Your God Vs My God

Your God Vs My God ... Title may seem controversial but it is the reality of today's  world . Situation is more grim in India's context . Let me start this blog on a lighter note with a cartoon

(To save myself from any controversy or hate comments , I feel the need to give the disclaimer that my intent is not to hurt any religious sentiments. Above picture has been taken from site http://pbfcomics.com/271/ )

Basis of religion selection  in our society is majorly automatic . If one is born in a family who follows X religion , he/she is bound to follow X religion . The idea of supremacy of X religion is ingrained deep inside the off springs by the parents , grandparents , relatives and religious teachers of the very religion. Though with the onset of industrialisation ,Internet and  globalisation  , there has been intermingling of cultures . People of various religions now study , work and live in a common social set up. Hence superficially people have started saying that God is one and different religions are various paths to reach him. However this is just a shallow thought which is normally  said in public . Deep down people still believes on the supremacy of their religion on the other's. 

The basis of all religions existing today are their scriptures written centuries ago. None of us in the present generation can vouch on the authenticity of them . We have been told by our respective religious teachers not to question or doubt on the words of the God  (as written in the holy books) . Any attempt to question the content of religious scriptures is seen as an act of contempt which  can invite hell fire after our death. 

As a rational person I seek logic in everything . I firmly believe that this universe may not have come into existence on its own. I firmly believe that various life forms present today must have been blue printed by SOMEONE before they came into existence. Hence there is no doubt on the existence of a supreme power WHO is controlling various state of affairs of this Universe.

Now  that I am asserting on the existence of God, my question or rather complain to HIM is - " why did he allow existence of so many religions at first place?" . "Why  there was no standardisation done in the propagation of  HIS thoughts?" . As per various religious scriptures  , time to time God has sent various messengers to earth to propagate HIS message of "peace " & "brotherhood". As a supreme power HE (or SHE) can easily see who is following HIS message or who is  not. Why did he let so many  religions to evolve at the first place when HE  is far sighted enough to visualise this human race will ultimately quarrel on the pretext that "My God is better than your God".I am aware that I will be ultimately silenced by respected religious scholars on this  , how my resentment will continue to trouble me deep inside. 

I agree with the below quote of Kamal Hassan on our religious hypocrisy .

Finally I wish ....

Samosa and the arrange marriage

Samosa and the arrange marriage  

    

Title seems weird but I am sure people or rather boys in their mid and late twenties can relate to it. This title tries to highlight the agony of the guy who fortunately or unfortunately was not able to get "settled" via a love marriage and hence has to rely on the centuries old "arrange marriage" social setup  to follow the commandments of Charles Darwin to propagate his offspring into this world. Previous sentence was not meant for  female/feminists  readers and it should be read as  :

This title tries to highlight the agony of the guy who could not came across his soulmate  while walking through the park /mall/office premises/college/DTC bus/Metro/Pizza hut/ Mac Donald’s etc and hence has to  rely on   "arrange marriage" to find that special someone 

So the story begins with the creation of matrimonial profiles over various portals. In order to squeeze last penny from the desperate or rather despo ( in college lingo ) guy or gal , these marriage portals have done segmentation to the core . Some are segmented language wise , some religion , some caste etc. Being versed with both Hindi & Urdu I was unsure which one should I target to reach maximum audience with minimum subscription price . Irony was that there are specialized portals which deal only with the Alumni of IITs and IIMs , some were catering to industrialists under the name of "elite matrimony" ! Despite myself  being a very analytical person in terms of spending , I still managed to get myself enrolled in 3 leading matrimonial portals with the paid services . After analyzing them for few months , I came to know that I made a fool of myself as  all three have nearly same database !

Anyways let’s not distract and focus on Samosa ! So creation profile over matrimonial portals was followed by series of "cold callings" !  Appointment to visit  potential  offspring carrier ... I mean soul mate/ life partner  is normally  fixed over weekends.  

Stage is now set and here comes weekend. Prospective groom dresses his best by avoiding wearing T shirt in order to avoid PDPB ( Public Display of pot belly) . On entering the potential bride's premises it is usually  more of  match from Chak De India movie with man to man marking strategy !

 Girl's mother is marked to my mother, Aunt to my sis while Father & uncle are  marked to me. I never realized I am such a good " Player" ;-) 

I was placed on the interrogation seat and  thorough interrogation was carried out . Sharp gazes of fellow interrogators were no less than water boarding technique!! There were  subtle moments of silence in between cross questioning .It is to be noted that till now "potential " bride is not at the crime scene. 

Finally my reward for withstanding interrogation was arrived in the form of  refreshments. And here comes the entry of lead character of this story - Samosa!! Mr. Samosa was strategically placed near me and his arrival was coincident to girl's . Apparently girl too was seated strategically at an angle of minus 90 degrees  from me. Hence I could not steal a glimpse  of  her just by turning eyes  . I had to rotate my neck towards her to know that she is too is a homo sapiens. 

While I was trying hard to get  glimpse of girl and to initiate a short conversation with her , my prospective in laws filled  my plate with mammoth sized Samosa and poured chatney over  it . Now  the problem is - I am normally  at ease while eating Samosa with hand without using spoon. However at this formal set up I have to demonstrate my skill set of eating Samosa with spoon with bare minimum noise. Hence the  focus which was initially on girl get shifted to Mr. Samosa. Ironically this samosa was stuffed with noodles , so there was the  need to exercise extra caution!!

Somehow I came out of ordeal and the meeting was over in some time. While driving back  home I can only recollect on man to man marking & Samosa!! Now onwards I have decided to convey beforehand that I am allergic to Samosa !!