HUMANISM

ARE YOU CHRISTIAN ? MUSLIM ? TELUGU? MALLU ?

I grew up to two constant questions, " What is your religion? Are you really Tamil? ". Being someone who is too polite, I smile at the inquirer and say, " Does it matter? ". They would not budge however and question me again. Now, I have to explain them my origin because they wouldn't let this topic go. If this is one level of cringe, few would get eccentric and question, "what sect of people are you? ". For long, I didn't understand what they meant by it. Thanks to cinemas, I figured what they wanted to know at last until then I used to give people a confused look. 

"NEENGA NAMMA AATKAL EH ? "

(Are you one of us ?) 

 

No da, I am definitely not your segment the moment you ask me this. Remember, I am not a person who offends anyone, so the situation was particularly hard for me. I shy away and leave the spot somehow. What offends me the most is that, though most questions of these sort are from older generations, I encountered a few from people of my age too. But why? Why do you want to know this? Why does it matter to you guys? 

I know people who proclaim to follow PERIYAR yet adhere to mean practices of the society. It is nice to know your roots but the good part ends there if you do not utilize it for the betterment of others but use it for your own benefits. Wearing a black dress wouldn't suffice you to be one of his followers, you need to have mind that thinks rationally. There's no point in doing deeds to your favorite GOD if you don't intend to be a good neighbour, a good citizen, a good human being. 

We have been taught about India, its constituencies. India exclaims to be secular. But are we? We have witnessed the riots that upraised during early 2020 demanding to transcend people of certain segment out of the country. There was supporters and oppressors for the same in equal number. RELIGION plays a crucial role in here. 

Are we taught about HUMANISM in school ? Being someone who tops most of the tests in school, I don't remember hearing the term. May be our schools were busy teaching us how to design a reactor, how to dissect a flower, how to differentiate an acid and an alkali instead of what's essential to save the world. Had they had the intent,we would have come across the term HUMANISM much more frequently. But .... However, the TAMIL literature stressed the term in every possible way. To quote an example, 

"முல்லைக்கு தேர் தந்த பாரி"

( MULLAIKU THER THANDHA PARI )

I prefer to believe in people, love and science to the idea of SEVERAL GODS which is used as an easy pass to get into schools and colleges. I prefer having faith in HOPE AND COMPASSION to a figurine. I prefer believing in the presence of positive and negative energy to good and evil spirit. The next time I am faced with a similar question, my answer would be, " I AM HUMANIST". As I write this, I sincerely wish I am not faced with the question as I do not want people to cling to what's petty but broaden the horizon of their thoughts. 

!!! BRAND ME AS ‘A HUMANIST’ !!!