EK CUP CHAI

Thanks to media, somewhere from 100 miles people called me to check if I were safe, and to run away if I was anywhere near the old city. Reason! There is a bomb blast at a Mosque, in the praying yard, on a Friday, when thousands of people gather to offer their prayers.

When I mentioned it to a friend, I didn’t realize that I had no feeling of surprise or shock. Just plain passing of news. Somebody (whom I don’t even know) made a comment: how can a bomb blast happen in a mosque, after all they are the ones who do it. Will they kill their own people. I got irritated. I replied, “most naxalites are Hindus sir!”

From a bomb blast, the topic suddenly went off to religion. And as I went home, I saw the city - Hyderabad the ever developing city with loads of traffic, with loads of things to be seen… looking dull. News media said one side of it was supposed to be full of traffic jams as people went haywires - buses were burnt, shops and ATM centers broken.

And then, I was on the other side of this city. Where there were no traffic jams at places you expect them. There were no irate public and no signs of mayhem. There was this calm in the way people walked, drove. Everyone was escaping, laughing nervously (or was it my feeling). Was it fear? I do not know.

Later, before I slept and after I woke today, I was wondering, what is it that religions today have been demanding from us? Isn’t it feasr of something that we don’t understand (or something that we don’t want to understand?) Or probably it is not religions but people who follow the religions. Wait a minute I’m trying to be safe here.
Krishna’s ‘Bhagvad Gita’ says that we are just players in the game of Nature. Qoran says people from any other religion are outsiders! Bible, I’m not sure of, and for Sikhs a sword is an important asset.

It is as if, we all have nothing to do with what we are doing, and yet we are asked to be aware of outsiders, of how to beat them and with stories that say that we all are sinners. Excuse me! What is wrong with these religions. Why do they instill fear, insecurity, violence into our minds? Or is the term ‘religion’ an escape from our reality - like bollywood cinema or things like that.

I will never know. I’m not an atheist. But somehow…I think the way we see religion will give us more bomb blasts, and more black Fridays. I’m not sure what I can do to change this. But I also ask why should do something about it?