An Altercation

A Fictitious conversation between two moderates.One being an atheist and another,a theist.
T: Hey!Happy Diwali!!!
A: Happy Diwali to you.It's just a normal day for me.
T: Could you just humor me for once.This is a festival of Joy.
A: Well, choking mother Earth is a joyous occasion. Isn't it?
T: Bursting crackers is just a tradition. All of us have toned it down. We just do it for the kids.Don't mock traditions.
A: I am not mocking them. I am just saying that different times, calls for different celebrations. Even with all the technology that we possess and all the knowledge that little ones are pumped with, it's just a bit too sad to see them overlook and ignore it.
T: They are not overlooking anything. It's just one day on a year, and like I said, there are some people who believe in moderation. But, being a festive season,don't be a kill joy and a sadist. Go with the flow.
A: First of all, I'm not a sadist. Being an atheist, I really don't even care for religious festivals. They are just a marketing scheme for making more money getting more profits.
T: That's offensive. Festivals are all about joy and sharing. It's that time of the year, that old friends meet up to greet one another. You really need to be in that spirit, overlook the religious part.
A: Oh, so now,'I' should overlook? 'I' should open my mind?
T: Well... yes.
A: But why should I? Why the hell should i be open minded when everyone says "Happy Diwali!" to me? I believe that the very cause of Diwali is entirely fictitious,a fable, a moral story,something that should be told to moralize people. How would you feel if I come over to your house one day and say "Happy  Godless Day!!!!"?
T: That's a direct offense. Being an atheist, you love fidgeting with theists don't you?
A: That's not true at all!! In-fact you fuck with us more than we do!!! Just the other day I saw an agarbhatti's advertisement with it's tag line as "Bhagwan hai". I was pretty surprised to see that. My first reaction was-"FUCK YOU!".
T: Well, what's wrong in that. This is a democratic country. Anyone can say what ever one wants to say.It's you who is taking the offensive.
A: That's exactly how you reacted when I spoke about "Godless" day.See, this is the fault with theists. They aren't open minded.They take offence for the slightest of difference in opinion.
T: You are just generalising it. At one time, you say that we aren't open-minded, and then you say theists fight over trifles.When you generalize something like this, that itself shows how open-minded you are.
A: Well, since the time I have been an atheist, I was open to all sorts of religions, reading what the stories actually wanted to tell us, not reading on how to become one.
T: But what is so wrong to place a person superior to everyone.What is so wrong to believe that there was a creator?that there was a beginning?
A: Well, why should we? Why can't we simply believe that we exist, because we are bound to exist. And when we fuck up, we    
 are bound to be extinct. See, thats the problem with you theists, you guys are so afraid of the judgement day that you even fear to think differently. You fear god rather than worship him.We are more stronger mentally, since we believe that nothing is above the human mind.
T: I beg to differ on that one.We put our fates on an entity,being god,and pursue our lives effortlessly. We believe that what will happen, is bound to happen and is good for us.Thinking that way gives you the satisfaction in life from the poorest of beggars to the sickest of patients. That kind of thinking calms your mind.For what is life without living in Harmony?
A: But that kind of thinking is the very root of lethargy.The mordern technology that has been evolved from nothing to beautiful things is a manifestation of a thinking that states-"We can change the state of our surroundings.We are the ultimate torchbearers to our own future".If everyone would think as you would say, then we would never have developed.
T: That is true, but what you are talking about is extremism. A extremist would think that way.A moderate,like you and me, can bend our minds so that we can adapt with the society in general.
A: Yup, that's the root cause of all evil.Extremism. Be it of any kind. Atheism is not a bane to the society, nor is religion.Both are effective when it's habituated in a moderate upbringing.
T: Hey, we better leave. There is some strike going on about some bill that the government is not passing.
A: Ah!...If only all arguments were soo open and more Interactive.Life would have been much simpler.

Different worlds

Yesterday as I got down from  the bus near my home,I saw a child wearing a half pant and a shirt , both of them unwashed perhaps for weeks.It was understandable as their parents were busy working for the new fly over that is to be completed in few(few is not defined) years joining Aundh to Hinjewadi(most probably).As I write this blog I have set my music player in repeat mode and it will be repeating the same song so that I can concentrate on what I write.The name of the song? That I will tell you later.So yes the child as dirty as the road with sparkling eyes was collecting stone chips to help his parents. Although his effort was too meager to  have some effect on the pace of the work but was enough to make me think what I must have been doing when I was as young as him.I saw another man in his mid 50s
looking at the boy in admiration.

 I know after few years I will be driving my car on that fly over but that boy will be cursing  us in frustration, cursing his parents for the ignorance and cursing this world for its kindness. 
Why that boy at such tender age is not getting the treatment he deserves?What are our responsibilities?
What the government can do to revive the condition?Why the children of these people who are the most important factor in materializing the development of this country wont have a chance to develop?
These are the questions that lay in-front of us and we don't even feel obliged to think about these questions.

They have made tin houses for those who are working on this flyover project.I don't think those people have enough warm cloths ,that child must be shivering  in cold as I write this article sitting on a chair with a nice and comfortable headphone on.The song has started 4th or 5th time now.
I don't know,thinking of what Knopfler wrote the song(particularly the lines I am talking about) but the lines that has moved me the most than any other lines from any other song ,and it goes like:
                                                 "There's so many different worlds,
                                                           so many different suns,
                                                     And we have just one world,
                                                       But we live in different ones"

Brothers in arms is the song that I am listening to(now perhaps for the 6th time in a row)....
With a hope that a day will come when such boys will have equal chance of prospering as those who refuse to eat green-leafy-vegetables because they are not tasty and with a hope  that we all will live in the same world one day, not in different ones.......I'll go to sleep