Amitabh to Ayodhya

Thank you for `echoing` my thoughts...

Let me share with you a recent personal experience that shows how religion has overwhelmed people.

I had taken my mother for a MRI scan. The assistant at the Centre was taking down her case history.

``Ok, so when did this problem start?``

Details were being provided...when she interrupted and addressed me,

``I am Muslim. You are Sunni or Shia?``

``I don`t know,`` I said.

``You are foreigner, no?``

``What?``

``Your body structure...`` she trailed off...

``What?``

``Face cut also,`` she grinned. ``You converted no?``

``No.``

``I am Sunni,`` she said.

``Good for you.`` I just got up on the pretext of getting something from the reception desk.

I discovered later that my mother was her next target.

She asked, ``Sunni or Shia?``

Mother replied, ``Knees and calf...yahaan problem hai...``

``Aap namaaz padhtey hai? Roza rakhte hai?``

``Nahin. Aur kisiko waise hi mazhab ke baarey mein itney personal sawaal poochhte bhi nahin.``

Needless to say, we did not see that woman again.

PS: Indians at least must be familiar with this little trick. Whenever building owners or office complexes have a problem with people spitting on walls (especially paan dribble), they have smartly realised that all you have to do is put up a picture or moorti of some god/goddess (Islamic calligraphy works too) and suddenly the walls are clean as no one would want to experience holy wrath and be denied their beetel leaf in the hereafter. Whoever said miracles do not happen!

Dear Farzana:

Thumbs-up walla sigh!

``strangely, I have not seen any of these programmes have Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and music, as their reigning deity``

That is because they do not know their religion as well as you, Ballukhan, and M.F. Hussain.

``.....When will we see a day when a temple has a box not to feed the idol (stones do not eat or drink), but to help cancer patients? When will mosques collect money for street children instead of adding one more marble slab? When will churches appeal for funds on behalf of HIV patients rather than importing mosaic tiles? When will this be done without putting the fear of god in the minds of the faithful, but because it is the socially responsible thing to do?

Will Amitabh Bachchan (now that he is talking) send out a request for people to stop crowding places of worship and instead visit a home for the needy on his behalf, or make an eye donation, or go to the slums to make sure that children get their polio vaccine?

Try looking at it this way: god is in the details. ............``


Great stuff.............Infact this is what idolatory is all about..............it is about creating re-ified obsessions about things that actually do not do not have the imagined powers..............it is about creating icons and signifiers that are powerless in themselves..........but become powerful when the human mind reifies them............this includes all those idols and icons which `religious` people are so obsessed about all the time ............as well as the green bills, stocks and fashion that are the icons and symbols of our modern world`s idolatory.................it is idolatory that displaces the human being from the centre of the universe to somewhere in the remote peripherals of the heavens........

I think this article hits the nail at the right place. We are overdoing the religious bit turning it into I-have-a-bettr rapport-with-my-god competition.

You cannot expect woman/man on the street to be a hardcore rationalist. When Indira Gandhi was killed, people voted en mass for Rajiv Gandhi not knowing anything about him except that he was her son. And it is again unreasonable to expect Amitabh telling his friends and relations not to visit him at hospital and expect that they will listen to him. When Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister he told his colleagues not to line up at airport on his foreign visits, have they listened to him?

People are impulsive and they will remain impulsive. By the way Amitabh is already campaigning for AIDS awareness and other public causes.

At the same time one cannot deny author her right to express her anguish and exasperation at the silly goings on.

So what do we get? Result neutral!

Miss Farzana Versey
{{{Will Amitabh Bachchan (now that he is talking) send out a request for people to stop crowding places of worship and instead visit a home for the needy on his behalf, or make an eye donation, or go to the slums to make sure that children get their polio vaccine? }}}

I must say that I have started liking your articles. If, this is what you really believe ,then all my respect for you. My heart and mind were starving to see such a sensitive heart with soul. Keep up the good work. We are with you. Thanks for the beautiful editorial.

It’s a very timely and informative editorial. I only have 2 questions:

(1) Who is Amertabh?
(2) What is Ayodiah?

But I have to register my protest at your characterisation of the Ambani brothers...

``The deified business tycoons, the Ambanis, go to their ‘family temple’, whatever that means (does anyone have proprietorial rights over a place of worship even if they have donated a hefty sum or built it themselves?), and it becomes national news. The flashy brothers and bahus who have spent their lives in the lap of luxury and amassing wealth, not always legally, become these demure, ‘simple’ devotees covered with shawls scrawled with religious motifs. Is this all it takes to be considered humane?``

Obviously its easy for little insignificant worthless people like you to mock at the rich and the powerful than to match them. I`ll tell you what. When I was a year old , my dad bought in my name 500 Reliance Industries shares for Rs.10,000. Today , with free bonus shares added,, that investment is worth over Rs. 12-13 lakhs.

It didn`t happen by magic. It happened because over the last 2 decades , the two brothers have proved themselves to be brilliant wealth creating entrepreneurs, building from the scratch 30 billion $ petrochemical company capable of matching the likes of Shell and BP. Ever been the the refinery at Jamnagar ? (Me neither)...It is one of the finest in the world.

And yes , along the way , they also built from nothing India`s biggest private telecom network worth a few billion $ in itself , mega private power plants , a world class private equity fund and so on....

And you know what - Your grandfather was probably 100 times richer than their grandfather. Their grandfather was a village school teacher. The brothers spent their childhood in a rented Mumbai chawl sharing a single bedroom house with their parents and 2 sisters. Those were days when their father , the great Dhirubhai Ambani , was a small time cloth trader.So much for inherited wealth , `living whole life in the lap of luxury` , `born with a silver spoon in the mouth` ...etc.

What do you expect...a bloody dumbed down society and country.......every other week an Indian soldier or paramilitary trooper is killed fighting terrorists but nobody cares ...but for this 65 year old naachne-gaane wala the whole population comes to a standstill....

Personalaties like this stands tall, I am a muslim but I don`t see any harm in praying in hearts for Amitabh Bachchan, these personalities go beyond Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian and Parsi attitudes. A great man of high caliber, no matter who they are, they can come in the shape of Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Lata Jee, Mohammad Rafi, Kishore, Mukesh or the King Khan. These ladies and gentlemen of high stature have given us one hell of a good time and they will never out of our minds for decades to come