Plateful of Rakhis

This is one ritual that my young friend does religiously every year… No, she would be offended if I were to say that it is a ritual; but rituals are expressed through symbols, and what she does is very symbolic, so I would still call it a ritual. Rituals also have the notion of sacred and secular embedded into their very nature, so let me still call it a ritual. Now, what is the ritual : before Rakhi Purnima, I am sure to get a hand-made rakhi from her, with a brief note, expressing her sentiments. As with Rakhi Purnima in the past years, this year too I received a rakhi by post. But she also sent me a few pictures of a plateful of Rakhis.

It is a delightful sight to see a plateful of rakhi, and I didn’t venture to count how many they were, but there were rakhi of different colors and shades. It was beautiful. From a long shot, moving closer each time, till we reach the close up of a rakhi, a green one. Now rakhi is a thread or band that women tie to the men they hope and believe will protect them in times of trouble or danger, and by accepting the band, the men commit morally to be their “brothers” and help them in need. But what is this young lady expecting me to do, by sending this rakhi all these years? I would sign off all my little email notes as her brother, and is it not proper then that she sends a rakhi to respect such a relationship?

Rakhi these days is highly politicized. On the next day of Rakhi Purnima, the day when this little ritual is to be performed, all the dailies have the habit of showing the bigwigs of the nation tying a rakhi in the hand of the underdogs, either a physically challenged, or a child living with AIDS, or daughter of a sex worker, or children living with cancer. But such rituals have a different connotation for sure. They are performed for the camera, and they would take pride in tying a rakhi to a underprivileged. This is basically to defeat the significance of Rakhi Purnima.

The plateful of rakhis. I wish every girl in our society has a plate full of rakhi, and make every other man her brother; if the rich and affluent girls take this plateful of Rakhi and tie them in the hands of the poor boys, new relationships will be built, which goes beyond the purely blood-related. This kind of relationship is what the world is crying for. If rich men accept the poor girls as their sisters, to stand by their side in every thick and thin, the world will be very different from what it is today. Is it not strange that even after celebrating this festival year after year, the attitude of a good many men in the country towards women has not changed.

If all the girls and women have men who would stand by them in all their difficulties, then the plight of women would not be there. We need plateful of rakhi for all our women; be they young or old, rich or poor, they all need plateful of rakhi, to make all the men their brothers. Let the band initiate new relationships, and every one become brother and sister! It is then that the society we live in can truly become a family of hearts, where each one cares for the other. I don’t need to wait for rakhi next year; all I need is to pass the plateful of rakhi, so that the chain of relationships does not stop at all.