A man from Tirunelveli went to heaven. (Some people think this is oxy-moronish; they figure that such a thing normally does not happen and is definitely extraordinary)
Anyway, having gotten there, the first thing he wanted to do was to telephone the secretary of the நாடார் உறவின்முறை சங்கம் and enquire about the caste equations in the heavenlies. Pat came the response that up above, they had no distinctions – caste, creed or whatever!
It turned out that consequently, there was no நாடார் உறவின்முறை சங்கம் there. It was a great relief to our friend that they did not say there were no நாடார்s at all in heaven; just that they have no association. Not that he would have minded being the first in his caste, but it is good to have your own to flock with. So comforting.
So he went about looking for tell-tale signs of divisions among the heavenly throng and unique identifiers – a caste peculiar word here, a place-specific accent there, the all-revealing full form of names et al.
To his chagrin, he did not succeed. In fact, the folk above seem to be getting along just fine with everybody else – mingling, chatting, praising the Lord, flying hither and thither, singing Hallelujah! That there were no marriages in heaven, helped. You didn’t have to pry into the antecedents of the other party. Also, the question of dowry did not arise at all. In any case, these heavenly creatures did not seem to have any money!
Colour did not seem to matter either and nor did anybody care about complexion. As for attire, no dice. Everyone sported wings and carried a harp. No missionary cloth bags.
Our man was troubled. He had thought that heaven was but a celestial extension of life on earth, with all the known (and some unknown) devils making the place attractive and eminently liveable. He went into deep thought and an idea crossed his mind.
He would somehow persuade the senior angel Gabriel (hopefully a quarter Kg of இருட்டு கடை அல்வா should suffice) to cough up information on caste. Then they could draw up a caste-based census. This was an excellent opportunity to unite our people and bring the community together.
என்ன சொல்றீங்க அண்ணாச்சி ?
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Enjoyed this truthful version of Nadars. Didn’t he recognise his relatives at all? He should have asked the Pastors. Usually they know !!
Yes, but he could not find the pastors!
An impressive enlightening write up on the pleasant realities in heavenlies presented through an embarassing dig at the *Nellai strongholds*.
The bane of our Indian society, Casteism, is the age-long deadly divider keeping people from uniting on real and pertinent life and death issues.( Which the politicians and even corporates use and misuse in their own favor.)
I think *Corona* has surpassed this long known social enemy *Caste* by creating further division even at a micro social level called the family… It proved the worst enemy by creating suspicion within the very basic God ordained social unit, (family)to blame one another as the transmitter of the pandemic.
The infected were left unattended to even during their dying moments.
In this fallen world, the human society becomes more and more vulnerable for divisions caused by irresponsible politicians, crazy philosophies, senseless cults, economic vested interested groups and many transnational cultural influences.
One last thing in favor of our Nellai folks ,,,,,,their contribution to the extension of God’s Kingdom in terms of time, talent and Treasure is humongous though it’s attributed to the missionary legacy of the district they hsil from.
In a way they ( a significant proportion) played a key role in winning souls for the Kingdom of the living God.
Well said, Sundararaj. Thank you for your well-articulated comments.
Beautifully written as always! With humor.
I have way too many saintly nadar friends—and angelic mallu friends as well! With due respect.
Tribalism is inherent—in all.
I love how Apostle Paul approaches this in Judaism. My Professors were quick to point out ethno-centric texts in the Hebrew Scriptures. I might want to deny it!
Thanks, Jerusha. Very nice to hear from you. value your theological scholarship