US AND THEM










The Holy Week just got over. 

Had I observed Lent? Did I fast? Did I reflect? Did I repent? Did I pray?

Did I attend the powerful Lenten missions? 

Did I attend the Way of the Cross? 

What about the solemn services on Maundy Thursday, God Friday and Easter?

Did I experience the ‘touch’ of Jesus?

Have I been ‘cleansed’ into a better human, after this Lent?


I was born into a Catholic family… and, it was my 60th Lent!

What if I was born into a Hindu or Muslim or Sikh or Buddhist or Jewish family?

What if I was born into a family of atheists?

What if my parents were hardcores – extremists or terrorists?


Every time I see the poison in the name of our faiths, I feel so sorry for the plight we are in… Us and them! Yes, woh log and hum log!

To me, it is lowest form of human evolution!

Do we need to be Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews and Zoroastrians or whatever it is… in order to be fine human beings? Do we need this ‘identification’… this sense of separation… this silent arrogance of being one-up… My religion and your religion… My God and your God… My way and your way?


The Sun, the Moon and the Stars are the same… The plateaus, planes and the mountains are the same… The rain and the rainbows, the nights and the days, the little butterflies and the giant elephants are the same… the grass is green for all of us, the sky is blue and the blood is red… yes for all of us. In the nights, we all go to sleep… and, in the day, we all go for work…


Then, why is this desperation to place ourselves up?

Is my God any different from anyone else’s God?

I find it so foolish, so cheap to entertain the very thought that I am different from anyone else when it comes to my faith. Yes, to claim that my religion and my God are superior to my fellowmen’s is the most regressive form of living…

God must be really laughing! “Not in my name… Not in my name!” Yes, He must be crying, helplessly!


Yesterday was Easter. I was talking to my elder brother who lives with my mom in our ancestral house in Mangalore, our hometown. He had just come after completing one of our oldest family traditions during Christmas, Easter and the feast of Nativity: Sharing food with a couple of our Hindu neighbours. My grandma, my mom and now my brother – yes, they have kept this tradition alive… Food is cooked more specially to share. And, ditto from the other end. The Hindu families, too, haven’t broken their tradition during Krishna Ashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi…

Us and them?

But, I know, it simply takes a drop of poison to pollute this beautiful way of life…
And, let me tell you this: each one of us carries in us that potential of pollution…
God, save us from falling from grace…Keep us just as Your innocent children… Show us the way of love and brotherhood…  Forgive us and help us to forgive…
And, please forgive ‘Us and Them’, who have just bombed, destroyed and killed in Sri Lanka…



GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.:Anadolu Agency/Getty Images


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