Friday, September 26, 2008

My religion: Humanism

In my previous blog I had shared a incident in which I was pretty sure that I should have reacted but I did not.....
In this blog I am sharing an incident in which I reacted may be a bit a too much..... Did I react a bit too much ?
Sometime back I traveled on a train to Hyderabad to meet my friends there. That was the first time I am going back after my transfer to Chennai and so I was very eager to go meet them. At around six in the evening I boarded the train. If I travel alone I usually prefer a side berth which was the case here as well. I settle down in my seat. The train starts to move and I start to have a look of people around me. To the left of me there were five people traveling in a group. I guessed there were three school students in the group which was the case and they were accompanied by two masters (if I can call them that way).I was deep into my thoughts when I started to hear the conversation of that gang. Apparently the students were asking some questions for which the elderly fellow was answering. The core topic of discussion was GOD and Religion. The elderly guy(say Mr. X) was answering that there is only one GOD (the one which they are worshipping) and there is only one religion(which they are following).He started to compare other religion with his and started sharing his views about them. I started to look around the compartment to see how people reacted to this. To the seat opposite to mine there was a guy who was friend of TTE sitting in TTE's seat. He also started to overhear the conversation. He was totally against the views of Mr.X. Even I was in the same situation. I had nothing against the religion he preached nor am I a staunch believer in Religion. But what made me angry was the way in which he was corrupting the young minds . Then after the discussion which went on for around an hour those people started distributing pamphlets. I was also offered a pamphlet I rejected it saying that I m not a staunch believer of any religion. Others in the compartment received those pamphlets without any fuss. Mr.X came and sat next to me and asked me about my profession. I replied to him saying that I m a software engr. He smiled and said that he expected it. Then he said he was also a software engineer who later on took up the current job voluntarily. Then he asked me why I refused the pamphlet. I said I don’t believe in any religion neither do I believe in the existence of a GOD that almost all religion project of. But I am a firm believer in the existence of Almighty. He asked me to elaborate a bit more about that. I thought about it for a second and by now many people were looking at us. I replied him back saying that I don’t wish to carry on with this conversation and ended the conversation abruptly. After that he went to his seat and continued with his conversation. Sometime later the TTE came to my seat. TTE’s friend who was sitting opposite to me narrated the incident to him. The TTE later on shook my hands and said “accha kaam”.I did not reply to him as well because I knew he was also mad about his religion and that is why he thanked.
What made me to react to that incident? I could have remained a mute spectator to what happened around me? Definitely its not because of hatred towarda any particular community....
Its because Mr.X was corrupting peoples mind. May be in my next blog I will share my views on GOD I believe in... :)