The Lies of Religion

It was one night in 2008 when Lashkar-e-Toiba militants attacked the city of Mumbai killing over hundreds of people including foreigners.2008 had been a very ominous year in the history of India as we observed several bomb blasts in big cities like Hyderabad and Jaipur.And it ended with the 26/11 terrorist attacks.The 4 days of fight between the terrorists and the protectors of this country was extensively covered by each and every news channel.The journalists lay on the roads night after the night observing the jawans tackle the terrorists bringing them down one by own.The entire nation watched with their heaving chests and we prayed everyday for new people to be rescued.The pictures that resurfaced everyday-dead bodies strewn around everywhere,jawans being killed,the walls of Nariman House holed with bullets,the blood and the gore of the entire massacre kept me awake everyday.I was a teenager then,I often questioned my parents why are people killing other people like this?What will they gain?But today I have known the ways of the world,who our humanity actually serves-religion.

I believe in God,but I am not religious.My friend said once, that,it doesn't matter whose god is better,it was this belief in god that created this eternal damage in the first place.I believe in God as a omnipotent entity which controls the world,God is the entire universe,the nature,the very air we breath and the water we drink,he brings us to the world and takes us back when the time comes.But this God has nothing to do with the rules of the society.Men are to be blamed for their own lunacy when they invented religion to prove their allegiance to a certain set of beliefs,there were men like Jesus,Muhammad,Krishna,Mahavir,Buddha and Nanak who poisoned the souls of men with their preachings and blatant lies about being the representative of the Almighty,human beings fell prey to their lies and today we are divided by religion.My religion is not better than yours,it's a lie that I live everyday,it's a false sense of security that I dwell in everyday when I fall down and pray to some stone idol to make my life better when it had already caused so much trouble in this world.Religion has been brainwashing the poor and the rich since centuries,while the rich donate money to temples for more money,the poor stand outside the gates of temple hoping to get one view of their beloved God.They believe that God can make them rich but I don't know what to say,this God cannot make you better,only you can make yourself better with the fruits of your own labour.

Think about the amount of hatred the entire world has towards others' religion,we do not leave a chance to point our fingers towards another's religion because we think there is no flaw in ours.But there is,every religion is flawed and unless every religion that ever walked the face of earth vanishes,humanity is doomed.Religion has given us the authority to kill for pleasure,to prove that what I believe in is right.Religion has no scientific grounds,it only has some laws and rules and if you have read the history my dear,religion was never created with any kind of allegiance to any God.We all worship the same God,it's just our beliefs are hugely manipulated and misguided by some shrewd idiot who wrote down his own doctrines in some book.If there was no religion,there would be no ISIS,there would not be two nations like India and Pakistan,there would be no children of Syria living in the fear of death everyday,there would be no Dadri lynching.

Today we think we are modern since we use the latest technologies,but,we cannot tolerate a single word that questions my religion.Religion is man's creation and with every passing day,this world is getting more and more dangerous to live in.The Christians want to dominate the Muslims,and the Muslims want to regain authority.If you look at the faces of people,you will realize how tired they are of this religion.People want food and shelter,they don't care how others live,what they believe in,today religion is a lost cause to fight for.But still there is section of people who is waging war in the name of religion,slaughtering innocents who have no belief in their own religion let alone the others' religion.I am seeing young minds being darkened by bullets and guns,their hands getting ready to touch someone's blood instead of holding the pen and the book.Education is important,science is the only thing that can make us believe that religion doesn't always tell the truth.

Loneliness...

 "Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect"-Margaret Mitchell

Loneliness is a disease,once you get addicted to it,it never leaves you.It's worse than smoking and drinking,it tears you apart from inside and steals your voice.I often dream about animals attacking me at night,but then,I try to scream,but I cannot hear myself-loneliness is just like that,it takes you away from what you want and what you need.Why am I writing about loneliness?Because I honestly feel we all are very lonely in this world.And why exactly we are lonely?Because we have so many people around us but none of them touch our lives.Some who do leave for better options and  a very few who stay do not have time for us.And here I am writing today about the worst feeling I have ever had in my entire life-Loneliness.

It affects me a lot more than other people living inside the stony walls of the city,because I once was a little girl with spring in my toes and sunshine in my hands.I roamed around the garden just like a butterfly and bathed in the warm light of friendship and love,but then I moved to this city.And my life changed.I felt like a prisoner,I had no one to talk to,I lost my playmates and I found myself disgusted by the way people live here,year after year,locked inside their apartment,pretending not to hear what's happening around them.I felt lost and depressed,and most importantly,very very lonely.

I started writing diaries to my imaginary friends like Harry Potter wishing that he would hear me and rescue me from this strange prison I was living.I wanted to fly away to the magical lands,to the small town I once lived,my home.

I suffered at times in silence and I felt scared about meeting new people,I engrossed myself in reading more and more books and devoted most of my time speaking to myself about my pain because my parents couldn't hear me dying inside everyday.

Loneliness is the worst thing my friend,and believe me,if you ever want to be on your own,if you ever hate yourself for not having enough friends compared to your facebook friends,then try not to feel angry inside.Go outside and talk to people,settle your mind and calm down.Because those who flaunt their super cool lifestyle on social networking sites have nothing better to do.So,don't feel upset because you are fine.

Internet makes you feel lonelier,that's something that I have realized since I joined facebook.My college life has not been that great.I started my college with ,lots of friends then they slowly walked away.I do have very few friends who I can afford to lose but I feel happy to have them around me.I do not need to pretend to people that I have a whole lot of people in my life with whom I can share my beer.

Getting out of that constant feeling to be left alone has been very difficult for me,so I decided not to be afraid of it anymore and instead be with them whom I can actually trust.I feel we are not children anymore,instead of how many do we have,we should count how many will be there after a long time when you are sitting right here and thinking about them.

Honestly,I wish this internet never ever came in our lives.Because things were so much better.People were so much happier when they didn't know what's happening in someone else's life.When people actually cared to remember others' birthdays,when we used to get greeting cards on new years and stored them in a box.Yes,that is the time I think of when I feel sad and lonely.Internet gave us a lot of access to people's private lives but made us feel more detached from people.

I do hope that anyone who feels the same,finds this useful and make sure to smile and let this loneliness go.Because there is a time for everything,and one day,you shall have it all.

Thoughts and prayers

I want to tell you the stories of some people today..

Milkha Singh one of the most legendary sportsmen of India who represented us in numerous international events.He was asked to return to Pakistan,his original homeland to represent his nation. The young ebullient sportsman was broken by the very thought of returning to the land where his own relatives were slaughtered by Muslims.But then he decided to run on that very soil and he won the race against a Pakistani and was bestowed with the name "The Flying Sikh" by another Pakistani.

Taslima Nasreen,one of the most iconic authors who has spoken about violence against women across the world,she was banned from her own country,Bangladesh after making controversial statements against Islam.She was sent to India with a price on her head set by her own countrymen and even today,she lives outside.She has been banished from her homeland and she doesn't know when she is going to come back.

M.F Husain,the legendary artist died miles away from his country,India for painting Saraswati nude.

And there are these millions of Syrian immigrants who wait everyday at the borders of the European nations to be accepted as their own.

How does it feel when he are haunted by the thoughts of going back to the very place where we were born?How does it feel to be away from your own motherland?

I am not a poet and not an intellectual either,but I do love my country in my own way.When I see a beggar on the street,I offer to help him with the very little money I have,when I see a dog who is trying to get my attention,I pat its head and offer it a biscuit,when I see an old man standing on the bus,I offer him my seat.But when I do this do I ask him whether he is a muslim or a hindu or a christian?No,I do it as human being.I don't care where he was born,what his history is or what he does now.I don't care which cast he belongs to because as Justin Trudeau said "Because it's 2015".

It pains me a lot when the Muslims in our country are asked to shift to Pakistan,they are branded as anti-nationals by some Hindu extremist groups.How does it feel when you feel like an outsider in your own country?Just like these people I spoke about previously.I am a Hindu but the people who are being targeted everyday are my countrymen.They deserve respect and dignity just as much as I do.

People keep on quoting Godhra riots and the numerous terrorist activities,but they forget that the people who live here are not the same people.They have nothing against any Hindu and I can vouch for them since I know quite a lot of them.No,they don't attack me with a sword everytime I speak to him,my own Rahman chacha,my neighbour they are there when my family needs them,they eat the prasad they are offered,the same prasad I have,they drink the same water I drink then why should some religious doctrines and some difference in principles separate us or make them feel alienated in their own country.

A wise old man was once asked why didn't he leave for Pakistan after partition along with the other Muslims.His answer was "Is zameen ka ek ek Hindu mera bhai hai. Uss zameen ke saare Musalman paraye. Yaha paida hua tha. Yahi rahunga aakhri saans tak."

("Every Hindu of this land(India) is a brother to me. Every Muslim of that land(Pakistan), a stranger. I was born here and I shall live out my days here." )

 I am an Indian,I am not a Muslim but I do not hate Pakistan because I don't want to be remembered as a xenophobic racist intolerant idiot who wants her fellow country men to suffer,I don't want to see bodies burning in another riot.I want to see everyone rising up against whatever that has been going on in our country,I want everyone to rise not in the name of religion,but in the name of humanity because it's very important that we do it now.I don't want my country to lose her smile the way Syria has lost it.

I am protesting in my very own way because I believe in what Mahatma once said

"Whatever you do in life will be insignificant,but  it's important that you do it,because nobody else will"

 

Heartbreak Hotel

I often think how I have matured from being a romantic movie buff to an actual lover.It's true that we always try to imagine our life to be an exact copy of some movie,how two strangers meet one day,two people who have no clue how their worlds are going to turn upside down,they fall desperately in love,they get separated and they meet again one day,when the rain is falling and the movie ends in a happy note with the two lovers getting united forever.I used to watch "One Tree Hill" a lot,I so admired Lucas and Peyton's love story and then slowly it got so stale with their on and off relationship,Lucas's numerous engagements to other women,I used to think "Why is he doing this when he still loves Peyton?"It's quite rare that your love gets reciprocated the way you want it to be and these people take a whole season to get back together.Sigh!we do rely too much on television to get the taste of how it feels to be accepted in love.

My readers might think why am I writing so much on love?Well,I suffered a heartbreak a few days ago,and I know what it means to be away from something that you have always wanted in life.Things always don't turn up to be the way you want them to be,but then again life moves on.You stumble upon another person in life and get your heart broken,again.Well,I was really upset today,angry inside for being a fool in relationships when I came across this beautiful letter written by my most favorite author,John Steinbeck to his eldest son,Thom when he fell in love with a girl named Susan.It is more than just a blessing to me when I am trying to get a closure.I have always seen love through a woman's eyes well since I am a woman myself but I never knew what men feel when then they are in love.And I am going to share it with you today.

"Dear Thom:

We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First — if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second — There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect— not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply — of course it isn’t puppy love.
But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it — and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone — there is no possible harm in saying so — only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another — but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.

We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Love,
Fa


Well,I have always been the one afraid to lose what's important to me,but,now,I'll keep in mind this precious little advice."nothing good gets away". Patience is the key,my heart,patience.