Jus C » Philosophy

World was less superstitious on this eclipse

Jas — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:25:31 +0000

Morning of July 22nd 2009. When the dawn of an eclipsed son passed along over India, see the irony of nature – Varanasi, the famous religious epicenter of India, where inhabitation dates back to thousand of years. It is infact one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. Irony lies in the fact that any eclipse, especially solar, is attributed as a very unholy and inauspicious happening. In India, many people often won’t eat because the lack of sun makes food impure, and expectant mothers do not want to give birth on the day there is an eclipse as it is thought some babies could be born with birth defects.

“This is a belief deeply rooted in Indian society. Couples are willing to do anything to ensure that the baby is not born on that day,” Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynecologist at the Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, told AFP .

Some astrologers even warned of impending terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and civil wars too. Many also took a dip in holy rivers to cleanse themselves after the eclipse and some avoid cooking and eating during the eclipse.

But do not think this superstition thing is limited to India only, its everywhere. Lets see why people thought earlier that we have eclipses, as per mythology.

PAST

India – In Hindu mythology, Rahu is a snake that swallows the sun or the moon causing eclipses. He is depicted in art as a dragon with no body riding a chariot drawn by eight black horses. The rahu kala is considered inauspicious.

In China, it is believed that the dragon swallows the sun during eclipse. So they would beat drums to produce great noise and commotion to frighten away the dragon while, the Japanese would cover the wells so that the demons in the cover of darkness during the eclipse would not drop poison into them.

In Romania people believed that werewolves and demons ate up the sun during the eclipse. To frighten them away they would light up huge fires and ring church bells would be rung throughout the eclipse.

Tahiti believed that Sun and Moon were in love with each other but still could not be together as they used to fight a lot. So once in a while they meet each other and make love, which causes eclipse.

At a time of a solar or lunar eclipse, there is a recommended prayer (salatul-kusuf) that is performed by the Muslim community in congregation.

Present

Knowledge has changed things now, though it has not eradicated them all. The new age of informed people are more keen to witness the historic event, and accept it as just another celestial event as Leonid showers, Jupiter hole, Mars and Venus appearance. Here are some pics where you can religious faith people enjoying the event.

Sadhus, or Hindu holy men, watch the solar eclipse through specially-designed viewing glasses in Allahabad, India.

Devotees observe a solar eclipse as they take holy dips in the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Sarawati River in Allahabad.

Photos courtesy – http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/1448-2.html

Taliban – the social bastards

Jas — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:34:05 +0000

You may ask me to mind my language, but if after reading this post you still believe in saying these words to me, I would ask you to mind your language.

One morning of Nov 2008, Shamsia Husseini and her sister were walking through the muddy streets to the local girls school when a man pulled alongside them on a motorcycle and posed what seemed like an ordinary question.

“Are you going to school?”

As they replied affirmative, the man pulled Shamsia’s burqa from her head and sprayed her face with burning acid. Three pairs of men on motorcycles began circling the school. One of the teams used a spray bottle, another a squirt gun, another a jar. They hit 11 girls and 4 teachers in all; 6 went to the hospital. Shamsia fared the worst. Scars, jagged and discolored, now spread across Shamsia’s eyelids and most of her left cheek. Her vision has started going blurry now, making it hard for her to read.

Atifa Ali, 20, left, Shamsia Husseini, 17, center, and Fatima Sakhi, 19

You may discount it off as an one off incident, after all Taliban and and other fundamentalists are making news for all wrong reasons daily. But let me bring more knowledge on latest events to your indifference. At least 98 people from an Afghan girls school were admitted to a hospital on Tuesday (yesterday) for headaches and vomiting in the third such episode in three weeks, officials and doctors said. Officials are suspecting gas poisoning.

Students were lining up outside their school in northeastern Afghanistan when one girl collapsed, said the school’s principal, Mossena, who was herself in a hospital bed gasping for breath as she described the event. She said a strange odor had filled the schoolyard. Then other girls started passing out. Ms. Mossena said she did not know what happened next because she collapsed and woke up in the main hospital in Muhmud Raqi, the capital of Kapisa Province, which lies just northeast of Kabul. The episode was the third in three weeks in which girls became sickened at school by what the authorities described as a gas cloud. A similar event took place late last month also in Parwan, when dozens of girls were hospitalized after being sickened by what Afghan officials said were strong fumes or a possible poison gas cloud.

Local mosques are splashed with posters shouting “Don’t Let Your Daughters Go to School”.

There was an ancient crime called Sati earlier in our customs of ancient India. This is a bigger crime as Sati was done under a belief, which itself was barbaric and savage. But such incidents are done under hatred and need for a male dominance sparked by the jealousy. This is worst! I do not believe in judgment day, but I hope it comes for these rotten souls where they get damned and anathemized to suffering themselves equivalent to what they have caused to every single human ever.

The impostors of God/Allah should see themselves to understand their own mentally ill psyche. One who can not value a lady as a mother, sister or a daughter; who can damn her to burqa to hide her body and face and then rape them throwing off the same burqas, who beat their own women and lecher around at the sight of other women, who teach the others the Allah/God’s way of living and then filth around in liquor and opium wilting the same lives of Allah/God’s children, who talk of eroding the other reliogions than theirs, but promises to leave if given money/Zazia, blackmailing their own self… this ONE is surely one of the worst social bastard of our time.

What answer do we give to them?

“My parents told me to keep coming to school even if I am killed,” said Shamsia, 17, in a moment after class. Her mother, who like nearly all of the adult women in the area, is unable to read or write says, “The people who did this to me don’t want women to be educated. They want us to be stupid things.” And I can not agree any more with her.

I do not know what Islam Taliban is teaching, what Hinduism these Sena people are preaching and what sikkhism the ‘Babbar Khalsa’ was teaching. Any teaching where a person hurts some one else, where a decision of one is imposed on other is a stinking fake teaching.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/world/asia/13school.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/world/asia/14kandahar.html?_r=1

Down but not dead

Jas — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:04:00 +0000

I have seen it all,
from freshness of spring to autumn’s fall,
I have seen the blood diamonds shine,
an amputee telling his family that he is all fine.

Cities being raged by bombs and fires,
the elders being charred by burning tires;
kids being shot and operated without anesthesia,
while their mothers prayed in silence for the panacea.

From the religious hatred to blood drenched rains,
from laughter filled school wagon to blood pouring trains.
An innocuous girl fearing men of her own religion,
a granny crying over her kindergarten grandson’s loss of vision.

In one house I have seen a brother kill brother,
the next one had no one’s son being cared by someone’s mother;
for what we see is that just after a violent strife,
you will see in eyes of people, coming back, the spirit of life.

Cities have bled and nations have been strangled,
Respect has been forgone and humanity wrangled;
Everybody thought they could bear no more and for grim reaper they should send,
but each time, I repeat, each time its the spirit of life that has triumphed in end

We have seen it in Delhi and seen in Mumbai all the time,
every such horror brings humanity to its prime.
people come together and forget small clashes,
the spirit of life makes the beaten to rise from ashes.

An elderly man being helped by a policeman at CST terminal in Mumbai after a terrorist had opened fire in the crowd.

See the irony, people have been killed after saving killer’s life with water,
killer could have paid by leaving that feeder’s life, but he didn’t have faith in that barter.
When a youngster’s mind is trained nothing astute but brainwashed for terror,
they don’t understand humanity but dismiss acts of kindness as a silly error.

So lets hold our hands and stand together against terror,
Gloom has come, but doom shall never…

This photograph was taken in Mumbai after the 7/11 train blasts.

Bond between existence and non-existence

Jas — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:18:00 +0000

As a kid I used to spend a lot of time on my rooftop. With both parents working, they would wish us goodnight and goto sleep by 10PM and I would sneak to my rooftop. The vastness of the sky would baffle me impregnating my mind with hundreds of unanswered questions. Morning was okay, sky would be blue as in any painting we would make in arts class, but the night would pour it with so many stars and ever changing moon. But it wasnt the beauty of the sky or stars that would catch my attention (though it did lead me to make my own Galilean telescope ), it was the question of existence, of those starts, of the things I could see near me and my own self.

When I would question myself about my self, it would strangely come to nought. I could see my hands and realise if I want I can move it, so thats not me. The one who is thinking is something else, something which is there but maybe doesnt have an existence. Science can answer you how it started and how it formed, but it still cant, and cant even try to answer what was there before the START. There is nothing that is justifiable to answer it.

Its my personal belief that religion doest tell you how to live, but it tries to answer these very questions and assumes an assumption, God. Now we all believe in it, but for all scientific reasons I will quote it as an assumption here. (Apologies to fundamentalists!) It further tells us the right way to live that shall leave us in peace and help lifekind in all.

Rig Veda is an ancient religious text of India, comprising of a collection of Sanskrit Hymns. It is dated as far back as 1500–1000 BCE. One of the most popular hymn, commonly known as the hymn of creation, translates to following text:

In the beginning there was neither existence nor non-existance.
There was no atmosphere, no sky and no realm beyond the sky
What power was there? Where was that power?
Who was that power? Was it finite or infinite?

There was neither death nor immortality.
There was nothing to distinguish night from day.
There was no wind or breath, god alone breathed by his own energy.

In the beginning darkness was swathed in darkness, god was clothed in emptiness

Then fire arose within god; and in the fire arose love.
This was the seed of the soul.
Sages have found this seed within their hearts;
They have discovered that it is the bond between existence and non-existence.

Who really knows what happened? Who can describe it?
How were things produced? Where was creation born?
When the universe was created, the one became many.
Who knows how this occurred?
Did creation happen at God’s command, or did it happen without his command.
He looks down upon the creation from the highest heaven.
Only he knows the answer – or perhaps he does not know.

That is it! As you read the verse you can still experience the wonder they must have felt. It doesnt teach you what went in outset of world. If there is a god or heaven or hell. I have pulled these from Archna’s blog , and she rightly is fascinated about the humility expressed in the verse. She writes, “Unlike most later religious texts which claim to know all the answers, here is a poem which is humble enough to acknowledge its ignorance. Vedic age is considered by many one of the golden ages of science in India. I feel, maybe it is this ability to acknowledge the fact that we do not have all the answers and search for them led to such great scientific progress. Isn’t it the true spirit of science?”

I couldnt agree any more! There are things which we will never know, and can only contemplate…

Me myself and lemom tree

Jas — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:30:00 +0000

I’m sitting here in a boring room
It’s just another rainy Sunday afternoon
I’m wasting my time
I got nothing to do
I’m hanging around
I’m waiting for you
But nothing ever happens – and I wonder

I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me ’bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree
I’m turning my head up and down
I’m turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree

Isolation – is not good for me
Isolation – I don’t want to sit on a lemon-tree

Thats me myself and the lemon tree, I see it and unfortunately it only and I don’t wanna sit on it! It’s one of those days when am left with just me, ya there may be some people around me, some coming , others going; but that is not the point, point is that am still alone and wasting my time. And such a time calls for me to see my one of the most favorite movie – Lakshya. Its ridiculous to say that some movie is my best movie and there is no other movie that can take its place. Such choices, unlike our choices of humans and especially life partners, change optionally with time, mood and any given stimuli.

So I start watching the movie munching the Burritos as lunch, and duly go through the emotional ups and downs and changing heart rates as suggested by the movie’s rhythm. This movie has always inspired me from inside no matter howsoever I repeat the view.

Basic idea of movie has been morphed with Kargil angle diluting the base, but still its worth it; my favorite is the first half when Karan (Hrithik) is waiting for the transformation and his individuality is begging for a Lakshya (aim) in life. It conveys how if you can get your random though process to align in one direction of your aim, you have the power of a magnatised iron bar whose randomly aligned molecules are made to align magnetically in one direction giving it its invisible and intangible power.

It also depicts a very deep relation between the leading duo, how the chemistry deepens upon sepration and how well they handle it maturely even though Karan himself is lost in life. She sends Karan back saying she wont talk to him when he leaves army and that is the point which changes his life forever for good. Her words give him a Lakshya (aim) and all he knows is that he HAS to achieve it. When he becomes a Lieutenant he calls to tell her about it. And when she asks him about his Delhi arrival so that they can talk about their relationship, Karan says, “Saare faisle tum nahi kar sakti Romi. Humein nahi milna hai, ye faisla tumne kiya tha. Ab humein dubara milna chahiye ya kabhi nahi ye faisla main karoonga.” Bulls eye! I love their chemistry, a great deal of emotional maturity is there.

This also moves me to a next level, a level where I question my existence, where my pyaas (thirst) for ether starts scorching my throat and where I start moving to bigger picture. Surely not many people like it, and we don’t get many people to talk to on it, most of us are still like frogs in a well whose thinking is limited by limits set in minds, some are ones who feel like they are not made for what is their present but still don’t know where to go – the falling in the rabbit hole types. The people who wont like your rebel ‘attitude’ will try to teach you good way or bad, telling you to come to their side to relax, but then if you are in peace with yourself, you just inspire other rebels or ignite their mind to think! The picture below captures aptly what I want to say.

To wrap up, some quotes which have hit me from movies and which I completely agree with (and which I remember right now!) -

“Zindagi jeene ka mera tareeka bhi simple hai. Main aise jeeta hoon ki aaine ko dekhkar mujhe sharm na aaye”
- Siddharth Marathe, Ghulam
“Love me when I least deserve it, because that’s when I really need it.”
- Swedish Proverb, have forgotten where was it used
“Abhi abhi hua yakin… ki aag hai… mujh mein kahin.”
- Rang De Basanti
“I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it’s both, maybe both happening at the same time.”
- Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump
“Saare faisle tum nahi kar sakti Romi.Humein nahi milna hai ye faisla tumne kiya tha.Ab humein dubara milna chahiye ya kabhi nahi ye faisla main karoonga”
- Karan, Lakshya
“The best moment in a man’s life is his weakest.”
- Anonymous
“I have loved to the point of madness;
that which is called madness,
that which to me,
Is the only sensible way to love.”
- F. Sagan (Okay! I admit, its not from movies; but then its great, no?

Photo Credit: Torei’s Deviantart

Country Roads… Take me home…

Jas — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:30:00 +0000

Once you start staying outside the cultural cocoon you have been brought up in, a trip back home is always a toy train ride then. You start with enjoying the trip itself and getting excited about it, the smell, the sight and the looks on the people around you matter to you as you start observing them. Just because you are enjoying the moment, you give that extra smile to the flight attendant, you strike a conversation with some stranger sitting next to your seat and in case some kids wave at you, you are almost definite to reply back. ‘The bubbly journey towards the home’.

The trip may mature to the ride through the memory lanes; remembering the days which used to go slow at the kiddish pace wherein almost all problems had only one solution – let parents handle it. Our job was limited to just informing them. Then even if you had accidentally broken a glass, spilled the milk while boiling or even spilled ink on dad’s office files (it happened to me!); it was now your perplexed parent’s job to find a solution or cope with it. At the same time it was great to rush to your parents and have the trouble taken away from you. After all they could handle everything!

But life is different now, my problems are mine. Though my mother is as inclined as ever to solve my problems, the nature of problems have changed and the decision has to be made by me only. I look in her eyes and all I can muster is a big “My mummy special” hug. I have realized with time that its not only my mother who is emotional, my father, who may not be effusive, equally longs for those express of emotions that tell him, “Thanks dad, you made right choices for family. I am proud of you!” And in case you are a girl, then he needs more emotions from you.

Yesterday while searching for some papers my hands caught an old file, it was my dad’s certificates. Now he is a man I was always encouraged by all my relatives to fall in shoes of. He was eldest in his family and my grandfather was a sepoy. Grandpa had lost his agricultural land to a flood and life had been hard ever since for his family. Dad’s fee was paid by another family and dad worked in their fields. Everybody has been telling me since childhood that I need to be as hard working as my dad and rise as higher, but then dad has been raising the bar every now or then. I knew he was topper all the while and had been a fast riser in his office too. But when I looked at that brown file it told the detailed story. My dad had got appreciation certificates saying that his name was engraved on the college wall for record performance. There were cuttings from newspaper lauding the small kid from village who topped the state in engineering college. Then there were letters from a public company who recruited him from campus (where he is still working). Looking at your father’s achievements gives you a very different feeling of pride and complacency. Even though my quoted pay is higher than his today, still I stand hundred of miles behind him. And this is not because of the state government ambassador that he been given, but the persona, the integrity and the character of the person he is.

Dad’s shoes are always quite bigger to fill in!!

Economic behavior of Asia, US and Europe

Jas — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:26:00 +0000

When I joined my team here in Hyderabad, I was introduced by my supervisor to the team in a monthly town hall meeting. When I told about my MBA exchange program from France, he asked me why did I choose France/ Europe and why not US. There I just replied that I always loved Europe and had been longing to go over there, so when opportunity came I grabbed it (which was the true reason!); but it sparked a query inside me. America, having its past as a slave country, one of the greatest revolution and Civil war, its meteoric rise as the worlds largest economy post WWI and so many embellishments, still did not appear an embellishment as good as Europe. So there HAS to be an explanation. So here is my explanation:

Now let’s see the reasons behind all this. Europe can be taken to be a land that cultivated the culture, the manners and protocols to much of its formal nature we have today. It started exploration of lands with purpose to exploit it for resources, for advancement and development. It was the region that gave the world the Industrial revolution and hence the base for the present. If you see them, you will see many innovations, advancements and explanations for supernatural. Europe has decent distribution of resources per capita. It gives every one the opportunity to sit, relax and ideate. The philosophy and the concept of gods in human form have made them go around the world and ‘enlighten’ the others. This makes them long for the ultimate truth, glory and prestige. So you will see many innovations that have been implemented, but still not commercially viable like Concorde, world’s fastest trains (TGV) etc. So I correlate Europe to Innovation and Art.

America on other hand has been the land of money, so all the people who migrated to US were having a commercial mindset. This made them to work had, use best of practices, keep cost lowest and earn more profit. Even a common man there thinks of the individual return and profitability. America, post American revolution, has been a land of green cash, opportunities, commerce, capitalism and growth. It has always promised that life of glitter, gold and glamour. If there has been an innovation worth its money, US has used it fully. If there is an optimization path available, they have achieved it. So I associate US to conceptual and commercial implementation.

Asian story is entirely different; it was more like a land with practical utility rather than concept innovation. If something doesn’t work then we have a way of making it work somehow, albeit for a shorter time, but saving us from throwing away the thing as useless anyhow. It had most fertile lands, climatic conditions for life to propagate in all seasons and high density of flora and fauna. All this resulted in high human density and hence higher fight for now limited resources. All this has resulted in Asians being street smart. We have a high degree of groupism, react more by emotions than plain commercial viability and the body language shouts much more than our words. This all makes us great at on the floor implementation. We excel in execution.

While my story is a plain fact here that am attracted to art, ideas and research; it also brings us to a great economic model. Wherein the innovative concept comes from Europe, US does the blueprint and develops a trimmed revenue and business model and Asia provides its high number labor available at low cost to attain a great immaculate product at attractive price. But ya, there is a lot of intricate details here which will change the dynamics; but then it’s the future concept we are listing here.

Deadly daggers for any relation (Part1)

Jas — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:36:00 +0000

Distrust

With the advent of western culture infidelity has become a normal word now. I don’t say that it dint exist earlier , just that we talk openly about it and don’t hide in our closets. And if we try to increase our focus from marital relations to normal friends; the situation just becomes a cliche. How many people can we actually find in whom we can bestow our trust!

But then the coin has the another side also, what if you have found a person in whom you can bestow your trust, but you can’t! Trust becomes a rather heavy word here. Being in a relation we expect to have trust in each other and anyway a relation is supposedly built primarily on trust itself. But then irony is if you can’t trust the person, how can you have a healthy relation? Lets take the case of the Muslim community, if you can imagine how they would have felt in America post 9/11 then you got my point. Nobody likes being suspected and distrusted, especially if they have been true.

Distrust is the confident expectation that another individual’s motives, intentions, and behaviors are sinister and harmful to one’s own interests. In interdependent relationships, this often entails a sense of fear and anticipation of discomfort or danger. Distrust naturally prompts us to take steps that reduce our vulnerability in an attempt to protect our interests. Accordingly, our distrust of others is likely to evoke a competitive (as opposed to cooperative) orientation that stimulates and exacerbates conflict.

Once in place, distrust forms a powerful frame on subsequent events in the relationship, such that even good-faith efforts by the offender to restore the relationship are met with skepticism and suspicion. The result is a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” where every move the other person makes is interpreted as additional evidence that justifies an initial decision to distrust him/her. This distrust not only inhibits cooperation in the relationship, but also may result in retaliation that causes the conflict to escalate. When the other person reciprocates this sentiment, there is mutual distrust that further fuels the escalation of conflict.

Moral of the story: If you decide to form a relation, then develop trust first. Relation without trust is like ice on water, it can break anywhere and time and again.

And if you have trust, then even in worst situations you shall only get closer and closer. So which side you are?

And I caught up with my dentist

Jas — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:03:00 +0000

Today I finally went to a dentist. I have been trying from last one year to bring myself to have faith in a dentist in the place I live. Many times have I walked away from the clinics, telling myself I will find a better one or I will get myself checked once I go home. None came, staying home for more than fortnight was out of question given the schedule and finding a better dentist had the same faith issue.

My mother is from the medical background, and in childhood going to a doctor was a family affair. Dad would drive and mom would sit on the front seat. I would lie down on the back seat of our FIAT Premier Padmini (ya, I used to be kid in that era of that car). The staff would know mom as a norm rather than an exception, and my parents would enter the doctor’s room once he was done with the current patient. My parents would sit on the cane chairs placed in front of doctor and I would sit on that revolving “Hey! patient here” chair of galvanized steel. A typical scene that you would see in a government hospital/dispensary. Doctor would know my medical, family and educational history. He would ask how many marks I got in last exams. There would be tea for my parents and juice for me! That was what it all used to be, all laced with care and affection I was laced with for being sick.

Staying outside, its very different. I am just another patient for the doctor, I get only few minutes to appraise him/her about the symptoms and I never found them really willing to check elaborately. A minute or two and they will pick pen and get busy on their pads. Best was when I got sick in Delhi with pain in quite low in back, which came out to be a kidney stone. Every doc was more than willing to operate, one won the ‘contract’. After paying about INR 55,000 when I went back home; our doctor gave a wonderful news – the operation wasn’t needed at all! And never again I visited a Delhi doctor for any major ailment.

Finally I got the courage and went today, but it was quiet a silent affair. No tete-a-tete, no tea, no recognition, it was a plain commercial contract we performed. There was no one to ask me what he diagnosed or what all medicines he gave. Boy! Am a self supported adult now! (pun intended) He gave me a list having toothpaste, mouthwash and a gel to buy. On buying I couldn’t help wondering at the coincidence – all were Dr Reddy’s products! Am supposed to use them and come back two weeks later.

Ah, and so I caught uo with my dentist.

Photo Credits:
www.gii.in
www.seered.co.uk

Religion or Fanaticism?

Jas — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:43:00 +0000

Its 2:30AM over here right now, but that’s not the thing that’s troubling me. Few hours ago my idiot box started blazing with the news of assassination of Benazir Bhutto; that my patrons is the news which is circling in my head. What would you call this? Terrorism? Fanaticism? Islamic violence? I had gone through the net and these are the terms that are been linked with this news.

Gone are the days when a religion was needed to guide the people in life, to answer the inborn curiosity in a human about its own existence, about ‘why’ and ‘why not’. The fear of unknown had called for the concept of god, to ascertain that there is a supreme being. This gave in to the urge to make others conform to one’s own views and ideology. We have now come to a stage where we see the fanaticism on rise.

Few days back it was hindutva being a concern, after Modi’s iconic rise. Today its Islamic fundamentalists, few years ago it was khalistan and there will be lot many. A closer look and you will realise that all these had a similar DNA, a common thought process. So much that the commonness is much more than the commonness of these people along with other religion mates. An observation decent enough to say that all these people are from same religion – fundamentalism. This religion is mostly followed by uneducated lot who like to take religion word by word and have no clue about the crux of their own religious text.

If you are another of my lot, then this ‘fatwa’ issuing trend must have got you by now. There are so many and some are incredible ones, that one wonders if they are against the ‘sinner’ or for the publicity of issuing authority. The latest fatwa I heard was a girl for talking to a guy not from family and that too on a phone! I really wonder if Koran really prescribes this. So in case the Islamic scholars haven’t realised this, there needs to be a movement by learned to eradicate this self-interpretation; no one else can push the knowledge in the heads of these fundamentalists.

Lets turn ourselves to shiv saniks, I would really love to know what is the vision statement of this group. Every next day we hear about some destruction or other on name of religion, but then I again come to same question – was the religion teaching about destruction ANYWHERE? or did it talk about the construction? If you really want to do something then do the betterment of public in infrastructure, development or public well being. Open as many hospitals in name of Hindutva or Jehad and let people understand what better way of life does their religion preach. But the restraint, the compassion that is involved there is difficult to come by and cracking bones, killing people is easier. So I would believe here that majority of people who are fundamentalists are just chickens who chose the easier path in life where one is just required to mug up the teachings without knowing the real meaning. Its like being lost in a labyrinth and chanting a statement taught to you by your father, not knowing that the statement which one is chanting actually translates to “take the red door to walk free”.

Would like to wrap up with a couplet that has really hit me inside -
Logon ko zindagi lag jaati hai ghar banane mein;
tumhein ek shikan na aayi bastiyan ujarne mein?