Uncle, are you a Hindu?!

My dear friends,

I was invited by a colleague of mine for the first
communal of his 2nd daughter held on 11-05-2006. The
function was arranged in St.church at Mandapathinkadavu,
a place located 4-5 km away from Kattakkada in Tvm.
The function was scheduled at 5.30
PM.

While my friend was inviting me, we had a discussion
about the culture and systems followed by various
religions and castes in our country and the churches
and temples etc. My friend is around 45 years and a
well studied man with a lot of life experience.

I told him that I like Christ as a human being. I could
identify many actions of mine helping others with out
selfish interest are kind of Christian way of living
referred to there in Bible. I always thought that why
a person like Jesus should sacrifice his life for the
entire humanity.

Then our discussions were about the movies, The
Passion of Christ and The Messenger- Story of Joan of
Arc.

I am fascinated by this movie on Joan of Arc. I
suggest you all to see the movie. There are certain
scenes in the movie when Joan converse with God,
regretting about her passion and aggressive behavior,
forgetting the fact that she just a messenger of God,
she acted as God and ended up in prison. The movie
make you think a lot. It has another dimension, a
dimension of understanding your self and the relation
you have with the omnipresent, omnipotent phenomenon,
you may name it God.

The questions like Why you are in this world, what made you like
this, the purpose of life etc etc. are the quest of a Philosopher. I think
the scientist try to define whatever happening around
us and the philosopher questions the existence. We all
have a combination of philosophical and scientific
temper within us. It may vary person to person, but,
we are all born with certain common thinking ability.
Our thought processes may be complex, but the basic
structure and pattern in it is similar.

On 11th evening I started off in my scooter at 5.15 PM
from my office. Since one of my friends asked me to
drop him at Balaramapuram, I chose a long route. This
friend of mine was a class mate of our PK Rajasekharan
sir, Mathrubhumi at University College, in his MA
Malyalam Course. (In fact I was there in the college
when PK was finishing of his MA. I was a new entrant
to the BSc Maths department.). My pillion driver's
name is Iithiyoor Krishnan. He also writes well in
Malayalam. Unofficially he is running a Tutorial at
Balaramapuram.

It will be surprising for you to know that most of my
colleagues in the department have a background on
Teaching. Many of them are good writers. Many can
recite poetry in the best way. Many write poems with
the classical touch. It is absolutely right regarding
PK's statement to our class about the Government
employees. "The cream of the educated class gets into
this sector by overcoming stiff competition and become
a wasteful lot due to the system. Their talents are
wasted on put up and perusal of meaningless files"
(according to PK).

When creativity of the human being is controlled by a
system, the person becomes unproductive. So the system
should recognize the talents of the people in it. I
think there are two parts in a creative system. It
should have a challenge component evoking effort from
the person involved in the process. Secondly, it
should have a reward component. In order to create
interest in job, the job designer should give
emphasize on these aspects. However, our system is yet
to change in this respect, and hence persons like
L.Krishnan or Iithiyoor Krishnan are never noticed by
the society. Do you know that under his initiative a
quarterly magazine, namely, BHASHA MITRAM started
publishing with serious concern about our Malayalam.
So Krishnan is attaining satisfaction with all these
activities and society benefitting by his actions.

You may be wondering why this Anil is writing all
these stuff under the title "Uncle, are you a
Hindu?!". I was trying to make you think about all
possibilities the society may offer to a human being.
The social conditions make a person to be what he is
in the social dimension.

One may argue that it's not the Profession or job which is the human
being, of course, I do agree with that, but, in social dimension
it matters a lot. Social Perception about a person is
solely depended on the social norms and parameters.
The parents to whom you have born. The place where you
live, the people whom you make contacts,the education
you had, the job you do, the Religion you practice,
the language you speak, the money you have in your
hand etc all makes you the person you are in the
society. One cannot deny it, but, one should
understand it. Is a human being is just that? The
question made me writing down all these was raised by
the Christian Friend's elder daughter who is studying
in Plus two.

I reached the church around 6.20 PM. It was a small
gathering. It is an RC Church. People were of Nadar
community of that area. The ways in which they talk
Malayalam, the colour of skin are differentiating them
from others. The girl in white frock was standing in
front of the Althar, and the priest was conducting the
ceremony. She was looking like an Angel with a bunch
of rose flowers in her hand. There was this idol of
Christ, crucified, on the cross, painted in best way
to make us feel about the sacrifice he had made for
the human kind. A few girls were singing some
devotional songs praising Christ. Nice to hear the
songs at the top of the hill, surrounded by "Rubber
Forests". The neat and tidy way in which the priest
was doing the duties vested with him is something to
be learned. He finished the ceremony and gave away the
"appam" and "veenju" to all those devotees. Then he
told us the story about good and peaceful living. The
function concluded and we were offered a small feast.
Appam and chicken curry.

Though there were only a few people, they have a tendency to create rush.
I was introduced by my friend to one of his relatives, who
is a Head Master to an UP school nearby. We talked lot
about the different sects in Christianity. I asked him
whether the caste system prevalent in the society has
anything to do with the practices in various churches.
He denied it. He said about the Roman Catholic etc of
which I am not very much aware of. But, I know one
thing that the Christians in Kerala or India are all
converted from the people in India. The same goes with
the Muslims also. So the caste system which was there
in India well before the arrival of these Semitic
religions has a big role in the development of these
religions in India. The poor and progressive got
converted fast and others perished.

It was 7.30 PM and I finished eating, washed my hands
and said good bye to the community there. While
introducing me to the other members of the family, my
friend was thanking me for going there at that
distance etc. I said them that it is for the 2nd time
I am attending such a function and I am not aware of
all those proceedings. When the priest was introduced
to me, instead of kissing his hands I just shook hands
with him. The intention is OK, but he would have
rather surprised by my behavior. I asked the girl
undergone first commune about the feeling she had
about the whole affairs. She said she don't feel much
difference. From her father, I knew about her more
than what she thought. Then his elder daughter was
introduced to me. She is planning to clear Entrance
test Engg. This girl asked me the question I have put
above. The answer for this question was in my mouth.
But I couldn't answer it. I just nodded my head.

I am also created just like her. Do you see any
difference in two people by birth? I too have all the
physical appearance as a Christian. Christianity is
not believing Christ or the priests, but following the
path of living suggested by Jesus. The practices of
good habits and culture propounded by the Bible. In
church they talk about all those beautiful aspects
about life and out side they fight with each other. I
don't think it as Christian attitude. A Christian is a
person who believes in Love and harmony of all human
beings and nature. In Hinduism, being a flexible way of
living and practice, any idea of livelihood has its
own sacred position and none can be sidelined. Any
thought has its relevance. Hinduism essentially is a
scientific way of spiritualism, where every religion
become a part of it and integrated into it. The
fundamental element of Hinduism is its flexibility,
rationality, realistic approach and adaptability. The
reason why Christianity or Islam was accepted by the
subcontinent is just because of this reason. People
like me who believe in Community Living and Communism
as a means of achieving social equity and harmony is
because of this greater understanding. Communism is
not just living in communes and attaining socialism.
It is not a theory but a practice. When we go deep
into Hinduism and Communism, we could see more
similarities than difference. But, when we take
positions on the basis of Relgion prfessed by the
priests alone, the Caste System becomes a bigger role
player. So it is always better to be communist than
Hindu. However, things are changing with respect to
Indian-Communism also, due to the deep rooted caste
system. The castes were come from Varna and Vrithi,
basically trade. Some trades were considered to be
better than others and finally the skills were
transferred to one community alone and the whole
system become like this. Can't we see the same
situation happening with the Professional Educational
Setup now? Each professional in a community has his or
her own responsibility. It is the sharing of
responsibilities according to the needs and wants of
the society is the best practice of Professionalism. A
casual sweeper in the street is equal to the MD of a
company sitting in the air conditioned cubicle.
Understanding this in right perspective is Christian
thought in its essence, it is socialism we dream of.
Practicing this in the right way make me a Hindu. I am
yet to become one..rather my object is to become a
Good Human Being than a Hindu or Communist. May be a
Radical Humanist..if I want to give it a structured
shape and name. May be I am wrong or may be I am
right. But I am what I am..that is a truth, I cannot
deny that.

ANIL