Photos: Indian Navy prays for INS Vikramaditya (last resort!)

The Sevmash shipyard’s publicist Anastasia Nikitinskaya writes about a function at the shipyard yesterday. Hilarious language:

The Indians asked God for happy fortune for the aircraft-carrier which is soon going to be launched. One of the most important stages of repair and re-equipment of Vikramaditya cruiser (former Admiral Gorshkov) is coming to the end. The Sevmash specialists are getting ready to undock the ship, all the works required already finished. The representatives of the Indian Navy WOT, held a ceremony before the operation starts, with prayers offered up to Lord Ganesha. It is the first time for Sevmash: lamps, fragrant sticks, fruit and flowers were put near the Ship, for Ganesha to be gracious to the aircraft carrier and to those serving onboard. Instead of the traditional bottle of champagne, a coconut was broken against the ship board, and all the guests were treated with fruits.

“We hope that this beautiful and reliable ship will serve for a long time for the greater glory of friendship between Russia and India,” said Sevmash Director General Nikolay Kalistratov. “But in the first place our leaders are to come to an agreement and find the means to carry the work to its conclusion.” The Ship is getting ready for launching, and in the picture which was given to the Indian colleagues as a keepsake the aircraft-carrier is already furrowing the seas.
That last comment by the Sevmash Director is hilarious. Trust the Russians to be all sombre and ironic even at a felicitation ritual! Some nerve. Oh well, here’s hoping the coconut does its job.

35 thoughts on “Photos: Indian Navy prays for INS Vikramaditya (last resort!)”

  1. Shiv, Champagene is the western way of doing things. We Indians do it differently with coconut. This is not something new. It’s a practice that goes back millenia and continues even today. Even for the Indian Navy the launching ceremony is different that of western nations. Check the websites of various defense dockyards, you will come to know.

  2. sham no varuna

    do you even know what means aroor

    frankly you coconuts amuse me
    you have no idea of your own nation and civilizations beliefs and mock them

    even the russians showed better grace and that is funny for you

    well, coconuts like you have nothing better anyways

  3. @ all,
    one good piece of news.
    in mumbai, voters registration for service personnel is going on on fast pace.
    it is estimated that there are 50,000 votes from the three services and their families.
    hearing this, shri milind deora (think he’s contesting from south mumbai) is having the jitters.
    considering that the margin between main parties is at best a lakh of votes, atleast in one prominent constituency, we will have the power to decide our MP.
    Given the current resentment against the present govt, any guesses who’ll win or if someone promises to raise the degradation of armed forces in the parliament, then rest be assured he’ll win hands down in south mumbai.

  4. Prasun K. Sengupta

    When the demons and gods were tired of fighting that had brought about bad health to them, they asked Vishnu for a way to preserve their well being. Vishnu said the only way for eternal well-being is to invoke Dhanwantari, the god of health, and eat his elixir. Vishnu explained that the only way to invoke Dhanwantari is to cast some special herbs into the ocean and chrun the ocean using a mountain. As such, Vishnu took the form of a tortoise called Kurma to form the base of the mountain. Vasuki, the poisonous serpant was used as a rope and it’s midrift twined around the mountain. With the gods and demons on each side, the started puling and pushing to chrun the ocean once the said herbs were cast. Then problems brewed: Dhanwantari was nowhere to be seen and Vasuki was tired. As such, he needed to spit out his venom somewhere. Should his venom drop on earth, all living beings would die. As such, the gods and demons call upon Shiva to take the poison, for only he can withstand it. Consenting to that, Vasuki spits the poison into Shiva’s mouth.

    Now here’s the interesting part:

    Vishnu senses that the trouble is brewing because the gods and demons did not pray to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles before starting the churning process. The gods and demons prayed to Ganesha, then restarted the churning and Dhanwantari was succesfully invoked.

    The elixir was eventually consumed by the gods leading to eternal wellbeing.

    OK, this is an elaborate myth, of which our holy land is rich in. But sometimes the believe behind these myths which were penned by our forefathers will not vanish. Lets not redicule our culture, for we were the first in the world to understand spirituality and inter twine our rich culture with the essence of it.

  5. shiv, please hit a coconut on your head first. what so hilarious stuff ??? Dont u do a pooja when u buy a new car ? Sucker

  6. He doesnt do any pooja, new car or old, has never visited any temple, makes fun of these age old traditions and thinks they are funny.

    New house or old, new anything or old, he doesnt beleive in any of these. Sucker that he is, indeed.

    Shan no Varuna, means may the sea god bring us good luck and look after us when we sail.

    The Navy not only breaks coconuts but also adheres to auspicious timings, dates etc to commission a ship, and rightly so. Even Presidential colours, are blessed by calling the clergy of every faith.

    Shiv have you forgotton, you moron, in Vizag during Fleet review in Feb 2006 the clergy was called for the colours being given by the President to the Southern Fleet.

    Fools, making fun of Indian traditions. And, Shiv your father himself beleives in astrologers and Vaastu Shastra, do you laugh at him also, yes first hit a coconut on your head!

    You coconut eating south Indian Konkanis, no shame they will have. By possessing foreign degrees, they think they are more Americans than Americans themselves.

  7. Guys, C’mon! Shiv clearly mentions the last part being hilarious..the one regarding leaders. Give the Devil his due, albeit grudgingly.

  8. i was [email protected]

    Fully agree with you [email protected] (that is until the last line). Anyway I think Shiv meant it lightly and lets not take this to heart. I don’t think he meant to heart any person’s sentiment.

    But I look at you as a worse of sucker than Shiv after reading your last line. You seem like a total northern fanatic who looks down upon south indians. attitude like yours will only tear the social fabric of our megadiverse motherland. if you want a single-track country, please migrate to pakistan. They are mainly north indians who lost 1/2 their population and 1/6th their land area by discriminating against people of a different kind (bengalis). You are no different than a stinking pakistani who has come here to throw stones at anyone and everyone. So what so bad about southeners? Shall I name some distinguished people from the South? The first kingdoms that fell to the mughals were northern ones, while the last (not all at the end) were the southern ones. I can say a lot more but I’m not a lame ass FANATIC like you. For me, we are all INDIANS, north, south east or west. Well, perhaps Shiv should be hitting coconuts on his and his father’s head, but you should be hitting SHIT on your stupid face because atleast a broken coconut’s flesh can be consumed and its shell used to grow orchids. SHIT is as useless as you are.

  9. Shiv, that is your problem if you believe or not in our customs, i don’t bother, but atleast do not mock. thats all i gotta say

  10. Ya.Shiv has this penchant for behaving like an US agent in cases pertaining to Russia and the Left. How much do you get paid for that, mate?

    He sounds like a hot blooded, jumpy tween who’s just had his first shave. Lacks maturity and has dogmatic viewpoint of the russians even as the amrikis are weaving their tighter and tighter around us.

  11. [email protected]: what’s hilarious is the way the russian publicist has described it. i wasn’t pointing at the ritual itself — obviously i know the meaning of the ritual and how important it is. i was laughing at the naivete of the sevmash publicist and the language she uses to describe the ritual. quaint and funny. otherwise, coconnuts rock! 🙂

  12. and let me add, since a lot of folks here have obviously misunderstood (happens so often nowadays, it’s a yawn!) what i meant, i was poking fun at the way the sevmash publicist said, “we’re used to champagne, but here we had coconuts.” if you think i don’t understand tradition or the gravity of invoking gods for such an event, you’re deluding yourself, mates. i was merely laughing at the language used in the press statement — read what i’ve said carefully. unless you’ve lost your sense of humour of course! in which case, tough!

  13. point taken shiv. we know what you meant. ignore the dimwits you misunderstood. some mighty fine pix you have put up anyway!!

  14. i agree. shiv, don’t feel forced to respond to illiterates who dont understand your drift. either they are too thick headed or just looking to find fault. ignore. your core audience understands what you are referring to so be rest assured about it.

  15. ok we forgive you.

    anyway i dunno whats so funny about

    “we’re used to champagne, but here we had coconuts”

    nope, nobody’s laughing.

  16. y do u call a prayer / offering a last resort???

    Brother its a SYMBOL of Indian culture. Wehn we r born and we have prayer ceremony is it “last resort” for us to be safe in this world? Or when we get married why do we have a big prayer ceremony for us? “last resort” for us to be happy? NO! It is just that for everything we do, we need divine grace. Praying as a “last resort” is not condoned in ANY religion. We do our best, then surrender the rest to god (or the higher powers). Please don’t misunderstand what I say. it’s just for ur own good.

    Anyway if the ship is gonna be launched soon why is the delivery delayed untilllllll 2012??????? and now that india has rejected that extra BILLIONSSSSSS russia is asking for why is work on going? is there a distinct possibility for the ship to be towed back unfinished to a port in india for refitting to take place?

  17. off the comment moderation damn it. u have clearly made a grave mistake in the way u spoke of that ritual, n i pointed it 2 u and i and others already forgave u as we know its not ur intentions. so now u wanna filter our comments as spam bcoz we point out a mistake? is this the best u can do? boy u already admitted ur mistake so y fear? we r not gonna eat ur ass out bcoz of the mistake, all humans make mistakes lollzz

  18. last anon. stop being a grouchy jerk. shiv has clarified what he meant and it was not offensive. he added the moderator because of some personal and offensive muck that was coming in some of the new posts. have a charminar, bud (but not in a public place), heh heh.

  19. last anon,
    i already told i forgave him and he accepts his mistake its over so why r u prolonging it? u r the grumpy grouch. r u shiv sock puppeting as an anon? if u r u are a gutless jerk. or elase just MYOB and stop fanning a flame that has already been put of. it won’t come back

  20. peace ok..

    what personal stuff? like this.. fuck u shiv? what so personal about that? if he cannot take that then ask em to quit blogging n sit at home brooding

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