“Driving, driving, driving. Our work, a little bit difficult. Driving, a little bit tiring,” Sastry said as he steered his sky-blue BMW — license plate PRIEST-B — around the Capital Beltway from his Ashburn home to the Ellicott City housewarming, a ceremony considered most auspicious if performed before sunrise. “But this is a respected thing,” he said.

Freelance priests are bountiful in India, but just seven serve one of the Washington region’s largest ethnic communities. Census data from 2006 indicate that 105,000 Indians live in the area, about 60 percent of whom are immigrants; most have settled in Fairfax, Loudoun, Montgomery and Howard counties. To those who regularly call upon them, Sastry and his counterparts become trusted family priests, akin to family doctors or accountants. [link]

Had I only known this, I could have avoided an entire trip to India to get married for the second time (to the same person). Fly Mr. Sastry down, perform the ceremony and voila! We are married the Hindu way. We are happy to have avoided wedding-related trauma drama hungama costs. The ever-increasing-in-religiousness elders are happy since we are officially married the Hindu way. And Mr. Sastry is happy with anything we pay him. So I would have only given him $1 + expenses (I’m Ahmedabadi, after all). Everybody’s happy.

Sastry declined to discuss his fees, saying the payment is up to the devotees

My “suggested fee” wouldn’t cut it. Especially since this priest takes his kids to Disneyworld!

Clients said they typically pay $150 to $200 for a ritual of a few hours. They also pay his expenses, including mileage — “IRS rate,” he said, chuckling. It is enough for a tidy townhouse and a yearly vacation with his wife and two sons, 11-year-old Vignesh and 8-year-old Pavan. Last year, they hit Disney World.

Disneyworld? What kind of a Hindu are you, Mr. Sastry? You should – at the very least – take your kids here. If they’re lucky they’ll get to spot B-list actors in blue paint. And strings are $2 per. I kid, of course. Mr. Sastry can take his kids any where he damn well pleases. Or where they damn well please. Either way.

At any rate though, the one thing that bothers me about this is the license plate. “PRIEST B”? WTF? Something creative would be good. Like say, “SWAHA MAN” or “PUNDIZIT”. What say?

Global index provider Dow Jones Indexes and Dharma Investments, a private investment firm, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes measuring the performance of companies selected according to the value systems and principles of dharmic religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism.

The series includes the Dow Jones Dharma Global Index and four country Indexes for US, UK, Japan and India. The indices are designed to track financial products such as exchange-traded funds and other investable products that enable investors to participate in the performance of companies compliant with dharmic traditions. [BusinessStandard]

So what constitutes as “dharmic”? Well, it’s easier to start with what’s not dharmic:

Excluded from the index are companies from sectors that are deemed unacceptable due to the nature of their business activities and operations. Excluded are also companies that have exposure to unacceptable business practices. Some examples of unacceptable sectors are aerospace and defense, brewers, casinos and gaming, pharmaceuticals, tobacco. Some examples for unacceptable business practices are alcohol, adult entertainment, animal testing and genetic modification of agricultural products. [AlBawaba]

It seems that touting your company as “socially responsible” is a big draw for investors all around the world. I suppose that’s a good thing.

Worldwide, socially responsible investing (SRI), as it is known, has taken off in a big way with assets increasing from $639 billion in 1995 to $2.29 trillion in 2005. In the US, SRI assets represent over 10% of the total assets under management. [BusinessStandard]

So being listed on the Dharmic Index would mean that your company can adopt a holier-than-thou attitude towards the competition. The Economic Times has a quote from the CEO of Dharma Investments, with an interesting typo.

“The Down Jones Dharma Indexes bring together a combination of environmental, social, governance and traditional sin sector filters.

As such, the index is unique and will not just have appeal to the religious, but to a far broader audience as well,” Dharma Investments CEO Nitesh Gor told the media. [EconomicTimes]

What exactly is a “traditional sin” anyway? And what’s a non-traditional one, for that matter?

Are you a man of India? Do you believe in a non-Jesus God? Well, then you should know – your God cannot help you. Why? Because your God is not Jesus.

Yup. It’s that simple.

(via The India Uncut Blog)

But don’t fret, this post is not a total waste, because I did chance upon something interesting. It was an old 2003 article by Subhamoy Das on the Hinduism page at about.com. In particular, this article was titled ‘Hollywood Hinduism: Art vs. Morality’. And it was about all of the various ways in which Hinduism has been portrayed in pop culture by artists, actors and Hollywood.

For instance, did you know that Mike Myers once posed as a “cartoonish Hindu deity” (the image on the left) in the April 1999 issue of Vanity Fair? I’m not the first to talk about that one. SAJA has done its fair share of hashing and rehashing the issue through articles and online forums here.

Also, Aerosmith, the famed pop-rock (in my opinion) band, had a CD-issue with an image of Krishna on the cover, except that he had a cats face and breasts. After thousands of protests, Sony withdrew the CD.

And, last but not least, Madonna apparently came dressed as Shiva at the 1998 MTV Music Awards after which, India suddenly was hot amongst the fashionistas.

Ok, all of that is well and good, but what Mr. Das says right towards the end is what sparked my interest. He says,

…the entire concept of judging works of art is quite relative. It greatly depends on an individual’s aesthetic tastes, preferences, temperament and forbearance. Many people are of the opinion that art is a free creation of an artist, who has complete license to give art whatever form or sound s/he chooses. But is it morally right to reap creative benefits at the cost of maligning the cultural and religious sentiments of another sect? Therefore, it remains an open debate whether such depictions are OK by any standard. [link]

I agree. I’m still not sure whether I should be offended by these things. Firstly, it might be considered hypocritical since I myself, have taken on the pseudonym of a god. Secondly, having dabbled a little bit in the arts myself (printmaking, photography), I can see how one might feel compelled to use snippets of art from other cultures in their works. But, at the same time, Mike Myers’ photoshoot in Vanity Fair can only very, very loosely be called “art.” And, as for Aerosmith’s album cover, that was just designed to sell albums. Then again, one can argue that art is solely designed to sell itself. So that brings us back to square one.

Many people better than me have argued for as well as against this. And there’s still no consensus. So I guess the debate continues…

And, oh yeah, no mind-altering substances involved. Just a little ambient music.