The land of overlapping multiple narratives. Not the US!

In the New York Times, Pankaj Mishra notes this about India:

India not only lives, as the cliché goes, in several centuries at once; it is also a land of multiple narratives, which continuously and often painfully overlap.

If I needed a photo to convey this point, here it is from The Hindu, where the caption reads:
"Super Star Rajinikanth’s fans ceremonially bathe the Enthiran banner with milk in Gandhiji Road in Thanjavur."

As Slate noted a few days ago, Rajnikanth is a movie superstar that most Americans (and a good chunk of the world) haven't heard about.  His latest movie, Enthiran, had a worldwide release ... and it is this movie opening that his fans are celebrating by pouring milk down this huge banner.


Pouring milk down the image relates to the centuries-old religious tradition.  And it has spilled over (ha, pun!) to a cinematic idol worship ....!


I have noted this many times before, and will write again: I have come to terms with India by not trying to deconstruct and understand what goes on there ... life there has its own momentum in all possible directions all at once.  The overlapping multiple narratives that Mishra writes of ...

For those of you who have never visited India, pack up and head there. Now!