Secular Stupidity

2012-12-12 (This is the full format for dates as per ISO) is an auspicious day. Do you know why? It was on this day 63 years ago (going by the reports) Rajnikanth was born. Again going by the reports, many would-be mothers are insisting on delivering their babies on this auspicious day. Each of them wants her baby to be as rich and famous as Rajnikanth, that is why.

Just read the newspapers carefully tomorrow. There will be a marked spike in the population of Tamil Nadu. The bank accounts of all obstetricians will also show a spike (his or her cut of this auspicious, beyond normal, and on-demand delivery of a future rich man; if it is a baby girl, no extra payment to the professional, of course). That in itself is proof enough how auspicious the day has been!

Going beyond Tamil Nadu, this 12-12-12, the threepeat of 12 stuff has grabbed the imagination of people whom you would have thought intelligent enough to see through this manufactured auspiciousness (are there any other kind, you ask?) – after all, the first 12 is more than a 12. It is, 2012. Just read what configuration ISO demands – YYYY-MM-DD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601)

If anyone could have been born auspicious, it could only have been Jesus of Nazareth, if only Mary had pushed him out 13 days earlier but 12 years later! 0012-12-12. Yes, that is how convoluted the whole thing is.

Now, you might be thinking that I was desperate to post something and this date and its insignificant significance conveniently fell on to my lap. You could have guessed right, but you have not. I was in no mood to post anything today, but I was overcome with raging anger at a conference I attended today.

In the Inaugural Session, the organizer of the conference mentioned that the evening rains last night made him worry about the event today. This was silly to the core, for the simple reason that the venue was a plush auditorium which insulates you from the world and its weather. Then, why did he say what he did say? Simple. He wanted to show that he is up on the news of the day.

Then, it was the turn of the emcee to wear the dunce hat. Again, the day was auspicious and my face was turning beet red. Now, you tell me, how could I have resisted posting this piece.

After venting that spleen, I will turn to something lighter. The calendar we use is called Gregorian, after Pope Gregory XIII. When the Roman catholic Church shifted out of the Julian Calendar and adopted, ten days were lost – the lost ten days of October. The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday, 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582. By the way, even though Gregorian Calendar is the dominant civil calendar, we must remember its provenance – to fix the wandering date of Easter!

Taking the abrupt shift in the calendar dates into account, 12^th December 2012 is truly 2^nd December 2012 – 2012-12-02. It loses its auspiciousness.

OK, I have taken care of the date, but what about the year? I do not know the details but at least one researcher has come up with 4 BC as the year of Jesus’s birth. That is, Jesus Christ was born 4 years before Before Christ! So, if you truly want to count the years from the year of birth of Christ, it is now year 2016! Another auspiciousness downgrade!

There is a mitigating factor about the year though. The world is supposedly becoming secular. The calendar, then, has to lose the religion-specific tags BC and AD (Anno Domini, the Year of Our Lord). Hence we have BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era). Therefore, it is the religion-specific 2016-12-02 AD or the secular 2012-12-02 CE, a double or a single downgrade. One of the few times religion gets a negative premium!

Basically, what exactly is auspicious about 2012-12-12? Only by forgetting the first two numbers of the date, it merits even a curious look. By looking at how this date came about, we wander into some Christian celebration; and, irony of ironies I am sure people in Tamil Nadu went to Hindu temples to perform special pujas (ostensibly to celebrate Rajnikanth’s birthday, but hiding behind the supposed auspiciousness of 12-12-12). To add insult to injury, it is not even the year 2012!

Oh, my! The calendar is supposedly secular. So also the stupidity associated with it! Hence, the whole affair is secular stupidity.

Raghuram Ekambaram