It is once again that time of year when the entire family goes shopping!! Well, except the fathers…the rest of us, we just take an entire day off to do this. And this is the only time of year (other than our respective birthdays) that we enjoy it – honestly! Yanking dresses, trousers, shirts, graphic – T’s, coats, et. al. off of their hangers and rushing into the changing rooms to try ‘em on, reject them, frown at them, fall instantaneously in love with them, shove ‘em into shopping bags, look happily at the high five or low six digit bill, pay, have lunch or a snack at a café, then walk about till someone who still hasn’t picked their clothes to find something they like, lug around the bulging shopping bags, complain if the person can’t decide for a long time, and eventually return home, exhausted to the very bone marrow, and yet strangely elated that we all shopped for the one festival that we celebrate in our family! Though it really isn’t a celebration of the festival of lights for us, but a remembrance of our great-grandmother…all we know is that she passed away around this time, no exact date, so we just celebrate it as Diwali. With the new clothes always being the highlight of this period.
Which is what had me thinking about religion. About the festivals that others celebrate and we don’t. We, i.e. my family, celebrate exactly three festivals in the whole year – a very small number considering the actual number of Hindu festivals! And of those three festivals, one is the ‘harvest festival’ or Pongal (in Tamil), the others concern work – Ayudha Poojai and Pudhu Kannakku and are thus celebrated at our offices. Diwali doesn’t really count as a festival, but if it did then the grand total is four.
I’ve been asked the question several many times by different people under different circumstances and my answer has always been the same. “I believe, I have faith, I’m just not religious.” I visit temples, churches if and when I feel like, though my mother and aunts go every week. I do the praying and the seeking just not explicitly. But that doesn’t make me an atheist. I do believe in a higher power. I do believe in the likes of Heaven and Hell. And the Devil (that people call me evil because of the crazy things I say/do doesn’t really cut it, nor does the fact that I’ve always been called a little devil). I believe in good and evil. I do believe in God. I just don’t believe that if I pray for something I will get it. I don’t believe that if I don’t go every week to a temple/church I won’t be blessed, or I won’t be given a gate pass to Heaven. I just believe that there are the supernatural things, attributed to a heavenly being with great powers unmatchable by any human, that controls several aspects of and around life; I more firmly believe in the power vested within us. Each person. You’ve to work for something if you want it. You’re not going to get it if you just pray. It’s a simple thing to understand. If you’re good, good things will happen to you. Bad things will also happen, just so you can understand how good the good things are. Makes sense?? I hope so, because I’ve grown tired of explaining this to people I meet. There is a logical explanation for everything, but there is also the sense of a superior power watching over us. I believe in angels and guardians. I believe in the delegates of evil and the devil’s advocate. I just believe in the practicality and sense of a human being more. I rest my case.
Brining the subject to such an abrupt ending was not my intention but I’ve no choice. The more I explain the more questions I will be asked. The insane questions of the type “how can you say that?” I’d rather not ‘dignify that question with an answer’ because if you’ve understood me, and what I mean, you wouldn’t be asking me that question!!
Eek!
Oh well. Happy Diwali! And safe firework lighting throughout!! 
Filed under: Espresso - Black Cream and Sugar | Tagged: Diwali, faith, God, religion
