Religion is like your sex life

I firmly believe that one's religion is a very private and sensitive aspect of one's life, much like the sex life he/she leads. When I sit down to pray before an exam or an interview or any major event in my life, I don't invite people home to pray with me, its just me and my god, me and my beliefs. I feel content when I pray alone rather than sitting amongst a group of people who chant and dance around me, I find that very distracting and disturbing. Have you ever come across a person who organises rallies to show that he has had a dry spell for a 6 months? I haven't, but I am sure there are a bunch of Americans, if not already, who are exercising their freedom of expression! there are always exceptions.. Point is, its stupid to force your belief. If you are content with it, good for you! but to shove it down another's throat is just lame.

If you look through the pages of history, you'd find that religion came into existence out of the need for unity among the newly evolved, uncouth, animal like species - the human beings. A few wise, old men probably sat around and thought about how to bring about peace and order in this pack of hooligans and religion was their solution. Coming to think of it, it was a well thought out solution for that era, to capitalize on faith and beliefs to bring about unity.

Little did they know, that religion would one day used by a human being to pull out a foetus from a pregnant woman and boast about it. Little did they know that religion would be an excuse to rape and burn people alive in batches, to hack and mutilate the limbs of a certain somebody because he belonged to a different religion/political party. Haven't we learnt enough from wars of the past? What good did the concentration camps in Germany do to mankind? How did humanity grow from the precious lives that were lost in religious battles during the partition of India? Why doesn't one realise that these are steps taken backward in evolution? Imagine all the thinking, effort, money and time was utilised for something scientific? something that actually contributed to mankind's growth? If we keep killing and raping, would all of us have the kind of comforts that we have today? Would you be reading this blog? Would I have had this machine to write this blog post if my forefathers and ancestors indulged in animal like carnage? What did violence ever achieve other than temporary pseudo satisfaction? There are alternate peaceful ways to achieve such satisfaction!

The Gujarat riots for me, is the biggest step taken backwards in the development of India, as a developing nation. But, have we learnt from all this? I don't think so! Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, has now been elected for the 3rd time in a row despite solid proof that he had mentored these riots. How are people encouraging this shit? Have we become a bunch of couch potatoes who sit and enjoy this real life blood bath? I admit some blood and gore is entertaining to watch, I love them Tarantino movies, but real life? I remember how I almost puked at the sight and smell of a fresh corpse that was in two parts from a gruesome bike accident, my hands were shivering at the sight of blood oozing out from what was left of the torso and the smell was morbidly sickening! I wonder how these 'activists' gain strength from Hinduism, the religion definitely does not advocate this kind of violence. Not only has Hinduism lost its character but this a matter of shame for the entire country. India's secular ideals that separated it from our radical, religion driven neighbouring countries are slowly fading away.