Sunday, December 26, 2010

Mt. Good Aiyer Boy

Most Indians are pretty serious about their religion. Go to any religious place in India, you will always find more people there than a supermarket. Religion for all seasons, religion for all reasons - that's the mantra here! Though we all are born into a religion, but the thing is religion is not genetically acquired. Rather, its culturally transmitted. For the sake of this blog, let's say if I was born in Iran, I would have been a Muslim. Or if I was born in Norway, then chances are high that I would be Christian.

My way of pleasing the God is not very expressive but I am a deeply religious person myself. Religion is great because it forms a belief system - which is extremely important to go through life. In my upbringing, I have had my share of epics, Vedas, Bhagvad Gita etc. It is tempting to think that I have turned out to be a good "Aiyer" boy. Watch your mouth Vinayakan! Being born in an Aiyer family is one thing but turning out into a good "Aiyer" boy is an arduous journey. One has to conform to so many rules that lot of Aiyer boys attain martyrdom in their valiant attempt to scale Mt. Good Aiyer Boy. It is not for the weak 'religioned' :-).

I don't understand, was religion supposed to be so complicated as its made out to be by our customs and rituals? Why can't religion be simple? At times my family wears religion on its sleeves which makes me a bit uncomfortable. My thinking is, we all should do our bit but the real trouble starts when we start acting as custodians of what was transmitted to us culturally.

OK, I am ranting. Need to get some sleep.

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