Sunday Musings

I think it was in 1997 that father called to say that he was bringing home our first car - a second hand Premier Padmini numbered MH-01-A-18. It was so unexpected, but such a delight that we had finally climbed up that step of the social ladder. It was also the one step that brought to us the freedom of private and convenient movement before it was usurped by traffic jams and lack of parking space a few years later.  Alas, none of us then knew how to drive!

Being in the car was most exhilarating back then. I would do anything for simply being in it. One of the things was visiting the Siddhivinayak temple, an idea I intensely disliked. But my parents' newly acquired habit of driving to the temple was too much of an opportunity to miss. I would drive with them, but wouldn't step into the temple, or for that matter out of the car.

The idea of god had been a source of much confusion for me as a child. I vaguely remember receiving a swift blow from a primary school teacher for asking why must one we fear god if he was the good guy. But my reasons for not wanting to step into a temple were simpler. One must take one's shoes off to get into a temple. And temples are often filthy places with a disgusting paste of mud, water, crushed flowers and bovine shit in abundant supply on the in and around them. Add to that the Indian habit of spitting indiscriminately. There was no way I was going to walk barefoot anywhere near a temple. While I did not think of myself as an atheist back then, I was surely not god-fearing.

An admission to being an atheist invariably leads to an entertaining comment or two - sometimes from the seemingly most unlikely people. Recently I shared a rendition of an ancient Aramaic prayer called `Kandisa´ by an Indian band called `Indian Ocean´ with an Islamic-scholar who specialises in Sharia law and a former head of the UN’s Rule of Law mission in Afghanistan. She instantly recognised the words `Aamenu Aamen´ in the prayer and wondered if I really was an atheist. I could not help but smile.