One of the catastrophic clusters that accompanied my life for a very long period and caused much unwarranted agony in the unmentionable place is a constellation of well wishers. They appeared from nowhere such as the next seat in a city bus or the chink in the door of your rented residence. They are always armed with a repertoire of advice. They are experts in discovering the faults - both potential and kinetic - in you. They imagine themselves your redeemer; they obviously see you as a pathetic sinner.
For a pretty long while I managed to escape them as I lived in a place where people of this sort were rare. But now, it seems, I have landed right in their midst.
Those who perceive themselves as having some special link with their god are the biggest pains in the posterior. They come with all kinds of remedies for the ills they discover in you when you know that they are your only aches.
One such well wisher counselled my wife the other day that he could see with his divine gift of special vision that there was a shortage of prayer in our house. "Shortage!" I grinned. "You should have told him that there is absolutely no prayer in this house except the occasional dramas we have to perform by sheer necessity."
My wife is also my occasional well wisher. So she tried to teach me the importance of daily prayer.
"Those who pray five times a day are the ones who bombard innocent people all over the world," I said.
"That's a different matter," she said.
"It's not," I asserted. "You well wishers can point out if I'm doing something wrong, something antisocial or something harmful to anyone. Otherwise why don't you leave me to myself?"
Well wishers never leave you alone. They are born to meddle with other people's lives. If need be, to bombard the other people.
For a pretty long while I managed to escape them as I lived in a place where people of this sort were rare. But now, it seems, I have landed right in their midst.
Those who perceive themselves as having some special link with their god are the biggest pains in the posterior. They come with all kinds of remedies for the ills they discover in you when you know that they are your only aches.
One such well wisher counselled my wife the other day that he could see with his divine gift of special vision that there was a shortage of prayer in our house. "Shortage!" I grinned. "You should have told him that there is absolutely no prayer in this house except the occasional dramas we have to perform by sheer necessity."
My wife is also my occasional well wisher. So she tried to teach me the importance of daily prayer.
"Those who pray five times a day are the ones who bombard innocent people all over the world," I said.
"That's a different matter," she said.
"It's not," I asserted. "You well wishers can point out if I'm doing something wrong, something antisocial or something harmful to anyone. Otherwise why don't you leave me to myself?"
Well wishers never leave you alone. They are born to meddle with other people's lives. If need be, to bombard the other people.
Unfortunately declaring oneself as a pagan is seen as being antisocial. While the statistics point towards the contradiction.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. It's a bigoted misperception that nonreligious people are bad while most wars and acts of vandalism and terror are committed by believers. Convinced nonbelievers live honest lives trying to do their best to create a better world. But the bias is always skewed against them.
DeleteMaking other people's business your own is a huge failing of the population of India. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThat's one way of subjugating people, making them toe the line.
DeletePeople's people want people to do things people don't like
ReplyDeletePeople's people - yes, they have a lot of demands.
DeleteHaha. Too good Tomichan. You've made humor out of an ageless malady. God we have well wisher everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThe humour has its roots in pain and anger, Anupam. Delhi was the only place that spared me the ordeal. It's so annoying to have people tell you how to be religious.
DeleteConformity makes the powerful easy to control the masses. At the end of the day, it is all about control of one over the other.
DeleteI'm with you, Farouk, on this. It's about control and authority.
DeleteI don't think a belief in God has anything to do with ethics or morality.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem. What is the use of god if not for making the world a more moral milieu?
DeleteThe problem aroused due to considerative nature of Indian culture. But in the modern era people use this to show that 'I am better than you'. But answer has been made long before for them "Hypocrite first take out the log in your eye and then you will see clearly enough to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
ReplyDelete