Image attribution: Harisingh at the English-language Wikipedia
A tall, lean Amrit-dhaari (baptised) Sikh, a milkman, rides his motorcycle into our apartment complex every day around noon. He wears a saffron-coloured turban on his head and a saffron scarf around his neck. He has a flowing white beard and carries a small kirpan (ceremonial dagger) attached to a cloth strap worn over his right shoulder. All in all, he seems to be inclined deeply towards religion.
He parks his bike at a spot visible from our drawing room (or living room) window. He then brings out a measuring vessel and a bottle of water and measures and adds copious amounts of water and milk from the bottle and a large can (loaded on his motorcycle), respectively, to smaller cans. He then delivers the mixture in the smaller cans to his customers living in various flats in our building, a practice that is not only unethical but also illegal.
Milk adulteration is punishable under Indian law with imprisonment of up to six months, and Sikhism also advocates against it. Guru Nanak Dev says, “Truth is the highest of all, but higher still is truthful living.”
It is a stark contrast -- the milkman, who has adopted an outwardly religious appearance and probably follows rituals such as saying his prayers regularly, seems to care scarcely about the essence of his religion or the law of the land.
When I spoke about the milkman to a childhood friend, who also happens to be an Amrit-dhaari Sikh, he tried to underplay the offence the milkman commits daily. At first, he told me a joke about city folk falling ill if given pure milk to drink, accustomed as they have become to drinking adulterated milk. When that did not cut any ice with me, he tried to justify the milkman's actions by saying that everything had become so expensive and the milkman needed to mix water with milk to make a handsome profit.
Now, it so happens that the childhood friend is a businessman and probably does not pay his taxes honestly, among other illegal practices adopted to increase his earnings. So, he seems to have felt obliged to defend the actions of someone in a similar situation concerning the law and his religion.
The essence of religion, beyond the rituals, is certainly not everyone's cup of tea.
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1 comment:
Hi Gursharan well this does sound like a very sneaky thing to do to loyal customers. I live in a city and don't get milk delivered and I buy semi skimmed milk from the supermarket. But I do recall the time when young and growing up in a small village and the milkman delivered milk. If a person was found to be tampering with the milk for profit ( I don't recall this ever happening then )but they would have been immediately sacked and probably would have also faced some punishment in court, likely a fine and prohibited from delivering milk again. It's difficult to know what situation the milkman is in? Is he so desperately poor that he has unfortunately succumbed to doing this? If so I would feel sorry for him, but would let him know you are aware of what he's doing and tell him I don't want my milk watered down, but ask if there's any small things I could do to help, if he seems genuine? But if it really does just seem that he's trying to sneakily make a big profit I would likely point out to him that I know what he's up to and expected him to be honest especially wearing the religious dress. And I would give him a chance to make amends by insisting he deliver the full milk as expected in future.
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