Hanuman and the carry bag

Incase you are wondering about the connection, let me give you a bit of background. According to Hindu mythology there are seven chiranjeevis or immortals starting with Parashuram, one of the avatars of Vishnu. Perhaps the most well known of the seven immortals is Hanuman. I have told the story of Hanuman’s adventure of trying to catch the Sun and getting a nice round red mouth to my daughter 1065 times. She enjoys it still and I may have to go all over it again today. He is an all time favorite with the kids and the elders alike. I tend to think it has something to do with our own evolution and that we all have a bit of Hanuman in each of us.

Hanuman and the others of his ilk in the department of immortality had to do a lot of things to attain the status. Hanuman’s devotion to Rama is well known. He was the very first god in the books of mythology to conduct his own open heart surgery to show his devotion to his master. As I said, attaining immortality is not that easy. But Hanuman and co. are a worried lot because their high status is threatened by lowly polythene bags and many more ‘disposable plastic items’. It is estimated that non biodegradable plastic waste ‘lives’ for over 1000 years and it may not take very long for us to produce ‘immortal plastic’. Just think of all the trouble Hanuman and co. had to take to achieve immortality! Can you imagine their grief when they are joined by a silly carry bag or a plastic water cup in the ‘immortal hall of fame’ at the heaven? How about chanting ‘plastic chaleesa’? We may just be inviting Hanuman’s wrath if we use plastic. After all, which god would like a devotee worshipping competition!


PS: Guess what happened to a demon who asked for nectar in his body and immortality from the all generous god …he became a Frooti bottle!