Isn`t his God my God too.......

                                             I write today with a thought that I come from a nation where I could see people of all religions and beliefs. The question is my God his God too?

I have over the time felt the social setup in India does not allow you to move away from the Indianess (a word that I have heard a lot spoken but not written). This is irrespective of the religion or belief that you follow, you somehow celebrate each others festivals and holidays. So where does this bring us to, I have not come across any country allowing a public holiday for Eid and Christmas together. In fact on many occasions I have come across a student from a Muslim community studying in a Christian missionary school and I have also come across a Hindu scholar studying on a scholarship offered by a Muslim funded university. I have seen a Sikh prime-minister leading the parliamentary house of India with absolute majority, in a same country where some years ago Sikhs were attacked in way to actually shove them away. This has made me to understand that it is the moments that govern the majority. We have feared the different religious communities coming together, but for a reason have always felt the need for each other too. This some times becomes more hilarious to me when I see a son of a hard practicing Hindu in the opposite room where his father is devoting his prayers, actually watching a religious quawali (an art form to pray to Allah-Muslim God) on the television set.

As a son I had always seen my dad wrapped in a towel after a quick shower before the breakfast to hold on to the moment in front of `his' deities but I never remember him asking me to join him. I did not know I was born in a Hindu family, nobody taught me to celebrate Diwali(a religious occasion when Hindus rejoice the victory of truth over evil). I was never forced to learn to read the Gita-the Hindu holy book. I have over the time have friends from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Shinto, Jainism and probably Buddhism(I used the word probably because he himself was not sure because he felt no different) backgrounds and actually never felt the need to understand their religion nor profess mine. This was probably one topic that we stayed away from, when a teenager probably because of not understanding enough to discuss about it and when grown up probably it became more of a sensitive issue. What made it worse was terrorism, the attacks in America made differences between friends in India. A attack in India made suspicion between families in the United Kingdom. If this was not enough, media played the pivot to swing either ways with so called debates for what was right & wrong in this world. Biased experts would quarrel over remarks made by some one who does not even understand the issue. The normal person so addictive to the television set watches this media play around with the issue because they have the freedom to report. Eventually at the end of these debates comes a conclusion that-You might be right but We agree to disagree, leaving me & my friend confused and a silent walk to office. Which use to be a healthy discussion and a sometimes a fruitful one has suddenly gone quiet.

The silence was killing me and I asked myself the question that I thought was most appropriate to ask at the moment: "Is my God his God too??"
A little childish but as I stated earlier-This has made me to understand that it is the moments that govern the majority. I had learned my lesson and went upto him and said,"could we go out for the regular dinner today or I would kill myself." To my anticipation he said he would not share the chicken lolly-pop tonight. Guess what! somehow or the other, I managed about two to three pieces anyhow. I broke that silence and things were back to it where it had been.

Somehow during the course of the silence it made me think of the root of the problem and I found the Constitution of my country was the one that is making this happen. I am not against the media but some kind of censorship to the media should be implemented for issues that need a second justification. Arguably absolute freedom to any mass interfacing body becomes a dictator at the end. While drafting of the constitution also gave the the body the liberty to actually further space out a indifferent society. Allowing further amendments in the constitution every day is making it an            un-understandable script all together. Which I have felt is not serving the purpose at all and making the moments worse.

I found my answer at the end when we both donated equal amounts from the hard earned salary to the victims of the bomb blast by Terrorists in Mumbai, or for the victims of tsunami in Kerala.

Isn`t his God my God too.......

~May God Bless~

~Ranu~