Posts

Why Fighting Propaganda is an Uphill Battle

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I am an atheist from a Hindu Brahmin family. I do not like the BJP and their Hindutva agenda. I do not like Islam. I do not like Christianity. I do not like any religion. But I grew up learning about Hinduism – I thought the spiritual lessons of karma and doing good deeds were good lessons and worth following. I was not raised in a household that pushed any religion onto me – I was taught that all religions essentially teach the same thing – be good, do good. My earliest understanding of religion was that it was a practice in moral science aimed at keeping people kind and honest. “Who is the main God?” I once asked my folks, since my grandma’s pooja place had pictures of several gods. My grandfather explained it to me like this: “They are all the same. It is the human imagination that is unable to comprehend the concept of a creator and hence we choose to visualize them as Brahma, Vishnu & Maheshwar – with each entity handling a different task in the Universe. We have assigned name...

पुराने खतों में ...

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पुराने खतों में... पुराने खतों में तेरी मजबूरी के अल्फाज़ देखता हूँ, मेरी ज़ुल्मों की दास्ताँ बयान करते पन्नों में तेरी आंसूवों के दाग देखता हूँ। मैं पलट सकता वक़्त को तो शायद हमारी कहानी किसी और तरह लिखता, बहुत दूर निकल आया हूँ सफर में, तब भी कभी कभी तेरे ख्वाब देखता हूँ। वाकिफ़ हूँ इस बात से की अब उन यादों का कोई मोल नहीं रहा, मेरे संगीन ज़ुल्मों को तू माफ़ करे ऐसा मैं बोल नहीं रहा। वैसे गलतियाँ तो तुझसे बिछड़ने के बाद भी हुई मुझसे कई बार, मैं सोचता हूँ की मेरे अच्छे और बुरे कर्म क्यूँ कोई तोल नहीं रहा। मैं नास्तिक हूँ वैसे तो जन्नत और जहन्नुम को मानता नहीं, पर अगर वह है भी तो मेरे हिस्से में क्या आएगा मैं जानता नहीं। तेरे बद्दुआओं का हकदार तो में हमेशा से ही था लेकिन, कभी कभी आईने में जिस शख़्स को देखता हूँ, उसे में पहचानता नहीं।   सोचता हूँ तेरे बाद के फैसले इतने नापाक थे कैसे, हाथ पकड़ के संभाला था तूने, मेरे बेअंग जीवन की तू बैसाखी थी जैसे। तुझसे जुदा राहों में खुशियों ने दामन ऐसे छुड़ाया, मेरे ज़िंदगी की किताब कोई और लिख रहा हो जैसे। 

On Politics and Religion

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I had a long conversation today with a close friend of mine, who pointed out to me that my political opinions felt somewhat biased against Hinduism. He was referring to one of my posts where I speculated if the Nuh violence could have been instigated by Bajrang Dal for political reasons. He pointed out to me that even if the origin of the violence was political, it doesn't change the fact that the Muslim population in Nuh threw stones and are not free of blame. My friend pointed out to me that I had nowhere condemned that. I revisited my post and found out he was somewhat right.  Recently I have been writing against fanatic Hindu ideology. My reason for this  is simple: It is not the Hinduism (Santan Dharm or whatever you want to call it) that was taught to me growing up.  I was taught that we were the most inclusive of religions. I was taught to respect others' faith. I was taught that regardless of whatever name you call your God by (Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwar - or Allah...

The Troll in Me

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Back in 2013, my uncle used to rant about how, if BJP comes to power, democracy would be in danger. He would cite the Gujrat riots of 2002 as an example - he would say that Narendra Modi got away with mass murder by being in power and he would do the same once he was in power at the center. I was twenty-three years old then and didn't understand my uncle's panic. BJP had been in power earlier as well, during Sri Atal Vihari Bajpayee ji's term as Prime Minister - things weren't that bad. People were not happy with them and voted them out in 2004 - so democracy was still there. So I laughed it off thinking my uncle was being paranoid. I believed that my country was made of sterner stuff - a party with a communal agenda could not possibly change the fact that this country was a land where various religions lived in harmony. Boy, was I wrong! BJP came to power in 2014. Soon, the media started pushing their agenda like anything. People started openly expressing anti-NonHindu...

Cooking for Two!

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Up until last year, we had employed a cook, whose cooking left a lot to desire. So we ended up ordering a lot of food from restaurants as we were unhappy with the food she cooked. After a while, we compared the expenses and decided it would be better if we let the cook go and ate outside or toggled cooking ourselves and eating out. So we gave her a month's notice and then I started cooking for two. Now my approach to cooking is simple - I follow recipes, which means I like things the way they should be. For instance, if I am making noodles, my carrots would be cut into super-fine juliennes and that is a time-consuming process of cooking. My wife insists that she would be happy with a lot less and maybe she would be, but I just can't get myself to compromise on my process.  It usually takes me whole afternoons to cook these meals - it's a lot of work, but I love it when a meal turns out well. I don't make very fancy stuff, just usual Indian dishes but the way they are tr...

If I Could Go Back in Time...

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Of all the futile exercises I indulge in periodically, this one is my favorite: I try to map the points in time, where I could go back – with my current knowledge of how things eventually turned out, and do things differently, and see how my life is affected by it. Clearly, I don’t think my life turned out all that well. I know being content with one’s reality is aspirational, but it has never been something I flourished at. So every other day, I think about which pivotal point in time I could go back to and change something so that I would be in a different place in life. So far, I haven’t been able to find that one point that could set everything on the right course. Let me illustrate my point with a few examples. Back in seventh grade, I moved to a posh new school and when formulas and molecule balancing were being taught, I didn’t understand the concept – this ensured that I would never get a hang of chemistry and kept living in terror of the chemistry exams till twelfth grade, aft...

मैं अपने कहानी का मुख्य किरदार

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  हर कोई अपने love story को ultimate और epic समझता है Breakup का शायद यही side effect है। पर कौन बताए इस आशिक़ को, कौन समझाए ये बात, की काफी humdrum , run of the mill कहानी थी तुम्हारी। ना love at first sight था, ना कोई आसमानी connection , बस दो टूटे हुए शख्स मिले थे एक दूसरे का सहारा बनने को।   जितने मौसम साथ गुज़ारे, थे बड़े ही यादगार, वो milkshake वाली शामे, वो कहानियों से भरी दोपहरियाँ, वो रातों को छुप छुप कर landline से किए हुए calls , वो पहला kiss , वो पहला scented un - named love letter , और वो future वाले plans जो बना रहे थे हम दो बेवकूफ future से अनजान।   दोष किताबों का है साहब, Iliad और Odyssey पढ़ते पढ़ते, हम भी सोचने लगे की story epic है हमारी, हमने भी बचपन में गरीबी देखी है और दुख भी, Rags to riches हमारी कहानी को भी बोल सकते हो। इस गलतफहमी के साथ अपने life  को approach करते रहे, पर वो छूटा तो पहली बार एहसास हुआ की शायद इतना special भी कुछ था नहीं। ना ही हमारे प्यार में और ना हमारे ज़िंदगी में।   दोष फिल्मों...