In Indian mythology their are some million gods (hey we like variety) and each typically has their favorite ride to get around.
If you could compare them to today's human incarnations and try to draw a parallel (or some lines or parabolas) in terms of what Americans consider their favorite rides it lends itself to some pretty interesting observations -
1. Ganesh or Ganpati or Heramba or Vinayaka by far is the most conservative of drivers - what with a small mouse to get around - that compares to today's Prius or Smart car drivers. As it should be since Ganesh - the god of learning does seem to have a lot of smarts.
2. Durga Mata - or the Goddess Kali - btw these gods and godesses did also have many alternate names to confuse the invaders and tyrants I think so they never knew what hit them - anyway - Durga preferred to ride a lion - that would be like today's muscle car - like a Corvette or Dodge Charger V8 to get from zero to sixty in a nifty.
3. Dattatraya - or the 3 headed one - this guy was intellect and all knowing but hung out on a cow - more like someone riding a Chevy Caprice - all smooth and steady.
4. Lord Ayyappa (this guy was commonly found in the south of India) preferred to ride a Tiger - real stealth and agility was what he needed like someone today might ride a tricked out Mustang or a mighty Lamborghini (zero to sixty in a blazing 3 seconds)..
and finally -
5. Ganesh's dad or LORD SHIVA - the supreme leader - preferred to ride a powerful bull - don't know how he did in the equities market but clearly was charging forth like someone would in a Humvee today, taking care of business and putting out any terrorism that prevaded their times.
Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
Yamraj (God of Death) had a buffalo- that might be mapped on to a Tata truck!
ReplyDeletehe he - although ideally comparable to a 'Yama'ha - motorcycle with many cylinders (those were vehicles of death in college days)
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