A desparate need for change

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

I am not a big Nehru fan but this part of his independence speech moves me on India’s 63rd independence day. 62 years have passed and India, on the 15^th of August every year, still celebrates that “first step” towards greater triumphs and achievements. Sure, there’s nothing wrong in marking an anniversary of such a landmark event in a country’s history but my problem with it is that Independence Day has now transformed into an “achievement” from Nehru’s idea of the “first step”. Now, it was definitely an achievement for our grandfathers’ generation; it’s not for us. The subsequent generations have contributed nothing in attaining the freedom; all we’ve managed to do is to remain independent and that’s not an achievement by any stretch of imagination.

But India has achieved quite a lot in the last 62 years, you would argue. It’s a sweet delusion that India loves to live with. So let’s see what those achievements are. I am sure you have your own list of India’s achievements and here’s mine (this is in the order of importance and I am sure it’ll vary according to one’s opinions and beliefs):

1. India’s greatest achievement in 62 years is the landmark Manmohan Singh budget in 1993 which enabled the rise of Indian multinationals such as TATA, Aditya Birla, Infosys and Reliance and brought greater choices to the consumers.
2. Last year’s nuclear deal which should hopefully end India’s energy crisis by the end of next decade.
3. The green revolution in the 70s/80s that finally gave India its food surplus.
4. The nuclear bomb (although I don’t entirely buy this but given India’s hostile neighbourhood, the nuclear bomb is a necessary evil).

But that’s it. This is where my list ends. A lot of people would put down a lot more in the list of achievements but those range from frivolous to absolutely laughable. After all, no one would seriously consider as achievements four wars, a lunar mission 40 years after the first landing, winning a Cricket world cup or a single gold medal in the Olympics, a couple of miss Universe titles by women who happened to be from India, a few Oscar nominations for a handful films (some of them not even Indian films but merely about India) and so on.

Yet, India takes pride in all of the above, quite unashamedly. It doesn’t occur to us that some of these are not even successes; quite the contrary. What’s the success in sending an unmanned ship to the moon when people have already landed on the planet 4 decades ago? Or winning one gold medal at the Olympics in 6 decades? If anything, we should really be ashamed of these events, not proud!

On the other hand, India has failed considerably on several counts that really matter. To begin with, religions and caste system are India’s thorny crown. People are a lot more polarised today than they were at the time of independence. The last two decades have seen an unprecedented rise in religious violence and general approval of the perpetrators of that violence. And this has come at an enormous cost to the nation. For each step India has taken towards development, religions have pulled it five steps back. It has dented India’s credibility in the wider global community and created endless hostilities within. Seemingly harmless people are prepared to kill (or elect the killers to government office) in the names of Gods that never existed. Religion is the only political agenda on which elections have been fought since 1989.

Needless to say, religions are the biggest hindrance to India’s economic growth. Religious trusts are one of the biggest money-making racket and unsuspecting devotees who donate hundreds of billions of rupees to these trusts every year have no clue where that money goes. As a result, whilst temples, mosques and churches are growing taller and grander, the primary education in the country is in disarray, the healthcare system is nothing to talk about and the only proper infrastructure you could find is in wealthy private housing societies. Imagine if all that “temple trust” money could go into developing these institutions, how much could be achieved!

I remember visiting a local godman’s shrine in Vidharbha on my mother’s insistence. Vidharbha is one of the poorest and worst draught hit areas for time immemorial. People in that region get water only for half an hour in a fortnight. So I was expecting a modest shrine befitting the local conditions. What I found, on the contrary, was hundreds of acres of lavish property with beautiful gardens, fountains and artificial waterfalls. I was told that people from across the world donate to the shrine’s trust and that’s how they could maintain that property. And all this because this godman is supposed to have appeared from nowhere, performed some miracles, healed people and you know the rest of the routine.

What baffles me is the fact that a majority of the people ignore their own plight when it comes to such stupid beliefs and social pride. Talking about social pride, the caste system is a remarkable example. 62 years after independence, dalits are still the worst off in the country’s social structure and are happy to be there. Instead of striving to uplift them, their “leaders” are making them believe in “dalit pride” by building statues of their gods and leaders (some alive even today). Don’t these dalits see that their remaining at the lowest strata is only in the interests of their leaders? – If there are no dalits left, there’d be no question of dalit leaders! “The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.” Nehru had said in his speech. Have we managed to achieve any of that?

I have been hearing since my childhood about “India’s potential” and how the next century belongs to India. Well, the first decade is behind us now and the century still doesn’t belong to India. And if things remain the way they are, India will always remain that untapped potential.

It’s time to bring about a change. And although change starts with us, it surely doesn’t and shouldn’t end with us. Not believing in superstitions is not enough; confront people who do. Not donating money to religious trusts is not enough; stop people from donating too. Not killing people in the name of God is not enough; prevent those who are hell-bent on inciting foment. And please, stop behaving like emotional fools and feeling proud of a “jai ho” song. The time to feel proud will come in due course but there is still a long way to go before we shed that tear of joy.

The century does not belong to India yet but it could. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

It’s all about me

I was involved in a little debate between selfishness and selflessness and I was of the opinion that every individual is naturally selfish, an opinion I very strongly own. In fact, I believe that any person who claims to be selfless is either living a delusional life or lying to himself/herself and I could prove it to anyone who dares challenge it.

The bottom line is simple. We act only because it’s in our own interests. We work hard not because we care about the company but because we want a good appraisal. We drive safely not because we are conscious of not killing others but because we either don’t want to get killed ourselves or land in a jail for killing someone else. We donate blood not because someone badly needs it now but because we might also need it urgently in an unforeseen event. We say nice things about others so that nice things could be said about us. We help others because “who knows who could be of help in the future” and on and on and on.

People like to live in denial though. Because facing their selfish self doesn’t make them feel good about themselves. So they come up with this whole false proposition of selflessness. The idea just feels nice, doesn’t it?

The best argument for such selflessness is charitable activities. The argument is that there are millions and millions of people who donate to charities, help people in need etc., knowing very well that they are not going to get anything in return and that such acts are, therefore, selfless. Of course, that’s a great illusion. Yes a lot of people are involved with charities etc in some way or the other but you got to dig a little deeper to understand their real motives. And there are a couple of them.

The first, and a major motive, is to be in the good books of GOD. Most of these charities are influenced and/or run by some or the other religious groups and only those members of the respective groups participate in such charities. They do it so that when they die and stand in front of their respective gods on judgement day, they better have their good deeds outnumber, or at least even out, their sins. I know a relative who goes around promoting (and collecting money for) the prevention of cow slaughter but I have never seen or heard him talk about chicken slaughter with the same fervour. I am therefore likely to believe that the concern is not for an innocent animal but for a religious icon that needs to be saved.

Even those people who don’t do it for GOD do it for several other selfish reasons. Several people, like politicians and public personalities, do (or at least talk about) charitable things to boost their images. I’ve heard a spectrum of people from presidential candidates to miss universe contestants talk about addressing issues like global poverty, hunger and world peace but we all know what those mean politicians and the dumb pretty chicks are really after.

Various other ordinary people do “selfless” activities just because doing it makes them feel good. Do you see the irony? Doing something because it makes YOU feel good is nothing but selfish to me. And what’s more selfish is these delusions people prefer to live with which make them feel even better about feeling good.

Forget about doing things for others. You wouldn’t do anything selfless even for your kin. You fall in love with people because the way they make YOU feel about YOURSELF; you marry someone because that someone means a lot to YOU and makes YOU feel complete. Would you marry someone who doesn’t mean anything to you? You have children and raise them well so that they could take care of you when you grow old. That’s why male children were (perhaps still are) desirable in some cultures because sons are supposed to take care of their old parents; that’s why old people feel let down when they have to move to old age homes at a certain point in their lives. Children, on the other hand, depend on their parents only until they can manage to live on their own. Not that they stop loving their parents after that; they just have THEIR OWN families and friends who gain more importance in their lives. Any guesses why?

Deplorable as it might come across, that’s what we truly are. Selfishness is a natural, inherent attribute of human nature. In fact, there’s no such thing as selflessness. Even all our emotions exhibit selfishness. Jealousy for instance. Why would or should we feel jealous if we were selfless people? Or feel angry?

But don’t take my word for it. After all I am just an arrogant, rude, politically incorrect jackass who is going straight to hell anyway. But if you look at the religious books that have unfortunately set the “moral” guidelines for our race, you’ll realise that none other than GOD demands you be selfish. After all, isn’t “do unto others as you would have others do unto you [Matthew 7:20]” inherently selfish? What could be more selfish and egoistic than the Buddhist philosophy of finding the universe within you?

I am an extremely selfish person and I am honest about it. I do things because and only because they are in my interest. And I am neither ashamed not apologetic about it. You know why? Because it makes me feel good. I care about MY happiness first before anyone else’s. After all, if I am not happy myself, how could I make others happy?

The atheist blogroll

http://deodhar.wordpress.com has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

Cheers!

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A gay moment

I just happened to watch a couple of debates on NDTV (catch-up episodes, of course) on the subject of homosexuality (so I might be a little late with this blog). Although it’s great news that the Indian government has decriminalized homosexual relationships, this indeed is just a starting point.

Although the need to ‘decriminalize’ a harmless consensual private relationship between two adults is laughable, passing of such a law in a country seeped in orthodoxy is a welcome break. Kudos to the government for showing some balls but it should not stop here. India is already a good two decades behind some of the European countries in legalizing gay marriages and I don’t see a point in India procrastinating on it any longer. This is a good movement and it should be taken to its logical conclusion without further delay.

Of course, a lot of people objected to this law. People aired various concerns on those two programs I watched on NDTV and trust me most of them were absolutely laughable. One concern raised was over the spread of sexually transmitted diseases as a direct or indirect consequence of decriminalizing homosexuality. One person on the debate argued that a homosexual might pass STDs on to his wife (mind you, in both the debates, only gay men were considered to be homosexuals!). This might have been true till now. Most homosexuals, due to societal pressure, got married to people of opposite sex and in the process might have transmitted STDs to their spouses. So by decriminalizing homosexuality, this act in a way would mandate the society to accept their sexual preferences (and consequently their sexual partners) and ultimately prevent the spread of such diseases. Anyway, if these protestors thought that STDs couldn’t be transmitted otherwise, they are so in need of elementary education.

Another stupid concern was that decriminalizing gay relationships would undermine the concept of family. Of course, this is where religions start to get involved in it. There are two parts to this argument. A) Because homosexuals can’t produce children they can’t have families and hence, with no reproduction, the world will come to an end (these guys are obsessed with ‘end-of-the-world’) and B) Homosexuals already in marital relationships would now feel free to cheat on their spouses. Both are such absurd arguments that they don’t even deserve any counter-arguments. Suffice it to say that these arguments don’t see the facts that heterosexuals would still remain heterosexuals and would keep reproducing and infidelity has always been around anyway.

The real fun begins when religions start coming with some hilarious arguments. A Catholic Church leader (I forgot his name by now) claimed on ‘The Big Fight’ that homosexuality is an illness that could be cured (he basically meant that homosexuals have a mental disorder). Well, as you already know, I love to slay these religious idiots and his statement plays into my hands now. Father, the way I look at it, homosexuals are not mad. They are honest, brave people who have mustered the courage to come out of the closet and be who they are. If anyone, it’s you who’s mentally disturbed. You argue that homosexuality is against the nature. Well it need not be but virgin birth surely is. So is creation of world in six days, the talking snake, the global flood, someone walking on the water, raising people from the dead and the rest of similar crap. If you believe in all those things father, you are the one who needs psychiatric treatment. You are the one who needs to be cured, not the homosexuals. Another reverend on another program called ‘We the people’ demonstrated the mental health of the Church when he said that ‘the Church accepts homosexuals as long as they don’t indulge in homosexual activities’. Enough said!

The Hindu religious leaders had a different problem. They were concerned that this law would undermine the ‘Indian culture’! I say take your Indian culture and shove it up your own a**! As a matter of fact, I would love to see this discriminating and insulting culture undermined by this law but unfortunately that’s very unlikely to happen.

The Muslims seemed have yet another problem with decriminalizing homosexuality. Well, they were concerned with honor and pride. The Muslim cleric on the ‘Big Fight’ is worried that his son might ‘turn into’ a homosexual and that for some reason should be a matter of shame for him. In fact, he goes on to argue that homosexuality should be a matter of shame for the entire nation. Well mullah, isn’t treating your women like animals more shameful? Isn’t mass human production in an over populated country more shameful? Isn’t depriving young children of proper education more shameful?

Well one thing’s for sure. All these godly men consider homosexuality sinful. So be it. Why don’t you leave the Indian government, the homosexuals and the rest of us all alone and ensure a lot more room for yourselves in your imagined heaven?

Anyway, I am glad that homosexuality is finally legal in India (and hopefully it’ll be accepted across Asia soon). It should give a lot of hope and comfort to millions of people who are probably living a lie. But we must bear in mind that we still have a long way to go – from legalization to social acceptance. This should only get over when homosexuals become as acceptable in this world as heterosexuals and people won’t feel compelled to write blogs in their support.

Who is more racist?

There has been a lot of anguish and anger in India with respect to the racist attacks on its nationals in Australia. Indian newspapers are full of the horror stories from Australia and apparently one of the victims has urged Indian students not to go to Australia because “there’s no life there!” – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Dont-go-to-Australia-Indian-race-attack-victim/articleshow/4597487.cms

There’s no life in Australia? It comes from the same person who perhaps not too long ago was thinking of settling down in that country for whatever reasons beyond me but definitely not because Australia “didn’t have a life”! And it took only a freak knife crime for him to change his opinion so drastically!!

Now I don’t mean to be insensitive here. I completely understand his present state of mind and the resultant outrage. But is it decent to judge the entire population of that continent by a few out-of-bounds teenagers? I’ve been living here in England and not for a minute would disregard the possibility of being a victim of such a crime. Yet, in my brief stay here, I have come across so many welcoming Englishmen and women that one such relatively unlikely event would not change my opinion about the entire country!

I am aware that I might appear to some chauvinistic readers as sympathising with the Australians. Hence, I must clarify that I am not. As the Australian ambassador to India himself accepted, racist elements exist in Australia and that the racist angle to these attacks should not be discounted. – http://media.smh.com.au/national/breaking-news/student-attacks-racial-or-not-547830.html. And I do condemn all racist behaviour anywhere on this planet.

And therefore, my question here is this. Do Indians really have any right to cry foul over racism, given their own racist mentality? If my Indian friends could recollect, I would like to remind them of those several attacks on and resulting deaths of foreigners travelling to India. How many times have you seen any protest by Indians against such crimes in their own country?

In fact, come to think of it, Indians are the most racist, casteist, xenophobic and hypocrite people in the world (they are also extremely sexiest, to an extent of being misogynist {one of the reasons why sex determination during pregnancy is still illegal in the country!} and homophobic but I could talk about it in a separate blog). Nowhere on this planet would you be discriminated against in your own country on racist grounds than in India. Those northerners who don’t agree with me should live in the south for a while and vice versa. I lived in Chennai for nearly two years and it was there that I realised for the first time that I was an ‘Aryan’ and not ‘Dravid’. It is not secret that political parties in India not only exist but also thrive on these racial and caste divides.

Xenophobia takes on an altogether different meaning in India. You don’t have to travel from a different country to be a foreigner in India. You could easily get discriminated against or even bashed up if you travel a few hundred kilometres outside your home state. Those Indians who cringe at the ‘Paki’ slurs thrown at them in the western countries should ask themselves how many times have they themselves referred to their fellow countrymen as ‘lungi’, ‘bhaiyya’, ‘ghati’ or ‘baniya’ and to foreigners as ‘goras’ or ‘kallus’!

And that’s why I think that Indians are the most hypocrites as well. And I’ll tell you why.

In a very popular “patriotic” Indian movie, aptly titled ‘Chak de India’, the coach of the Indian women’s hockey team that travels to Australia for the world cup proudly points out a ‘gora’ (a white person) hoisting the Indian flag. And that was supposed to be “patriotic”! If that is not xenophobic and racist, then I wonder what is!

Now consider in that context Amitabh Bacchan, the legendary Indian actor, rejecting an honorary degree offered to him by an Australian university in light of these racist attacks against Indians. Why did he? What was the university’s fault? Did the university in any way demonstrate its subscription to such racist ideology? Were the attackers students or employees of that university? The way I look at it, the university’s only fault was that it was situated in Australia!

By allowing ‘Chak de India’ to be released, the Indian movie industry, of which Mr. Bacchan is an icon, actually demonstrated its acceptance of the racist remarks and hence could be considered more felonious than the Australian university. The question that begs to be answered therefore is why didn’t Mr. Bacchan reject all the awards conferred upon him by the industry that allowed those racist remarks in ‘Chak de India’? Why hasn’t he ever publicly or even privately (although I wouldn’t know if he did) denounced, let alone criticised, the racial and xenophobic violence in India? I know that the chauvinist readers would be quick to point out that he did denounce the violence on north Indians in Maharashtra but they know as much as I do that he did so only because he himself is a northerner.

The reason is quite clear, at least to me. Hypocrisy comes so naturally to most Indians that they don’t even realise it on many occasions.

I can safely assume that Mr. Bacchan didn’t see the ‘gora’ remark in ‘Chak de…’ as racist (I would be surprised if most Indians did!). That was “patriotism” for most of them and I have no doubts in my mind that Mr. Bacchan was genuinely trying to demonstrate his “patriotism” (once again!) by rejecting the university’s offer.

So in a nutshell, if you ever see a racist, xenophobic Indian, he’s simply ”patriotic” but don’t you try to be patriotic in front of an Indian because that would immediately be considered as “racist” behaviour!

So here’s my suggestion to all those Indians who are offended by racist activities against them all over the world – instead of demanding the “whites” and “blacks” to treat you with respect, how about you treating each other with respect first? How about rejecting violence against Biharis in Maharashtra first before demanding non-violence against Indians in Australia? How about treating northerners in south and vice versa equally and fairly before demanding equality for yourself in Britain?

Because believe me or not, you are more likely to be treated fairly and respectfully outside your country than you are within your national boundaries.

Universal citizen

 

 This is said to be the first picture of the Earth taken by a manned spaceship from the Moon’s surface. We were shown this picture in one of our Global Society and Responsibility Management (GSRM) module sessions on the MBA programme. It was used to argue for the need for global corporations to be environmentally and socially responsible.

Looking at that picture, I had a very different thought going through my mind. I imagined myself sitting in the spaceship, looking at this beautiful blue planet and thinking ‘That’s where I come from. That’s my home!’

Home! Isn’t it such a relative concept? Where you come from depends on where you are. Imagining myself sitting in the spaceship thousands of light years away, the Earth itself, and not a tiny part of land on the Earth, was home for me. India was as much part of that home as the UK or Brazil or Afghanistan was. For a few minutes, the national boundaries and regional divides had blurred and all I saw was the stunning blue globe where I belonged.

Someday soon, we will go beyond our solar system and even our galaxy and then home would take an entirely different meaning. Imagine you sitting in that spaceship, spotting our solar system and exclaiming ‘that’s where I come from’! Suddenly, ‘where you come from’ would encompass Mars and Jupiter as much as Earth.

Although we haven’t reached a stage where we start feeling the same way about our existence, the truth is that the entire universe is our home. We are free to travel wherever we want in the universe – Moon, Mars, Galaxies trillions of light centuries away…. Someday we might even plant life on one of the billions of planets. The universe doesn’t ask us for any passports or visas to travel in its space.

Why then are we insignificant creatures so stuck on national and regional boundaries on this tiny little rock in this vast universe?

Proponents of these national and regional boundaries would argue that linguistic, religious and cultural differences practically necessitate creation of borders between our lands, seas and skies. I am sceptical of that view. In my opinion, exactly the opposite of it is true. I strongly believe that cultural, linguistic and religious differences are created and fostered in order to justify the existence of nations.

Take the creation of Pakistan, for example. Before partition, we shared the same culture, language, tastes, dreams, motivations, aspirations… It took a few power-hungry zealots to fabricate some differences (religious, for lack of any other) between its people to stake a claim on a certain piece of land within India. And now look at what these two countries are today! Can we find any cultural, linguistic or religious similarities between India and Pakistan? Can the people of these two countries now identify with each other? Are their problems, motivations and aspirations the same? The answer is a resounding NO. In a matter of 60 years, a new culture was created and meticulously fostered in Pakistan to give the new nation its own identity.

I remember once getting lost in Edinburgh and trying to find my way back to my hotel room. I encountered a lady on a lonely street and asked her for directions, obviously in English. The woman looked visibly upset and curtly told me, in English, that she didn’t speak English. The hatred for English in Scotland is shocking to say the least. Apparently the Scots are demanding a separate country for a long time but why would they need it is beyond me. I hardly see any difference between England and Scotland but they seem to cling to whatever little difference there is between them and use it to justify their separation.

Then there are the right wing political parties across the world that encourage such differences and actually take pride in them. BNP in England, BJP/RSS/Shiv Sena in India, Ku Klux Klan in the US, and various Islamic parties in the Muslim world… you get the idea. These narrow-minded ‘nationalists’ love only a tiny piece of land in the vast expanse of the universe and are proud about it. They are so blinded by their confined view that they use any methods of repression to demonstrate their own supremacy within their small world.

I find this ideology and all its symbols downright stupid and to a large extent, funny! It is often dangerous and provocative and has a violent touch to it. Little wonder then that this ideology goes hand-in-hand with another equally foolish and hazardous hypothesis – GOD! A little investigation would reveal that all nationalists are invariably religious fanatics. For example, the Ku Klux Klan is deeply Christian American, RSS/BJP’s national symbol is a Hindu goddess, the Likud party advocates the integrity of a ‘Jewish homeland’ and Pakistan Muslim League is well, all about Islam. It is, however, so deeply rooted in our psyche that we don’t find anything abnormal about it. After all, we accept ‘God save the queen’, ‘God bless America’, or ‘Vande Mataram’ unhesitatingly and interestingly believe that singing these anthems in some way show our love for the land.  

1. Needless to say, this very attitude has not only caused several wars in the past and I am afraid will lead to many more in the future, it is also slowly killing our planet. Countries are not serious about tackling the pressing environmental issues because it is not in their ‘national’ interests to do so.     

Honestly, I’ve had enough of it. I’ve had enough of this shitty patriotism and xenophobia. I’ve had enough of discriminating myself and others based on imaginary divides. I’ve had enough of showing my devotion towards ‘my’ country, state, district, religion, caste, race and so on. In fact, I am beginning to disregard these national and regional boundaries altogether. I don’t consider myself to be an Indian anymore. I was Godless and now I am stateless. I am free. I love everything and everyone in this universe equally.

I don’t think I will live to see a borderless world but I really hope that our future generations take the spaceship view towards our existence and make this universe a better place to live in.

Pondicherry – give time a break (Day 3)

 

 

The start to our third day in Pondicherry wasn’t very different from the second. The morning started quite early for me, largely because we had a long way to travel and had to leave very early to avoid the scorching sun.

Vaillankani (I am sure I haven’t spelt that right) is one of the many religious places in the south of India. It is apparently one of the holiest places for Catholics in the country and I was told that every Catholic makes at least one trip down there. Call it India’s Lourdes if you like. So since we were so close to Vaillankani (about 450 kms I guess), it goes without saying that Deanne and Angie had to visit the place. It didn’t make much difference to me one way or the other, but I wasn’t really looking forward to spending the whole day on my own and decided to tag along. Our extremely friendly local contact had booked a cab for us, which was waiting outside the hotel well before we got out of our beds.

Fortunately the weather was at its best that day. It must’ve rained overnight, for the roads were wet and the air relatively cool. I hadn’t had many opportunities to travel the Tamil countryside during my year-and-half stay in Chennai but I was very sure it didn’t look as stunning as it looked that day. The clouds had covered the sun, rain had washed the rather dusty roads and the rice fields were swaying with the tender breeze. I could almost sense a gentle violin playing in the air (irrespective of the relentless dhin-chak Tamil music inside the car!).

That comfortable joyride didn’t last for too long though. Two biological necessities diverted my attention from the romantic countryside. Since we had to leave rather early in the morning, we had to skip our breakfast at the hotel. There was, however, another reason behind skipping that breakfast. During my previous stay in Tamil nadu, I had experienced some amazing local cuisine and I wanted Deanne, Angi and Patil to taste some of it. I knew we could stop somewhere (anywhere, it didn’t matter!) on the road and get some amazing Tamil breakfast. We made our intentions clear to the cabbie and he assured us that we’d be at our desired destination within half-an-hour or so. I could hear some strange noises inside my stomach; I knew my intestines (or whatever body part that needs food) were growing restless. And when after some time my bladder lent its support to the overall protests, I could control no longer. What had started as polite reminders to the driver to stop somewhere and later turned into curt orders had, by now, transformed into earnest pleas. I guess he finally realised our precarious situation and decided to have mercy on us.

It must’ve been a small town, for we didn’t even realise we had entered it by the time our car stopped in front of an impressive temple. That gave me something to worry about for a minute or two. You see, the thought of going into a temple with my about-to-burst bladder wasn’t particularly appealing to me. Much to my relief though, we were directed towards a clandestine-looking place just across the temple they called a marriage hall! It was definitely quite a big place (relatively) and the dining area was buzzing with activity but I was in no mood to explore that yet. Instead, I made my way to what was for me the most important place in that marriage hall at that time.

The way to the toilet was through the kitchen, where a dozen or so cooks (mainly women) were busy preparing the breakfast. A word of advice here – if you really want to enjoy the food there, please don’t venture into their kitchen. It’ll rid you of any appetite. And if you can, definitely avoid their toilets. I would’ve if I could. That was one of the worst toilets I’ve ever peed in!

After witnessing the toilets and kitchen, I was a bit sceptical about the food but I also had to feed myself with something (anything would’ve done at that time). Besides, we still had a long way to travel and I wasn’t sure when our driver would have mercy on us again. The food made up for all the mess, though. It was by far the most delicious breakfasts I’d eaten since landing in Chennai three days ago. No doubt the hotel breakfast was much healthier, but it didn’t come anywhere close to this breakfast in terms of taste. Either we were mighty hungry or we just loved the taste, or both, but we ended up eating everything they had on the menu (which was a lot).

Eating that traditional food on a traditional banana leaf was indeed a novel experience for us, especially for Deanne and Angi. And watching us eat like that must’ve been a novel experience for the waiters and rest of their customers too; I caught them watching us with amusing incredulity. They were ever eager to propose the next dish and present it to us like a rare diamond. In fact one of the waiters got so excited that he insisted on taking pictures with us. I have seen many such restaurant owners flaunting their pictures with film stars on the walls. I couldn’t help but wonder if we would go on one such wall of one such restaurant in one such obscure Tamil village!

With a filled stomach and an empty bladder, the rest of the journey was a lot more comfortable. Deanne decided to play some game to pass time and it indeed was quite effective – within no time, I went off to sleep!

By the time I woke up, the clouds had disappeared, the sun was incredibly menacing and we were very close to our destination. We, however, didn’t realise how bad the conditions were outside until we stepped out of the car in Vaillankkani. It was impossible to take your shades off and no sooner than we got out of the car, I began to curse myself for not wearing a hat. I accidently touched the hood of the car parked next to ours and I easily could tell that one could fry an omelette on that.

There were about a zillion vehicles, ranging from cars to luxury buses, parked in the parking lot, which was essentially an open ground the size of two football fields put together. With vehicles constantly entering or leaving, the dust never seemed to settle on that ground. One look at the ground and you could tell that various species of animals had defecated all over the place with humans generously contributing to the mess with empty water and coke bottles, paper plates, empty crisp packets…. you get the idea! How some drivers could manage to sleep so peacefully under their vehicles in those conditions is still a mystery to me. Just a few meters of walk towards the Church, however, showed a very different picture. The presence of a higher authority in that area seemed to have got people to behave themselves. It was hard to find any litter around and I even noticed people sweeping the narrow paths leading to the Churches.

When you enter the main square, you find yourself right in the middle of four gigantic Churches facing each other. If there’s anything I admire in Christianity, it’s got to be the Churches. The majestic Churches in Goa have always mesmerized me. Vaillankani Churches were no different. If anything, they were a lot more stunning. The bright white structures glittered under the shinning sun. Thankfully I haven’t been to many places of worship in my life but from among the places I’ve been to, I found Vaillankani most attractive. Needless to say, the Churches were as striking from inside as they were from outside. Patil and I spent quite some time appreciating the paintings, the chandeliers, the decoration and so on. I could’ve stayed in there for a lot longer (of course, among other things, it was quite hot outside!) had it not been for the prayers. I honestly can’t stand these prayers. I often feel quite embarrassed when my mom forces me to do ‘aarti’! Reluctantly, I took in the inside view one last time and excused myself from the cohort queued up for heaven.

The rest of the afternoon wasn’t as much eventful for me as it must’ve been for Deanne and Angi. I merely followed them from one Church to another and tried to understand the reasons for their separate existence. One of the buildings, I was told, hosted the statue of ‘Mother Mary’, who had allegedly appeared to a teenage boy. She’s supposed to be a miracle goddess and is assumed to answer prayers. I don’t exactly know the details of what prayers are generally answered and against what offerings, but I’ve seen people offering anything from their hair to their blood whilst requesting favours. Whilst our cabbie, for instance, came back with a shaven head, I noticed a man crawling on a stony walkway and obviously bleeding profusely. He must’ve been in real trouble and I just hoped that he got whatever he so desperately wished for.

The most interesting part was some sort of a flag hoisting. It must’ve been the most important event of the day since the whole of Vaillankani seemed to have gathered around that tiny flag pole and sang ‘Ave Maria’ in several regional and international languages. That event lasted for about quarter of an hour and by the time Deanne and Angi had bought bottles of ‘blessed oil’, it was time for us to start our return journey.

It was about 2 in the afternoon and the sun had sucked almost all our energies. The only thing I wanted at that moment was a good sleep in the comforts of the air conditioned car. But I was to have an unusually uncomfortable day. I don’t know when I fell asleep once I got into the car but when I got up, I was soaked in sweat. The windows were rolled down and the hot breeze was drying the sweat on my body, making it even stickier. It took me a while to get back to my senses but when I did, I realised that the A/C had stopped working due to some problem with the car batteries. The car battery problem is much like Cancer. Just like the Cancer spreads across the body and slowly kills each organ at a time, eventually causing death, when the car batteries fail, parts of the car stop functioning one at a time, eventually resulting in a total car breakdown. Fittingly, the driver warned us that the A/C had stopped functioning and we had only about an hour or so before the car breaks down (thankfully he didn’t add the much celebrated Bollywood line ‘isse dawa ki nahi dua ki jarurat hai’!)

The driver promised to us that he would find some repair shop on the road and fix the problem. I hoped against hope that he was right. But he wasn’t. So there we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, under a scorching sun with a car that refused to move any further. We tried looking for help and there were a few huts around but no trace of human existence. Having run out of all options, Patil and I had to finally push-start the car (and an Ambi at that!). Fortunately it worked and we were on our way back to Pondi.

The rest of the journey was rather eventless and by the time we reached back to Pondi, the sun was on its way to the other part of the world. The long shower that I had as soon as I reached our hotel room was by a long way the best experience I had in the day and for obvious reasons.

The one thing that I always looked forward to during our stay in Pondi was the dinner. Pondi is so full of amazing restaurants and cafes that one could make a trip Pondi only to visit all those joints. Satsang was one such restaurant. Apparently it is one of the more popular places among foreign tourists (I guess that’s largely because of its name) and the prices are exorbitantly high, at least for the Indian pockets. Indeed the food was quite good and the ambience even better. The hand-made paper chandeliers, the candle-lit dinner tables, the sparkling cutlery, the various species of plants and flowers gave the whole place a different aura. I could’ve spent the whole night getting intoxicated by the ambience had it not been for the stupid 10:30 p.m. restaurant closing time in Pondi.

Somehow I was also thankful for that timeline though for as soon as I hit the bed when we got back, I realised how badly my body needed rest that night. It was a long and hard day and I had to reserve some energy for our last day in Pondicherry. 

Religious bullshit: Reply to Sherwin Fernandes

Hello Shervy
 
Thanks a lot for your email. It is indeed a great pleasure to see a response as articulate as yours on this matter. It just goes on to show that there’s someone who’s willing to take this as a debate and not as an offence. My heartiest congratulations on that.
 
Before I get into my reply, I would like to apologise to all those on this mailing list who are not interested in this conversation. So if you are not interested in this debate, please drop me a mail and I would remove you from this chain of mails (if it continues) in the future. Moreover, I would like to move this discussion to my blog so that it doesn’t inconvenience others, if that’s fine with you Shervy.
 
Well I think a lot of people have taken my blog to mean that it was in some way written to earn sympathy for myself. Thank you very much but I am sorry you missed the point. The main point of my blog was to question the dogmatic beliefs and their relevance in today’s society.
 
I agree with you that it doesn’t matter whether people call water ‘water’ or ‘H2O’. It’s not about the name. It’s about its very existence. So although I cannot see Oxygen, I know that it exists because science has proved its existence. My question, therefore, is this: Can anything prove the existence of the God as we all know it? (apart from the religious books that btw do not convincingly prove the existence of God). I know the typical theist reply to this question is that God is too big or too complex or forever out of bounds of science to be ever proved to exist. Well, I would like to challenge that. Of course, strictly statistically speaking, we may never be able to prove the non-existence of God (because there’s never a probability of 100%) but that doesn’t mean that it therefore proves the existence of God. For instance, the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) believe that the world was created by God within 6 days and that God also created Adam and Eve. You see, we human beings are very insecure animals. We are scared of the unknown. So we try to come up with some explanation, any explanation for things we don’t understand. For instance, some of our ancestors apparently used to slaughter animals in order to please the Sun God to rise. They did that because they didn’t know that the Sun would rise irrespective of their sacrifice. We know that today and therefore we don’t kill animals anymore early in the morning.
 
I would argue that those who wrote the Bible or Koran didn’t understand the creation of the universe and hence came up with some explanation. Science has evolved since then and we now know that God didn’t create the world in 6 days; instead it was the Big Bang that created the universe, the solar system and among other things the earth. We now know that God didn’t create Adam and Eve but instead human race has evolved over the centuries from apes.
 
Now, what created this Big Bang in the first place? We don’t know… yet! But we shouldn’t be ashamed of saying that we don’t know. Because even if we don’t know the reason today, I am mighty sure that our grandchildren or their grandchildren would definitely know one day. And history is full of such examples. The Roman Catholic Church strongly believed that the earth was flat and that the sun revolved around it. But when Galileo came forward to claim that it actually wasn’t true, he was put under inquisition and house arrest simply because he went against the Church’s beliefs. It took the Church a couple of centuries after Galileo to finally concede that the earth was indeed round and revolves around the sun.
 
History takes me to the next point you raised. You see, the difference between Gandhi or Hitler and Jesus or Ram is that the former are historical personalities whilst the latter are a creation of fiction and hence cannot be compared with each other. I cannot say with any conviction what will happen 2000 years in the future but I can assure you that if the present history books remain in existence even then, people would definitely learn about Gandhi and Hitler. After all, don’t we even today know Alexander the great? The same, however, cannot be claimed in the case of present Gods. In the past, people worshiped Gods called Zeus and Goddesses called Aphrodite. How many of us believe in them today?
 
As I said earlier, the problem with Bible, Koran, Ramayan, Mahabharat and so on is that they are not history books. Those are fictions – some of them good, others not so good. If you care to read the history of Bible, which I am sure you already have, you’d know that the New Testament was written some 400-odd years after Jesus Christ’s supposed crucification. Now, taking birth through a virgin’s womb, raising people from the dead etc are amazing miracles even by today’s standards. How come such events, if they ever took place, went unnoticed as they happened? Why would it take someone hundreds of years to even begin writing about them? The Bible wasn’t even written by one person or in one century, instead the accounts were handed on from generations to generations in the forms of songs, narratives and poems. Doesn’t that put a big question mark on the authenticity of those stories? That’s another difference between these religious books and history books. We’d know precisely when the world wars happened, precisely when Gandhi went on a dandi march and so on even 2000 years down the line, which cannot be said in the case of religious books. And it’s the same case with Koran, Ramayan and the likes.
 
Even if we assume that these books are indeed history books, shouldn’t history be the same all over the world? Why would Muslims believe in something radically different from the Jews and Jews from Christians if all of their books have been based on the Old Testament? How is it possible that the God told the Jews that they were the ‘chosen ones’ whilst the same God told the Muslims to kill any Jew they come across? Isn’t that strange? Isn’t it practical therefore to believe that this God is actually a creation of fiction to support differing beliefs?
 
This brings me to the most important question – how relevant are these books in today’s society? The Hindu religious books have laid down highly disrespectful caste systems, in all probability written by Bramhins themselves. Should we continue to follow them? The Roman Catholic Church still abhors homosexuality, use of contraceptives, abortions and so on. Apparently seeking any sexual pleasures is a sin. Why should it be? And if it had to be a sin in God’s opinion, why would he create us with those sexual feelings? And if sexual feelings are sinful, then should other emotions like love, fear, anger and so on be sinful as well? How come the Church decries sexual pleasures on one hand and encourages unlimited conception on the other still beats me! Does it really expect every woman to give birth as a virgin? Let me say this, it took the Church over 200 years to finally accept that the earth was indeed round and I am sure in another couple of centuries the Church might just accept that people are just born with different sexual orientations. Should we wait for that long? Koran’s views on women, non-believers, homosexuals etc are probably quite well known. Do we continue to believe and/or let others believe in such repressions in the 21st century civilisation?
 
As an atheist, I do not believe in either God’s or Evil’s existence. Quite the contrary. I believe that the existence of God itself is Evil. Not least because it causes mayhem in the world but also because it stifles scientific inquiry. It prevents people from thinking and asking questions. It is dangerous to let people believe that Ganesha drank all that milk because he was thirsty. An unusual event like that, if it was unusual in the first place, must be scientifically investigated. Same goes with Mary’s ‘bloody tears’ or Mahim’s ’sweet water’. Who knows what new breakthroughs could be achieved if we do that! People like Galileo should be encouraged and not reprimanded. But I guess in the eyes of religions, this is exactly the ‘fruit of knowledge’ that must be kept away from people at all costs. God thrives only when science is murdered.
 
And then there’s all the violence all over the world. Without going too much into it, because it’s something we all know, I have this proposal to all you theists – show me one person in history who committed heinous crimes in the name of Atheism and I will show you a list of people who’ve committed such crimes in the name of God. History is littered with such examples, which I referred to in my blog. Those theists who do good deeds are more likely to do so out of fear of Hell or the lure of Heaven whereas Atheists, who know neither hell nor heaven, are likely to do good deeds just because they are good deeds.
 
So in a nutshell, I think that the universe won’t behave differently if you take God out of the equation. If anything, it would reduce a lot of unnecessary violence and encourage development, which is what we need most in the 21st century.
 
Cheers!
AD

Religious bullshit: Reply from Sherwin Fernandes

Hey dude, don’t get me wrong i am not sympathising about you and nisha, but I totaly agree with you that if you love someone religion should not be brought in the picture. It is sad that because of religion you cannot marry her and I 100% agree with you on that note.
With no offence bro my belief is my faith and my faith is my religion, so also my educated reflection
splashes me multiple questions.

Why is water called as h2o well it could have been called something else during research and who knows water may be not water or air may be not air like wise fire may be not fire and God may be not God. But yet in the end we believe that water is said to be called water or h2o because a scientist named xyz created a formula to show that water is called h2o and we believe it because we can see it.
Now for e.g. Let’s go 2000 years ahead from now, and ask anyone whether a person like Gandhi  or Hitler existed I am 100% sure none of those people will ever believe you that a person like Gandhi or Hitler existed despite of proper evidence of footage or pictures some may believe it to be a fiction of the human mind or streamline it to be a illusion of the brain.
Man’s intelligence is beyond explanation as the examples of research during the centuries have shown the power of the human race with the evolution of technology and science. If man can create robots with AI (Artificial intelligence) a day will come where robots will create their own kind without the human race and to think of it as if they existed from the beginning of time. This sounds impossible to believe but wait a second think again.
Some atheists have maintained that the existence of evil makes the existence of God improbable. But the existence of evil does not negate the existence of God. If God is evil then the existence of evil makes the existence of God even more probable. However, I do not believe that God is evil; I believe that God is good. If God is good, then why is there evil in the world? The answer is ‘Free Will’ or ‘Choice’. God allows human beings to have the freedom to choose between good and evil, and the choices a person makes can affect others as well as himself. Wars can be caused by the evil actions of a few individuals, but many will suffer the consequences. God even gives people the choice of obeying Him or not. God has revealed His will to mankind, and when people follow it great good is the ultimate result. But when people act in ways outside the will of God, great evil and suffering is the ultimate result.
 For God to create beings in His own image, that are capable of sustaining a personal relationship with Him, they must be beings that are capable of freely loving Him and following His will without coercion. Love or obedience on any other basis would not be love or obedience at all, but mere compliance. But creatures that are free to love God must also be free to hate or ignore Him. Creatures that are free to follow His will must also be free to reject it. Thus, we conclude that God is capable of destroying evil, but not without destroying human freedom, or a world in which free creatures can function.
anyways Cheers,
Must catch up for some beer someday

Religious bullshit

 

We are on our own

 

After nearly three years of our relationship, the time finally came for my ex-girlfriend and me to talk about our future together. My ex is a lovely girl – funny, smart, full of life. I had the best two years of my life with her. We were so happy together. I believed that nothing, absolutely nothing, could separate us. I was wrong.

No it wasn’t the ‘other’ guy or girl, neither was it money, ambition or social status. It was something much more inferior. It was religion.

You see, she is a Roman Catholic and brought up to believe that a guy called Jesus Christ has saved her soul. So when I made my amazingly romantic proposal, I got a fittingly spiritual reply – convert!

Now although I am born in a Hindu family, I have never been the religious sort. In fact, as soon as I reached the age of reason, which I must say was a little late in my life, I was convinced that this whole idea of God was downright stupid. I just couldn’t get myself to believe that some blue coloured, three-eyed guy sits practically naked on top of a Himalayan mountain with a snake wrapped around his neck and that he has a son who he beheaded (wow what a God!) and then ‘fixed’ him up with the head of an elephant! I not only found this whole crap nonsensical, but even incredibly amusing. Of course, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself by believing in such a sham and renounced my religion.

So when my ex told me that she’d marry me only if I agreed to convert to Christianity (oh no, that’s too broad! Convert to Roman Catholicism would be more appropriate), I shuddered. I knew what I was up against. But I was so much in love with her, I actually thought of giving it a try. After all, what did it take? Going to the church every Sunday morning? Sure, I’d have to leave my brain at home every time I went to Church but don’t we do that every time we go watch a Bollywood flick as well?

Why not, I said. As the first step, I decided to read the Bible. Trust me, those who’ve read the Bible would tell you that it’s not funny – well it is in some instances like the creation of earth in 6 days (Darwin must be turning in his grave!), creation of the woman from man’s ribs, the talking snake etc. It’s actually bloody (and I mean it literally here) scary! Although I was very sure that there’s no such thing as a God, I always felt very scared of the fact that I was therefore on my own and had no one up in the sky to look after me. But after reading the Bible, I, for the first time, felt thankful that such a bloodthirsty hound doesn’t really exist. Think about it, if so many people get killed all over the world in the name of a non-existing God, what would happen to the mankind if this God was to actually exist!

Besides, think about this weird logic. This God apparently sent his son in the middle of an uncivilised desert expecting him to grow up, do some miracles, die a torturous death and eventually make people spread his (God’s of course) word (through crusades, missions etc) around the world in about a thousand-odd years. Now, if this all powerful God almighty had to make his all-important word heard, why would he go through so much of trouble? If he could create the earth, and indeed the universe, why couldn’t he just make the whole world hear and understand his word at once?

And what’s this whole business about saving souls? Why would he send his son only to die a miserable death in order to pay for (apparently) MY sins that I have no intentions to commit in the first place? If God had to forgive my sins, wouldn’t he simply do that? This whole nonsense about sins doesn’t exist only in Christianity. Hindus also believe that they could wash away their sins by taking a dip in a holy river. How convenient! So here’s the deal fellas. Commit all the sins you want as long as you are prepared to get up very early on Sundays (oh you don’t even have to get up early I hear! God almighty is quite flexible about it) or take a dip in a dirty river.  

Now I wouldn’t mind people believing in this nonsense as long as they keep it to themselves and don’t impose it on others. My problem with this downright stupid dogma called religion is that it’s not only idiotic but is extremely expensive. Mankind has paid for these religions through millions of gallons of blood and it’s just not worth it. I lost my beautiful relationship because of this inanity but that loss is nothing compared to the losses we endured during India’s partition, Ayodhya, Isreal-Palestine/Serb-Bosnia/Chechnya-Russia/England-Ireland conflicts, 9/11, London, Madrid, Bali, Mumbai massacres….. the list is endless.

So here’s the point people. There’s no God. No one sits on top of that Himalayan mountain. So stop demanding government land in his name. There’s no one with an elephant’s head. So please stop polluting our oceans, rivers and wells in his name. There’s no one with six (or how many ever) hands who kills demons. So stop sacrificing innocent animals in her name. There’s no Jesus Christ and no original sin. So stop worrying about paying for it. There’s no heaven and there’re no virgins waiting for you there. So stop flying jets into skyscrapers.

We have just this one life. Live it to its fullest. Love and look after each other. Because if we don’t, there’s no one up in the sky to do that for us.