God…and the illogical logic behind

It was ‘Dhanteras’ that day and an article in the newspaper said that if you buy something this day, the goddess of wealth, ‘Lakshmi’ (as if she exists!) will bestow her generosity upon you. Logically, if you buy something, you’ll have to pay for it and you can only get a little poorer! If buying something can make a person richer (nonsense, but still let us somehow assume), the rich who can buy will be richer and the poor, poorer. So god is the one (actually he isn’t one-there are 360,000 in Hinduism alone) directly responsible for the divide between haves and have not’s! God!

God is no good, and people know it. The difficult part is accepting it. Had god been good, would there have been natural calamities, where thousands die, irrespective whether they are saints or terrorists? Would there have been criminal tendencies in people’s mind-for crime, corruption and dishonesty? Would there have been disease and illness like cancer and AIDS, wiping off lakhs off the planet? Any explanation? Still believing that god exists, and that too he is ‘good’ is like believing that earth is flat and sun revolves around it!

If you see a mother crying her child’s dead body or a terminal stage cancer patient being consoled by his relatives that it will be all right despite knowing that it won’t, or a handicapped child trying to stand up and fall instead and you still believe in god being good, you need to consult a doctor. A mental one. Urgently.

All that’s there is nature, and its creator, who is up to no other good than ensuring continuation of survival of species. Survival of the fittest, not the ‘best’. On this very context, you can’t call a tiger sinful for killing a deer, despite the emotional strings attached to it. (Animals have emotions too, remember? Sometimes better than mankind.)

Doing good won’t get you anywhere. This concept that doing ‘good’ is indeed good was made only so that there isn’t a total anarchy (to keep people from slitting each other’s throat and ending up alone). Believe me when I say evil will make you more prosperous than by doing good. Pick up any famous personality, successful businessman, each has an evil story behind him. And once you achieve success, no one cares about your sins. So there are only two types of people on earth: the rich and the good. Choose one.

Anyway, getting back, all of us have come across the supernormal devotion (?) people have for god. Unnecessary is a better word. They pick up bells and that metal plates and bang it at the top-decibel ranges, in a hope that god will hear them directly from heaven. Like you can shout your voice to your relative in Delhi, while sitting in Ranchi. Instead first confirm whether a relative exists at all in Delhi. Even if after knowing there isn’t, if you need to contact this non-existent being, try the cellphone. Same way, you can close your eyes and feel closer to god, then you can talk in a normal tone to him, if need be. No need of carrier waves.

I once quoted the example of a temple in my state, and I state it again. There, in a room about 10 feet by 10 feet, about five dozen people pray together at a time, many not even getting to touch the holy ‘stone’. How can you concentrate on connecting to god when you are in a suffocating room, with your soul desperate to leave your body and hence the room? It is far better a pray, if you do that from your home, in front of His pic. And if they are so much bent on believing in god, why don’t they let him rest peacefully, instead of banging bells and shouting hymns day and night long.

Just imagine yourself smeared with all that milk, sticky honey, leaves, inhaling incense smoke 24x7, people singing the same song to you in a terrible voice (most religious agents have a croaky voice, like mine) throughout the year, no time to sleep, waking up at daybreak, with people cutting goats at your feet, offering you the most delicious food but you are not able to eat it (have you ever seen god eating the ‘Prasad’ you offer?)….and the list goes on. Students are a step ahead in disturbing god’s peace, the last bits of what’s left of it. We wake him up a three in the night, praying to get better marks in the exam the following morning. This is the reason, I decipher for my meager marks. It’s a revenge god takes for disturbing his peace.  Why don’t we just let him be?

Why’s the need to give this ‘godly’ treatment to someone who hasn’t given you anything? To get it straight, whatever little or phenomenal achievement you have, it’s all because of you and you deserved it. No one can take it away from you. If you’ll be successful, you won’t start giving a heavenly treatment to the first stranger you meet on the road for your success, despite having no contribution in your it, apart from being the fortunate stranger to cross you on the road.

Just do good for yourself, your family and well-wishers, obviously without causing anyone else any discomfort, including the almighty, and good will happen. If you shift your focus on god, obviously you’ll lose focus on the job at hand. So don’t lose your focus to god (yeah He is a distraction, and a good one at it). Work, learn, earn, enjoy.

Those understanding that they have what they deserve don’t need god. It’s for those who don’t. For them, it’s just a symbol to blame, to ask strength from. I said good is god. But the good don’t need god.

The city of Joy

Kolkata is a city (I bet you knew that!)  by the people, certainly for the people and undoubtedly full of people! Being there with some of my friends this puja, it proved why it’s worth a visit, and why it’s nicknamed such.

A yellow ambassador with ‘taxi’ written on it passing you with a huge metal suspension bridge in the backdrop tells you Kolkata is near. Before even entering the city, I found three ‘pandals’ in the same patch of land, combinely almost covering the whole area (by the way combinely is no word). I wondered and am still wondering on the need of three in the same place! Now as I stepped out of my train onto the platform, I was almost thrown back in by a swarming and near-stampeding crowd. Thin as I am, I made my way out to find my friends waiting. Can’t tell you how good it is to see a familiar face in a teeming crowd!

It is the fifth time I was there, and each time the city throws something new for me, and meanwhile preserving what I loved the most, its classic British culture. It’s where you can almost see the times of British raj, with sahibs living in vintage homes, served by many helping hands. The future is also here, from the sky high Newtown and South city mall to the regal estates piercing the city’s skyline.

And you can’t find a city with more means of transportation. Auto-rickshaw, rickshaw, hand pulled rickshaw (that’s just three types of rickshaw), taxi, buses, tram, metro and local trains (that’s again three types of railways). I hope one day I’ll find motorcycles used to taxi people around the city, going by the crowd and the jams.

It also a rags to riches city. Not that you’ll get richer here, but this is because I saw a stunning BMW car overtake a maruti 800, the day I got there. There are shops selling 100 a piece shirts in front of branded showrooms where you can’t get to even try a shirt unless you have a 1000 in your wallet. (It’s a different point that both of the products are actually the same, but more on that later). As one of my friends very correctly observed that people were ready to pay 50 for an unworthy coffee in café for the fools nicked CCD, they didn’t had a penny to spare on the feeble old man sitting outside the same. (I myself couldn’t spare my sandwich I was having to a supposedly begging kid, saying that I was equally hungry as him… … but he was wearing a nice new t shirt and jeans, wasn’t a beggar by any means!)

The women here are beyond compare. Almost all of them would find it easier to push their way through the crowds using their elbows, instead of going for the clear path nearby. It has been quite difficult to understand their intentions. And the gushing crowd induces fears of pickpocketing and what not in your mind. And there’s only one way to avoid it. Keep your hands on your assets (monetary assets, to be particular, if you are thinking otherwise). But this is still a problem while travelling in buses, where your hands are too busy gripping the supports, preventing you being thrown out of the bus. And the number of people in the bus ensures that you have to struggle for a space to hold for support. Some unfortunate ones stick their palms to the ceiling of the bus, like lizards.

However, it’s certainly a heaven for food craving people. All roads have footpaths, and every footpath is dotted with street food and general stalls. The food is delicious and the best part that it isn’t costly at all. For the other stalls, you can bargain amazingly to get a 200 rupees commodity in just fifty. And obviously if the shopkeeper is selling it for fifty, he must still have a profit. Just evaluate the margin of profit!

The people here are very helpful (except a T.T.E. at the station who kept talking to an unknown force, all the while looking in the opposite direction). The neighborhood culture is far better than other megacities I have been to, especially Delhi. Of all things, the mentality of the people working here struck me best. Here people have the intentions of working hard and enjoying even harder, and that’s the best thing to do. The colorful city is indeed, the city of joy!