Category Archives: Till sunset

As horrifying news about a communal riot was droning away on TV, a bewildered 9 year old asked his dad, “What is the difference between a religious man and a communal man ?”. The wise professor was always ready for questions, and his answers provided answers to many other questions that his son never had at that point of time.
“You are religious if you believe in god, pray, observe rites and do good”, said dad. Now that’s nice, the son thought. Such people wouldn’t go around killing others with Trishuls and Bombs. “So who are the communal ones “, the son persisted. “If you do three things in a particular way, then you are communal”, said dad. He went on to explain – “One- If you choose your friends solely on the basis of religion. Two- If you make financial decisions solely on the basis of religion. Three- If you make political decisions solely on the basis of religion”. The son didn’t understand the last two. Judging from his arched eyebrows, the professor continued. “When we want to buy gold for your mom, do we insist on going only to ******** gold or do we go to *** Alu**** or Bhi***?”, dad enquired. “We have gone to all three”, the son confirmed. Now that’s it, said dad. So we are not communal, are we?. “During the last elections, did we decide to vote for that young fiery politician, because his surname sounded like yours or was it because his promises indeed sounded promising?”, asked dad. “The Latter”, the son agreed.
Thus he learned the difference. His close friend was Ganesh, He purchased groceries from Rakettan’s shop and his dad voted for that weird looking man in the last election. Thank god, we aren’t communal… the son mused and proceeded to complete his afternoon prayer. And he prayed for all the little ones orphaned by the rioters… regardless of what their names were.

A Proffessor’s palm gets chopped off. It is indeed the worst of times. Ever since prophet muhammed (PBUH) started his revolutionary mission, he has had a string of insults and physical attacks hurled at him. I beleive that a similar situation exists now. Watching TV, Getting on Twitter and making potshots at the prophet seem to be the in things now. But does this call for the hand to be chopped off?. If we are following the prophet as a leader and a mentor and trying to do what he did and would have done….those daggers would never have been unsheathed. So the sword slingers were definetely following another map. Period. When the brain gets washed, the laundered RAS (reticular activation system) accepts and beleives only that which it things must be beleived. No wonder some young guns are seeing clarion calls for violence even in the holy quran and the prophets life.
While I am crystal clear about my stand as of day, my mind goes on auto rewind at times. Isnt there a clash of values here ?. Freedom of speech is paramount- I learned this as an adult. But I was told by my grandmom at the age of three that I must not hurt the feelings of others. So have these adults forgotten their grandmothers?. Now thats shameful. Value 1: You can say anything you want. Value 2: Dont hurt sentiments of others. can we choose to exercise value 1 on sundays and thursdays and value 2 on the rest of the days. Or can we choose to have a Value cocktail every day?

A British MP declines to meet veiled women. Covering of the face is not acceptable, he says. Can someone refuse to meet a nun or the pope by saying that covering of the head is not acceptable. Where does the head end and the face begin and where lies the contour of acceptability?- There it goes again- The clash of Values.