Was reading "Charlis and I " by Shashi Tharoor yesterday in which he has beautifully described the caste system and the effects of untouchability when he was a child where the lower caste boy Charlis was not even allowed to play with the upper caste boys . Over the years it showed the land reforms , the empowerment of lower castes and ultimately the lower caste boy getting admission to his high caste home when the Charlis gets IAS . In my childhood there was no untouchability. And as i grew older i realised though the caste system faded it started rearing an ugly head in another way . People who dont understand their roots or even how the caste system came into being unifying under a political banner based on caste . It didnt matter high caste or low caste what mattered was a party in its name and doing the same things all the political parties do but with a caste banner .
I say religion is personal not without reason . For one that is a connection between a person and God if he believes in it . But more importantly most of my observations on organised religion when i look around shows the negativity associated with it and only serves to show hypocrisy as well as dividing people .
As late as last month i saw a souvenier magazine in which all the people who have gone together for a holy pilgrimage was given with their colour photo and all details . As part of the package deal of a few lakhs the pilgrimage covered the souvenier also . Nothing wrong in that . But what i was not prepared for was a prominent smuggler as well as a hospital owner with his wife smiling happily in one of the pages . Apparently he does the pilgrimage frequently . If you say he might be doing the pilgrimage for salvation , maybe , but using which money because to the best of my knowledge the hospital is under huge loss for many years and is a coverup for his black money .
Coming from a secular family during my study in school also i was surprised when some of my friends acted "hyper-religious " . Apparently they were thrilled and actively were engaged in martial arts training under a religious banner which is banned now and at their age they only saw the martial arts part . And some of the friendly ones told me they were learning it to fight the people of my religion . In retrospective thinking i am thinking how their innocent minds were corrupted by the elders who saw religion only to divide . And paradoxically thanks to amar chitra katha i used to know much more than even their parents about that religion .
Being secular i should include even the third religion which is considered relatively less volatile. But that surprise came the most shocking . Every year the school used to give prizes for the state rank holders . But that particular year unfortunately all the calculations by the school failed . The student who used to be first in all the internal assessments and who belonged to the same religion as the school management in the public exam didnt get state rank . And two people got state rank both from other religions . While even the government felicitated these students but the school authorities that year didnt give any prizes . Coming from a secular family my parents saw no point in sermonising the school authorities that knowledge comes from the same God . And talking about sermonising the school was run by "religious" people .
Maybe the effect of ageing but nowadays i have a thumb rule .. Anyone says religion very actively in their conversation that person will be a hypocrite and does things exactly opposite what he tells . And i am still searching for exceptions ...
I say religion is personal not without reason . For one that is a connection between a person and God if he believes in it . But more importantly most of my observations on organised religion when i look around shows the negativity associated with it and only serves to show hypocrisy as well as dividing people .
As late as last month i saw a souvenier magazine in which all the people who have gone together for a holy pilgrimage was given with their colour photo and all details . As part of the package deal of a few lakhs the pilgrimage covered the souvenier also . Nothing wrong in that . But what i was not prepared for was a prominent smuggler as well as a hospital owner with his wife smiling happily in one of the pages . Apparently he does the pilgrimage frequently . If you say he might be doing the pilgrimage for salvation , maybe , but using which money because to the best of my knowledge the hospital is under huge loss for many years and is a coverup for his black money .
Coming from a secular family during my study in school also i was surprised when some of my friends acted "hyper-religious " . Apparently they were thrilled and actively were engaged in martial arts training under a religious banner which is banned now and at their age they only saw the martial arts part . And some of the friendly ones told me they were learning it to fight the people of my religion . In retrospective thinking i am thinking how their innocent minds were corrupted by the elders who saw religion only to divide . And paradoxically thanks to amar chitra katha i used to know much more than even their parents about that religion .
Being secular i should include even the third religion which is considered relatively less volatile. But that surprise came the most shocking . Every year the school used to give prizes for the state rank holders . But that particular year unfortunately all the calculations by the school failed . The student who used to be first in all the internal assessments and who belonged to the same religion as the school management in the public exam didnt get state rank . And two people got state rank both from other religions . While even the government felicitated these students but the school authorities that year didnt give any prizes . Coming from a secular family my parents saw no point in sermonising the school authorities that knowledge comes from the same God . And talking about sermonising the school was run by "religious" people .
Maybe the effect of ageing but nowadays i have a thumb rule .. Anyone says religion very actively in their conversation that person will be a hypocrite and does things exactly opposite what he tells . And i am still searching for exceptions ...
No comments:
Post a Comment