OH my God!

Sorry Blog! I have been ignoring you for long. It's because of the new job and the stress that comes with it. But I am back now with my new musing! This time , my co- writer is God! I have requested him to get into my musing and guide me a bit. Well! I am holding him accountable. All of his musings cite that he would guide. To take the path that he shows is up to us! That's one of the dialogues in the movie that I was watching and it is rightly titled as 'OMG ' or 'Oh my God'!

it's kind of a coincidence but just yesterday, a friend of mine was citing that this movie was a good one to watch. I have to admit that my tolerance level was a little stressed by the nature of our conversation. Like a true blooded Hindu, I get defensive about my god and beliefs when people from other faith question or mock any rituals or traditions. At that moment, you tend to forget about the concept of god as a universal being. Suddenly god takes the form that's provided to him from our end. Oops! To get back to what irked me.... Whenever I pass temples, I have the habit of bowing my hands and praying. It's my way of saying hi to my friend:)  because that's what god is to me. There was this one day when I forgot to do that and coincidentally, the temple bells rang at that very moment. In my silly head, I interpreted it as god saying hi to me. I was joking about it to my friend and instead of taking it in a lighter vein, he began talking of an acquaintance who had this 'two' second ritual of touching his ears and cheeks etc and muttering some words while passing a temple. I didn't like the way it was put across. So I gently reminded my friend that it's a Hindu way of paying his respect to his god, just like a Christian would draw a cross while passing a church. Then he began talking of this movie, 'OMG' and how good it was. But oh yeah, he mentioned that the movie was more to do with Hinduism than any other faith and that it depicted some of the idiosyncrasies in the rituals that Hindus followed. Well! again, a movie is good because of the content. I don't think it should get a religious touch while under discussion.  I once again got on the defensive and cited that it's going to be Hinduism as usual because it's more tolerant and wouldn't issue death warrants if someone questioned the traditions. In all of this, the martyr was Mr. God! He always gets compartmentalized! He's never god as he would like to portray himself He's either a Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim and so on! I realized that it's futile to drag him into a further discussion between me and my friend though I was tempted to dig through the other religious faith and pinpoint the problem areas. Hey, I am not God.Am human and socialized to think in a certain manner:). But this was one of the instances where I decided to ignore provocation!


We should never discuss god or religion or politics with followers of other faiths. No matter how broad minded we are, differences do crop up. I think that your beliefs should be your best kept secret. That way, your thoughts and pious feelings remain intact and sacrosanct for yourself. Coming back to this movie, 'OMG', I really liked a Hindi movie after a long time. Paresh Rawal played his role with utmost conviction. I laughed a lot while this movie was on. It's a great storyline. A man who's practical in life and a firm atheist is taking his case to court because the insurance company refuses to pay him for damages which are labelled as 'act of god'. I liked the way in which he registers a case against god and his dealings in the court of law while arguing his case. I loved Akshay Kumar's portrayal of god as well. I believe he's a fine actor who hasn't been given his dues in an industry which exists solely  on glamour and not good acting. That explains some of his silly stud like roles in the past. 

So bottom line is that faith is a very sensitive area and needs to be dealt with very carefully. I totally agree that feeding the poor is more important than pouring milk over the idol. My only ire is that some of those who stand in the line to eat these free food offerings  are those who can work towards a living. I have seen these beggars near my place who seem to belong to a particular institutionalized begging racket. They have uniforms in the form of dirty coats which each of them display. Their faces are packed with dirt in exactly the same way. None are handicapped in any manner.  Did god ask them to beg? Nah! You cannot be needy throughout your life if he has given you a perfectly functioning body. I have stopped giving alms to such folks now. One of my American friends send me a clip of an Indian man who spreads the message of love by standing at traffic lanes and displaying messages on a black board. I told my friend that the real India is about the struggling lower and middle class people who are working day and night to make ends meet. These kind of documentaries are made by those NRIs who sensationalize Indian poverty for either  filling their personal   coffers , to get a feeling of having  fulfilled their social responsibilities towards their motherland or just to have a topic to discuss with their 'white' friends! I guess my views may not be in synch with the faith I follow but I just do not like the idea of god or values being popularized for the wrong reasons.

Hinduism has a vast collection of teachings and ideologies which are not known to most of us because we don't understand our scriptures. Unlike other faiths, we don't have any standard classes for teaching the faith unless the person is specifically from the priestly caste. I guess I totally agree with the scene wherein the person asks the priest to explain the meaning of the mantras that he's reciting. I myself get curious at times. I think the bottom line of the movie is that we need to find god through good deeds and actions during our lifetime. I totally agree with that viewpoint. But it's not because we want to attain salvation but because we genuinely want to help those in need. We don't have any guarantee on life in this birth, so why worry about our next six lives! Lol!

I liked some of the broader issues raised by this movie but I won't comment on them in the blog. watch the movie yourself and you'd understand what I am referring to! Lol!