AMAR, AKBAR AND ANTHONY IS BACK






Pic.: Natrajan Ramsubramani



As I write this Post, I can hear continuous devotional songs. Just outside our window, there is a temple dedicated to Datta Guruji. They were cleaning and decorating it for a week almost. Sharp at 12 in the night, we heard crackers cheering the Guru’s jaynthi… the soft devotional songs began to be played right before the dawn… They are so soft and pleasant!

In the night yesterday, I, also, saw a procession on the occasion of Eid-e-Milad… Prophet Mohammad’s birthday…

And, here, inside our housing complex, we have lit up the whole complex with bright stars, lanterns, Christmas tree and the crib. Tomorrow, the children and the ladies will be celebrating Christmas… Out of the total 140 flats in our complex, hardly five of us are Christians, another five are Muslims, four are Sikhs… and the rest – 126 of us – are Hindus!

Milind, one of our residents, shared on our society’s Whatsapp group, last night: “Amar, Akbar and Anthony is back”…

“It is time,” I smiled…


The beauty of our existence is – rather, should be – our harmonious co-existence despite our differences with regard to religious beliefs we hold, the cultural practices we follow, the food we eat, the clothes we wear… I think, the hallmark of our maturity is our tolerance and accommodating spirit… And, when I look at my own housing complex, where the whopping majority making us, the slim minority, feel safe, a part of its own psyche… respect and appreciate our faiths, cultures and habits… it really makes me feel proud… It reinforces the faith in humanity a hundred fold more…

I seriously feel, as a human race, we all aspire, deep inside our hearts, to live in harmony… appreciate, honor, respect and celebrate our differences. Peace and brotherhood, I think, is our natural thirst…

So, when some of us react sharply, fall prey to instigation and provocation and alienate from our natural state, it saddens me… But, I refuse to lose faith in humanity, in our most inherent state – to appreciate, honor, respect and celebrate our differences and co-exist here peacefully.

Birds live so in the vast skies and the fish do so in the vast seas... and, animals do so, too, in the vast jungles… When it is so, why can’t we  - supposedly the most evolved species on Earth – do it?

Do we need predators?

My friend Deepak shared, early this Christmas eve, this beautiful TATA  Sky ad:






Yes sir, let’s not lose faith in humanity…

Greetings on this Amar, Akbar and Anthony Day…


GERALD D’CUNHA
Video: YouTube


Comments

Abha Sah said…
Merry Christmas Gerry ... you have captured the cosmopolitan and truly secular spirit of your colony.

A very happy new year to all of you.
December 24, 2015 at 5:20 PM
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