Religion of Hunger
Fiction Image by Copilot AI I n the little teashop that stood on one of the many dusty streets of Chhatarpur, just a few kilometres from the Qutub Minar, evenings belonged to arguments. Men gathered under the old banyan tree outside the teashop as faithfully as devotees at the Chhatarpur Mandir. Politics rose with the steam from the glasses of chai. Some spoke about the rising unemployment, some batted for religion, and many just listened. The fiercest debates always belonged to two men. Raghav Sen and Salim Hussein. Raghav wore crisp khadi kurtas and spoke of India with the trembling emotion of a pilgrim. To him, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first leader in centuries to restore dignity to Hindus. He believed that history had humiliated Hindus long enough until Modi emerged as their Messiah. Salim, a history teacher with permanently tired eyes, considered Modi dangerous precisely because he inspired devotion. “No democracy survives sainthood in politics,” he would say...
