CHAPTER FIVE

I am amazed, I am confused, and I am unable to make my estimation. As I always do, I never judge people but try and relate to them. Though I try, there are times when I think I do not understand people at all. Let me narrate an incident.
A while back, I travelled out of Mumbai. The place I travelled to, Muslims were in a majority. All I could see were mosques and green flags, listen to their prayers [Ajaan]. The red roses in the mosque with fluttering pigeons all over. The men there were a colourful sight to look at. While they wore clean white kurtas, their long beards were dyed with exotic colours and their lips a bright red from chewing pan. Many more were a beautiful red like. … Everything a beautiful sight to see expect for black figures. Black Figures? With no faces and no one knows if they young or old after locking themselves inside the black shutter. They were all veiling their eyes too … Be it schoolgirls, college girls or women. That’s the traditional costume known as Burkha/Burka. Is the Post - Modern - Globalized India?
One of those women I saw was eating Dal Roti at a small hotel. To take a mouthful, she has to pull her veil - up with her left hand, while feeding herself with her right. I was disgusted with the guy who was sitting (probably her husband) with her watching over her ordeal to eat a mouthful of food. It’s also a feeling of helplessness to watch some suffering inside a locked cage. To my eyes, that guy looked like a joker having fun locking up an innocent bird.
What is caste? What is religion? Is it more essential than someone’s liberty? If you are tying up people like you do animals, what is the difference between a human and animal... ! But what intrigues me most is, are these women even aware of liberty?
Long ago, a woman talked about liberty. Actually she expressed her feelings for another woman who was brutally killed by the society. All she did was express herself and ever since she had been chased away from her house, and hiding her little heart and breathe from the world. All she wishes is to eat Dal Roti at her own will ... Unfortunately the so called superior Indian democracy cannot allow her to have it. Her name is Tasleema Nasreen and she sacrificed her entire life to independence..... May be others are not as ready.... and still eating their Dal Roti in darkness, inside the veil. Let’s hope, something will change in near future... after all Change is a law of nature. That’s what BHAGWATGEETA says too.