By P.T. Bopanna
The reels which flooded the social media following the naming ceremony of the daughter of sandalwood actors Bhuvan Ponnanna and Harshika Poonacha has upset sections of the Kodava (Coorg) community.
I had recently made a post on Facebook about the reels and pointed out how the couple had taken liberties with the Kodava customs and traditions to get more eyeballs for their reels.
Though I had not mentioned the names of the Kodava celebrity couple who hail from Kodagu (Coorg) district in Karnataka, everybody in the community knew who they were. In this write-up, I have decided to go public and not to keep the identity of the couple anonymous.
Kannada actor Bhuvan is the son of Ulliada M. Poovaiah, who is instrumental in promoting Kodava culture through his popular Kodava language weekly Brahmiagiri. I have known him personally and he is a respected cultural personality in the minority Kodava community whose population is little over a lakh.
Though I have not known Bhuvan personally, I understand that he is a decent human being and not known for star tantrums.
In the circumstances, I do not want to blame Bhuvan for transgressing the limits in conducting themselves at the naming ceremony. The couple cannot be blamed totally for going overboard because social media, especially the reels, make a normal person go crazy and behave abnormally.
I feel the couple should not have crossed the limits as it involved their infant daughter who is too young for such public circus. Normally, responsible parents avoid posting photos of infants on social media handles.
A few paras I wrote on the naming ceremony on Facebook, triggered several comments and over 100 ‘likes’. Surprisingly, none defended the couple.
It may be recalled that a few months ago the entire Kodava community took out a long march across Kodagu against the insult meted out to members of the community when a few Kodavas were barred entry to a temple in Kodagu because they were wearing their traditional dress. The slogan of the marching Kodavas was Nangada Udup, Nangada gath (Our dress, our pride).
