Sugar!

It is time for us to get into the boat and sail through the waters, quietly lying down inside the small hull with our shoulders touching, beholding the morning sky - which surprisingly has no sign of any blue whichever direction we turn our heads to! Because the firmament is painted completely in white, full of clouds moving everywhere in its abject divinity; and it slowly starts to drizzle drenching our heart and soul. And that is how every memorable journey begins not knowing where the route leads to and the boat freely sails in the direction of the current - because the best thing about us is that neither of us would want to sit up straight and row in the direction we are supposedly expected to go - following a plan. Sometimes in life, control messes up the beauty that lies hiding in the smallest things that pile up to make the bigger ones. We should just be at peace and allow ourselves to be taken through the lotus farms, get scratched by the itchy leaves of the coconut palms planted by the banks of the river and play splash games with the flowing waters.

I turn my head to you and my countenance brightens a hundred fold in an instant. Surely yes - if I be the day and the night, you would be my sun and the moon. Because you are the first dream I remember waking up; you are also the music that mixes with the air in its right proportion - whispering sweet nothings into my ears. I am too scared to be tickled so much with your musings - so I distract myself but fail and fidget, and in an attempt to hide this I quickly turn my head away to the beauties of nature, but secretly enjoy the magic in the moment - sporting a poker face, trying to prolong it for some more time. There is nothing as lovely as the you and me warmth and the silence that holds our spirits together up so close even without we touching or kissing. I know things could get sensuous the next time I turn to you, so please do not look at me that way - your eyes moving down from my eyes to my lips and back up to my eyes, then to my lips again. No Sugar, please stop it now!

When you read this one day, I am sure you might wonder who this Sugar probably was! No, spare yourself the discomfort of breaking your head over this! Have no doubt, it was certainly you! Yes, all along it had always been you! Only you!! As I write this now, I have no idea where you are, what you do or how you might even look! Why don't you just close your eyes for a moment and think of the day I first met you. Just rewind and play it in your head scene by scene like how they do in the movies - how things happened and led us to the place where we currently are in today! Does it make complete sense to you now? Ah there, there - look at how you smile. Okay, I must be in office now and you at home probably on your day off - sipping your coffee, polishing your nails and doing some internet stalking on me to find out what kind of a person I really was before you happened. Sugar, it had always been you in all truth - even before you came into sight! Just that you were invisible, playing in my mind and soul all night and all day! Aw your sweet blush, how it manages to travel back in time - interstellar style; and oh boy, how it tickles me here now!

P.S. I know tonight's going to be special! :)

Critique On The Christian Religion

The intent here is to not create any kind of furore - for I am no atheist or a backslider who has fallen from grace. However, if you would like to judge me - you could please go ahead and do it the way you want. I have no problem, I shall only smile at you and walk past.

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I am completely disillusioned with religion. But it took some time for me to reach the state where I am currently in. To be honest, I started with religion at a very early age. My dad never stopped me from reading the Gita or the Quran. There were so many religious books at home - so I could spend most of my nights reading and writing notes on them. By eleventh standard, I had completed all the Vedas, few Puranas and other supplements - adding to the Gita and the Quran. But the Bible has always remained as my daily read till date. So it makes more sense for me to write a critique on the Christian religion more than the others.

First of all, why do we need a million organisations falling under a thousand denominations - calling themselves churches, each one fighting for its own survival wooing the believers with all of their membership, tithe and offering schemes! Even if all the arguments on the church revolving around fellowship and building each other's faith are duly accepted, why do we see everything else happening in the church except fellowship and faith? Why are there fights, politics, elections, unnecessary pride over tradition, theological battles and misunderstandings, backbiting, fake love and humility, judging, dogmas that go by the name of doctrines and all the other inhuman rules and regulations? Why is there no love? Why is there more emphasis on giving and sermons revolving around offerings pushed into the minds of the believers so they give generously - while the church does not want to give anything to the socially deprived? You might argue saying a swift no and that your church is doing a lot. What, to you, appears to be a lot is in real - only a handful of peanuts when compared to the enormity of social issues found in your vicinity! If every church had been an organ of social reformation and change, no one in your city would be sleeping on the pavement in hunger, abandoned! 'What is church?', a young man asked. The priest replied, 'Church is where God resides!'. If church is where God resides, is not a man or a woman with a heart full of kindness and love more rationally and meaningfully a church? Yes, by all means - because God dwells in the hearts of people. Why don't we just disregard all of these man-made systems dancing around religion and just become those people filled with love and kindness so we could go about lighting this dark world - in its real sense!

I know a lot of people who call themselves, healers. But sadly all of their magical stunts seem to work only inside an auditorium setup where there is music, choir, a huge audience to watch and howl, and of course - a few good cameras. Why is it that the god who is supposedly working through them goes dumb, deaf and blind when they are out on the streets seeing a leper walk towards them asking for alms? If God really worked through them, poor people dying because of weird diseases in all the slums around could have easily been healed - but that never happens. I know of reverend fathers who are child molesters, pastors and preachers who are into extra-marital affairs, and few evangelists whose intent behind giving poor people food and clothes is only to convert them.

There are also double standards that many have gotten so used to. On one hand, they would say that the razing of Babri Masjid by the Hindu Nationalists was wrong; and on the other they would shout hallelujahs if by any chance the Al-Aqsa mosque that sits right on the spot of the Solomon's Temple be destroyed by the Israelies in future. To them, the Palestinians who rightfully fight for their own land - are all so evil, and the Israelies who occupied the erstwhile British Mandate of Palestine with pure deception - are all so good. One group worships Mother Mary without knowing who her mother was, and the other group is too busy making fun of them. One group says wearing jewels is sin, one more says taking tablets when you are sick is sin too. Ironically, the religion that talks more elaborately about love has fought so many religious wars under the banner of cross - after that fool of a pope called Pope Urban II introduced the concept of Holy War at the Council of Clermont. Who could possibly forget all those religion sanctioned wars fought costing millions of lives - Thirty Years War, Crusades, French Wars of Religion, Lebanese Civil War, Second Sudanese Civil War, to mention a few!

Jesus Christ was killed because he questioned all the rotten religious beliefs and other nonsensical sentiments of the people of his times, and continuously tried to drive some sense into their minds with his moving speeches. His way was love and just that. He never started or even vaguely intended to start any religion of his own. The Christianity you see today is sadly Christ-less. It might sound slightly weird to you but I have to admit that I believe in Jesus - and that is why I am completely opposed to religion in every sense of the word. I accept everyone irrespective of their caste, creed, background, race, region, religion, language and nationality - as brothers and sisters. Yes - I trust only in love, and sincerely live with a hope that all my weaknesses would slowly be turned to strengths and that I would one day have hinds' feet to stand on love's highest places!
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Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (I Cor 13: 4-7)