Nerve Endings Firing Away

I know I have been away for a godforsaken long time. Nope, I haven’t decided to quit regardless of how many people who would like me to or on the other hand, even the number of people who would beg me not to. I just have been plain busy trying to handle my academic load which didn’t seem as heavy until I dived right into it. It doesn’t sound as glamorous as taking a break for trekking through the Amazon or even training to fight with the crocs after poor ol’ Steve got stung by a nervous stingray.

Did you hear about the people who vandalized the stingray page on Wikipedia? It is almost like burning an effigy of the Pope when he quoted the long-dead Byzantine emperor who said bad bad things about Muhammad. Probably the Pope deserved the reality check and apologized for something he never said. But such is the illogical world of organized religion, it gives the idle (or easily distracted) mind something to chew on. I have been getting increasingly disillusioned with religion. I anyway wasn’t your typical religious freak who could quote a Biblical verse for anything that happens in this world or join my hands in prayer each time I pass a roadside temple.

I swear I had a friend who would do that regularly in a public bus. One second, we would be arguing about the hot-quotient of a classmate and the next instant, he would abruptly stop and join his hands in deep reverence in the general direction of a passing makeshift temple atop a hillock. I would just sit there strumming my fingers and feeling tempted to join in but I had to handle the stares from fellow passengers. Nah! I wasn’t embarrased…or wait! was I? I could never tell but I knew that I couldn’t do that. I remember being curiously interested in the Ram Janmabhoomi crisis but got bored as it led to demolition of the mosque and subsequent violence. It just wasn’t worth it. It didn’t fit my view of Hinduism anyway. But at the same time, I was thankful that my religion at least gave me the luxury of interpreting my personal beliefs in religion. Purists might believe that Hinduism is way too lax and has led to complacency and growing apathy but it has lasted thus far and honestly, if something more abstract comes along and replaces it, I won’t miss it much. Like capitalism, I believe it is the less evil option probably due to the large amount of followers who aren’t rapidly religious.

Anyway, I’m back for what it is worth and I promise to write regularly and probably in a less rambling manner as I have done above.