but
now telecommunications adds a new dimension. The following AP
dispatch appeared in Sunday papers, 26 May 91:
"ASTROLOGY VIA FAX: OLD AND NEW COLLIDES IN INDIA
"NEW DELHI, India (AP) - The Shankaracharya of Sri Kanchi
Kamakoti Peetam, a Hindu holy man is heartsick. He says Rajiv Ghandi
ignored a telefax he sent warning that astrological signs were all
wrong for Ghandi's campaign visit to southern India.
"The Shankaracharya's story, related in <The Times of India>
was but one of the ways in which Ghandi's assassination and funeral
this week brought out the odd mixture of old and new in India.
"Ghandi was slain Tuesday in what authorities believe waa a
suicide bombing using plastic explosives. He was cremated Friday in
traditional Hindu ceremonies going back 50 centuries.
"The ancient and the modern battle daily here, sometimes
refereed by a bloated beaurocracy and 19th century civility bequeathed
by the former British rulers. Rich and poor eye each other warily and
sometimes collide.
"In the air-conditioned splendor of New Delhi's five-star
hotels, a glance out the window shows the poor taking refuge from the
100 degree-plus heat, dozing on wood-and-rope cots set under dusty
trees.
"On Saturday, the day after Ghandi's funeral, newspapers
carried a story on police using bamboo clubs to drive away the unruly
masses outside the cremation grounds. Another told of fires sweeping
through more than 400 huts in two poor villages near the capital.
"Then there were the usual Saturday supplements directed at
the 100 million of India's 844 million who are middle-class. Advice
was offered on how to mix a tequila sunrise. An essay, full of winks,
wondered why public relations managers of major hotels are always
pretty women who swirl about in sumptuous saris.
"In this jumble, it's not surprising that swashbuckling Indian
film hero Amitabh Bachchan, a friend of Ghandi's family, used a
walkie-talkie on Friday to help organize the 5,000-year-old Vedic
ritual for the former prime minister's cremation."