After spending some time in the city (3 weeks to be precise) - I feel the city and the people here are a little too much obsessed with religion. I hope the reader doesn't get me wrong, I know I am an agnostic - and I have nothing against people who hold religion/God in high regards in their life. But there has to be a limit to every habit before it can be termed as an obsession. The limit varies, but the base is that it should not interfere with the work you are supposed to do. I had noticed the plethora of make-shift worship places so one evening I thought I would count the number of such places. In my 10 min of walk - I had come across 10 such places, considering I was just counting the places on my side of the road that is way too much. If you have a temple every 10 steps that does speak for itself. But then I thought maybe its just the area I am living in - Today I had a chance to visit an old Kolkata market (Bara Bazaar) and I saw pretty much the same thing. We had to cross some muslim area's and then into the market area - Every corner I was able to find a mosque or a temple. Apart from this, I have noticed the families around going for small things that they believe they would benefit from - for eg. scattering food for the pigeons every day, feeding the cow etc. Considering the time one would spend on a regular basis over these activities - (thinking from a practical point of view) can most definitely be utilized elsewhere. The city progresses if the people progress, a stubborn attitude causes the society to be stagnant and with a little help of our old friend entropy causes it to move backward.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Kolkata Diaries - A city obsessed with God?
After spending some time in the city (3 weeks to be precise) - I feel the city and the people here are a little too much obsessed with religion. I hope the reader doesn't get me wrong, I know I am an agnostic - and I have nothing against people who hold religion/God in high regards in their life. But there has to be a limit to every habit before it can be termed as an obsession. The limit varies, but the base is that it should not interfere with the work you are supposed to do. I had noticed the plethora of make-shift worship places so one evening I thought I would count the number of such places. In my 10 min of walk - I had come across 10 such places, considering I was just counting the places on my side of the road that is way too much. If you have a temple every 10 steps that does speak for itself. But then I thought maybe its just the area I am living in - Today I had a chance to visit an old Kolkata market (Bara Bazaar) and I saw pretty much the same thing. We had to cross some muslim area's and then into the market area - Every corner I was able to find a mosque or a temple. Apart from this, I have noticed the families around going for small things that they believe they would benefit from - for eg. scattering food for the pigeons every day, feeding the cow etc. Considering the time one would spend on a regular basis over these activities - (thinking from a practical point of view) can most definitely be utilized elsewhere. The city progresses if the people progress, a stubborn attitude causes the society to be stagnant and with a little help of our old friend entropy causes it to move backward.
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