Yes, I am talking about our tradition of paying
respect to an elder by touching the feet. We have given our feet the lowest
status among the visible parts of the human body and to confer a lower status on ourselves than the respected person we need to touch their feet.
There are so many rules regarding the feet! You
cannot enter certain holy places with your shoes on. In other sacred places
they ask to cover your unholy feet before entering. If you point your feet at
someone, you are supposedly insulting that person. And if your feet accidentally
touch an elder, or a book, or a deity, or money, or … (the list of revered
beings) you are supposed to feel sorry and touch their feet. (to cancel out the
insult I guess)
This culture of pronaam (yes, I am a bengali and I pronounce
pranam as pronaam) is not only limited to the instances when you have
accidentally insulted someone by touching them with your feet. You also need to
touch the feet of your elders whenever you wish to seek their blessings. So to
show someone your respect for them you do not do something to make them feel
special. You do something to show yourself as a minion.
My son, who is still not influenced by the
idiosyncrasies of the society he has been born into, loves to stand on his
books. He also often lies on my lap and caresses my cheek with his feet. And I have never felt a greater happiness in my heart.
Honestly, as long as
the feet are clean and minty fresh I do not see any reason for them to be treated
any differently from our hands. Respect or disrespect lies in our hearts and if
our hearts are clean does anything else matter really?
But yet, I
have to teach him that there are rules created by funny people and you have to
at least pretend to abide by them. Else, you need to make Mars habitable like
Matt Damon and that’s just too much of an effort.
