I’ve always wanted a nice leather jacket. I know it’s kind of tacky and not always stylish. Plus, you have to do a lot to take care of it. But still, buying one has been one of those things that I’ve always wanted to do, like learning to skydive or having a giant python as a pet. I just never got around to forking over the dough, because a good one tends to be pretty expensive.
So not too long ago, my desire was rekindled because everything here in India is just so cheap compared to back in the U.S., and this goes doubly in the case of clothing. I thought, why not get one here and bring it back to the states? Not only would I look bad to the bone, but I would have a good story to go along with it.
Then I had another thought. ”Pat, you idiot, what are thinking? This is India, and leather is made from cows. There’s no way you’re going to get a real leather jacket here.” Well, it’s true. Everybody knows that cows are sacred here in India. I’m not sure why, it probably has to do with the nourishing milk they can produce or their ability to do lots of work. Moreover, cows are often seen as a blessing from the gods, as their way of providing something for the people. Nobody here even talks about killing or eating a cow. I mentioned beef once to a teacher here, and she gasped and recited a quick prayer under her breath. My bad.
Anyway, I thought it would be at least a funny story to tell Atul. When I did, he said, “Why wouldn’t you be able to get a leather jacket here? Of course you can.” I was confused. Turns out that Indians have no problems skinning the carcass of an already dead bovine, as long as the skin is the only thing they use. It’s just one more addition to the contradiction that is India. Here, stray cows walk the streets in the middle of traffic. Sure, everybody stops for them, but that’s no environment for a creature that’s supposed to be worshiped. Plus they often eat garbage on the side of the road. If a cow eats a large enough piece of plastic, it gets stuck in one of their four stomachs and blocks its ability to absorb nutrients from other foods, so the cow slowly starves to death no matter how much it eats. I also have frequently seen farmers and other people beating cows to get them out of the way or off their fields.
It makes me think about the different forms of worship. How could it be said that this animal is worshipped when the people here treat it so badly? It’s just a case of ignorance and limited knowledge of a situation, and this goes both ways. For example, Christianity is called a monotheistic religion, while Hinduism is polytheistic. Yet Hinduism actually believes in one true god that is expressed in many different forms. Brahmin the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer are the three main manifestations of the one god, and the countless other gods are other forms of those three, doing various aspects of their work in their name. So in a sense, Hinduism is monotheistic. Also, some people who don’t know much about Christianity would say that we worship more than one god. There’s God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as well as a litany of saints, disciples and prophets. It’s just hard for people who have not been raised Christian to understand that the Trinity is three-in-one, and that saints are not worshiped as gods.
Just another example of some cultural differences which are hard to understand from the outside. I’ll figure them out in time. Meanwhile, I’ll be making a trip to Dharmshala tomorrow for a leather jacket. Now I’ll really have a good story about how and where I got it.
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