All the Chapters
Chapter 19
Medhavi’s wrote her diary day wise:
Day 1:
This is the first day of my life when I thought of writing a diary for the first time. I am not a diary freak but today’s incident disturbed me beyond my imagination and I need to vent them out somewhere.
So what if I ate omelet in the company of my closest friend Anji?
Don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. Eat only these things. What rubbish! Funny- yet every religion prescribes such unreasonable permissions and restrictions. What’s the harm in eating whatever one likes? Why and how does any religion enter into such a personal issue?
I hated Samskara commenting on my eating an omelet. I do not eat it normally. I am still not used to eat other non-veg stuff. But omelet, I have started liking its taste and so I ate. Is it any sin that Samskara made a mountain out of a molehill?
Day 2:
I hate this shuddhikaran (purification) process that Samskara carries out every time I am done with my periods.
He also did it when I ate omelet as if I became impure after eating an omelet.
I feel terribly violated when he does that act of sprinkling the Ganga water all over me and the house and the fridge.
My mother used to perform similar ritual. Now I remember that even when my mother did this shuddhikaran business on me, I used to get worked up.
I never questioned her thinking that she was an elder and knew better than me. But today I really want to ask myself, “Has this shuddhikaran any meaning in it at all?” My answer is, “None.” So I do not wish to be violated by Samskara any more.
It’s all about hygiene. Modern accessories take care of it.
And I guess such or similar unreasonable rituals must be true of every other religion and community. I have come to realize that all of that is no good irrespective of whichever religions prescribe such or similar things.
Day 3:
Is doing frequent poojas (prayers and worships) and that too over long and odd hours really all that pious? I am religious too. But I do not perform the poojas as frequently as Samskara does. Am I a sinner or degraded person?
And why does he have to get up at an ungodly hour of 5 AM every day and also disturb my sleep in the process? He never has time for a quiet breakfast with me, not even on the weekends.
I have started missing the companionship I had expected from my husband in marriage.
Today as I am writing this I am remembering Shaan. He was such a great company always. What I knew of him he hardly spent time in any poojas or service or any other kind of worship. Every time I asked him the reason, he told me, “Medhavi, if there is a god, he or she resides in you and thus you are alive. So I silently salute him or her every now and then and no one even comes to know of it. Isn’t that wonderful?”
I have started seeing some point in Shaan’s philosophy.
………………….
Before reading the diary of the fourth day, Samskara wondered about the mention of Shaan in the diary. Medhavi never spoke of him earlier, Samskara thought.
………………….
Day 4:
I am repeating here in my diary exactly what Samskara uttered the other day.
He said, “Oh these people of other communities can be a bad influence on our children. And I am quite serious about it. Our samskaras (cultural heritage and upbringing) are far more superior to the samskaras people of other communities give to their children. We do not want our children to pick them up.”
And then he asked me to cut down on my relationship with Anji since she is a Christian.
I got quite shocked at such utterances of Samskara and I am certain that he is not quite correct. There are good and bad people in every race, religion and community. You cannot rule out any community with such sweeping statements.
But it is not just Samskara who thought lowly of other communities or races. On rethinking I find such statements being made by many people of various communities about the people of other communities, races and religions. But doing that is not correct in any way even on their part. Does their religion allow it? No good religion teaches it.
I will never break my friendship with the people of other communities who are already my friends. And least of all Anji- she is my best friend, so what if she is a Christian. And after all I am not marrying her.
I agree that one should marry in the same communities. I am still fussy about it or I would have married Shaan. Imagine I have problems with a person of my own religion and sub-caste, what kind of problems one might face in marrying a person from other religion or race?
Day 5:
Samskara believes in each and every religious diktats that some people of ancient times passed on to the next generations without checking their veracity. At times even to a somewhat religious person like me those diktats seem quite unreasonable and particularly in the present times.
I realize now that we should always find the scientific reasons before following any diktat of any religion. Samskara’s opinions on this do not match with mine. He takes every written and spoken word of the religious teachings and preaching as a gospel truth and hundred percent sacrosanct.
Day 6:
Samskara has started imposing some more new whims lately. He handed me a chart the other day. It is called ‘Rahu Kalam’. As per him it is very useful as it prescribes the inauspicious period of the day when one should never undertake any auspicious activity. The duration of this period is one and half an hour every day. For example 7.30 AM to 9 AM is inauspicious on all Mondays, 3 PM to 4.30 PM is inauspicious on Tuesdays, 12 noon to 1.30 PM is inauspicious on Wednesdays and so on for the rest of the days of every week.
I remember that my parents are also ardent followers of ‘Rahu Kalam’. They refuse to carry out any important job during these hours. Though I am religious, I am a bit of rebel too at times and so I used to ask the rationale behind it to my parents.
I used to argue, “Mom, if I am writing a university examination paper during this ‘Rahu Kalam’ should I stop writing the paper? And my experience so far shows that many a time when I wrote the exam papers in ‘Rahu Kalam’, I even got centum marks.” My parents won’t have any answer to this kind of questioning of mine.
Many times we are engaged in very important tasks during this period because some one else with no knowledge of ‘Rahu Kalam’ had planned that activity during this inauspicious period. And I have seen that nothing went wrong in doing that planned work.
I have not argued on this aspect with Samskara for fear of getting into yet another conflict but I definitely do not like such restrictions.
One more thought came to my mind, “Are radically religious people superstitious too? Are they more superstitious than the people who are less religious or not religious at all?”
Day 7:
Today I read an article on the Internet about a group called ‘Humanity Forum’. I was impressed by their work.
The group consists of persons of all kinds of faiths and also the people not having affiliation to any organized religions and yet all of them work together seamlessly.
‘Humanity Forum’ assists the entire humanity as per its requirements without any consideration of any kind of boundaries drawn by physical or political boundaries of nations or any other kinds of boundaries drawn based on race, color, religion, caste, sub-caste, language, gender etc.
There was a mention of Shaan in the article and descriptions of the projects that he undertook during past few months for the benefit of the humanity.
After reading Shaan’s accomplishments I could not but admire Shaan.
I lost a great friend like Shaan due to my immaturity, stupidity, over-ambitiousness and jealousy. I should meet him soon and apologize.
………………….
Samskara stopped reading the diary for a while after reading the mention of Shaan and now the mention of ‘Humanity Forum’ of America. He recalled hearing the name of ‘Humanity Forum’ this morning on television. What was it? Yes, the members of ‘Humanity Forum’ were the first rescue team to reach Japan from outside of Japan.
………………….
Day 8:
I am writing diary after a gap.
In the mean time I have remained terribly disturbed by what I now call as ‘overdoing of religiousness’ by Samskara. He is trying to impose his ideas on me and now I am the last person to buy his ideas.
I am tired of Samskara’s weird ideas and wish to stay away from him at least for an year. I must save my marriage. My boss has confirmed about my deputation to Japan. That will help.
During this one-year’s time I will give some more deep thought to this matter between Samskara and me and see if Samskara will like to moderate his views and actions. I am all for saving my marriage.
Lately after checking the vast literature that is available on the Internet and also studying the objectives and the type of work ‘Humanity Forum’ does I am getting convinced of the futility of too much of religiousness bordering on fundamentalism or extremism.
I wonder if I am becoming like Shaan myself.
Why do I remember Shaan so very often these days?
Am I falling in love with him? Did I fall in love with him when I met him for the first time?
Oh, why am I thinking all this nonsense?
I must save my marriage.
………………….
That was the end of Medhavi’s diary. Medhavi forgot to keep the diary with her while she traveled to Japan. She inadvertently left it on the table at home.
Samskara’s senses became numb on reading the diary. For a few minutes he remained still and his brain stopped thinking.
However, soon the writing of Medhavi started sinking in and he started realizing the enormity of the turmoil that was taking pace in Medhavi’s mind. And he felt that he was the reason for the turmoil. First he got enraged but sanity set in soon and the first thing he thought was how to contact Medhavi and save her life.
He must take immediate steps, he decided.
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Novels and Stories
Novel "Good People" http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/
Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/
Stories Children Will Love http://stories-children.blogspot.com/
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