Parents, Leave the kids alone

The last two weeks have been so hectic that while I had a million thoughts that I just had to pen down I was unable to do much about it. Luckily I have a breather today and here goes..
While we were watching Madagascar 2 the other day (hilarious movie, I must add) we caught the trailer of two upcoming Indian animated movies. Since my husband and I have dabbled in animation earlier, we have a keen interest on the subject. We were floored by the quality of animation that is currently in vogue but I had a view that funnily was also shared by the TOI review of one of the movies. Not that I need coraboration of an idea, but it seemed uncanny that I should have given a verdict that was mirrored by a supposed expert on the subject.
Well both of us thought that the movie lacked immensely on the fun quotient. The laughs were just not there. The whole movie revolved around morals, issues, mythology etc. but no riotous moments that tickle your funny bone, no witty dialogues, no crazy escapades - nothing to woo the kiddy audience that the movie is really trying to attract.
Which brings me to the real crux of the issue. Are we too preachy with our kids. Are we all too bothered about them learning all the right things through every medium possible. If it is a game - what kind of cognitive skills is the child learning, if it is a story - what is the moral, everything has become a teaching tool. A jigsaw puzzle doubles up as a mathematics teacher, a board game trys to teach you how to match and count - the list is endless.
Why dont we let our children have more FUN
I remember when we were kids we werent always hounded with information. We were let alone to just potter around, read what we wanted and generally fool around. But now my mother never leaves my daughter alone. She is always trying to teach her something. Even painting becomes a lesson on primary and secondary colours. I cant say I am entirely blameless either. I do tend to play word forming games, guess the spelling, who much does it add upto etc.. whenever I get a chance.
Mind you I am not saying that this is not required. I am just wondering whether there is an overdose at a far younger age than needed.
Why is there this drive amongst us to create prodigies or over smart kids - the smug look on the parent/grandparent's face is unmistakable when their ward has proven him/herself innaturally intelligent. No harm I must say as long as it is not overdone.
Maybe we need to let our kids laugh more often and romp about while they still have the time. Maybe every movie does not need to have a message. Maybe every game does not need to teach them something. Good fun should also be part of the agenda. Else we will have geniuses who cannot see the lighter side of life. And what a pity that would be!

Dont judge a movie by the review

My husband and I follow movies with a passion that sometimes serves as a lowest common denominator for our relationship - translated that means that even when we are at loggerheads on all other subjects movies and books are the two things that can keep the fabric of our marriage intact. Even when we are in he middle of a fight, the discussion about a book or a movie immediately serves to thaw the ice and bring back the comraderie.

We have our own parameters to gauge a movie to decide whether it merits watchng. This many times is in direct conflict with the popular opinion of most cinemagoers - but we are kind of used to it by now. We are wedded to certain directors and actors and creative teams and no one, definitely not some two pennies worth critic can keep us out of the cinema hall. Which brings me to the topic of critiquing a movie.

Have ypou ever wondered who decides that a person is worthy of critiquing a work of art - be it cinema, music or art. What gives them the credibility or moral authority to comment on some body else's work. Have they any masterpiece to their credit? Have they accomplished anything noteworthy in that field that they have presumed the right to comment on some body else's work. Every work of art has untold effort, innumerable tortuous hours of toil that have been sunk into it - it embodies a million aspirations and countless dreams. No one ever goes half measures while creating something. Of course not all of us are maestros. So some efforts become masterpieces while others stay mediocre.

However while one can make an informed opinion on a movie, I do not think one has the right or authority to pan something and decry somebody's efforts. Not unless that person has personally proven hinslef in that same field. They say that begruntled people turn into critics. I am inclined to agree. When one does not have it in him to perform he derives joy in deriding the guy who dares to try.

And what is even more pathetic is that the common man ascribes undue importance to one person's opinions, one person's taste without giving the craetor a fair chance. How many times have I heard people writing off a movie just because the review is not good. I have been pleasantly suprised scores of times when I have chosen to disregard somebody else's opinion.

Ayn Rand had classified people as first person and second person individuals on this same trait. Those who only rely on their opinions belong to teh first class. Needless to say they are the ones who blaze their own trail while the others merely follow other's footsteps.

Tackle terrorism at the grass roots

The recent Mumbai blasts shocked us all. We followed the action minute by minute live on television - perhaps the only time when the TV was on at our house all day. What was most disconcerting were the perpetrators of terror - no longer were they fanatic looking Muslims, bearded with turband in dish-dash. Now they were well-educated, urban looking youth - around 23 years old speaking fluent English. These could be guys whom we meet at super stores, who could befriend us and invade our homes. How do we then identify them in a crowd?

A nameless fear crept into our hearts as this could be a story that could be retold anywhere and anytime and we could all fall prey to this nameless fear that could strike at our backyard. People started pointing fingers at each other and ways were discussed to somehow eliminate these weeds from society. But since there is no foolproof way of identifying these weeds from the blossoms, any blanket method will definitely be kneejerk and far from effective.

Which brings me to the crux of the issue. Where are these weeds spawned. Where do regular Muslim guys become fanatic jehadis. Not at the local school or the playground or the hobby classe. Here they are merely taught to explore their talents and meet with other youth from different backgrounds.

However Madarsas are a different story alltogether. It is here that they are taught to differentiate themselves from the others around them. Here they are taught the tenets of their religion and taught to think of themselves as Muslims. It is here that the lessons of hatred are taught to them and their hearts are festered with the wish for revenge. What are they trying to avenge they know not - only that they have been indoctrinated to fight and die in the process. They have been brainwashed that true happiness awaits them in heaven and they shall be blessed by Allah if they kill all those who are opposed to their kaum.

Their state is much like the addict who percieves everyone as a threat to his existence and is willing to obliterate everything in his path.

What I want to know is why these schools of hatred and religios bigotry are being allowed to flourish when definite evidence has been found to their being hotbeds of terrorists. Why cannot the law be rewriiten to make them illegal. If the RSS and the VHP can be banned as organizations that spawn killers, why cannot Madarsas be banned as well.

If we snuff out the roots of these weeds we can at least try and contain the menace that will otherwise blot out our very existence.

Violation of privacy at its best

The other night out of sheer boredom and in order to stay awake for my nocturnal husband, I was surfing on the television. I cam across star world which used to be my favourite channel during the days of frasier Crane, Friends, Whose line is it anyways etc.. A sense of curiosity on what was currently happening on this channel made my stop and watch. There was a reality show going on and I decided to give it a dekho since there was no concern about continutiy. There was a suited man sitting opposite a lady dressed in a severely low necked dress looking rather ill at ease. The crowd was hooting at something she had just said that had supposedly won her a considerable amount of money. I then gathered the name of the show - "Moment of Truth" which supposedly tested how honest you were and how far you would go to win a 100 thousand dollars.

The questions asked were as intrusive as they could get and all desired to produce one effect - salacious pleasure for the audience to sate the voyeur that lurks in most of us. That a channel should try to pander to the peeping top- gossip monger in people stunned me. How far would they go for TRPs, i thought. They had interspersed the show with "highlights" of other shows where people were being asked if they had cheated on their girlfrieds, slept with people and every possible outrageously personal question you could think of. And undoubtedly the answer was scandalous. Yes people had cheated, yes they had slept around.. So we get to peek into the fetid underbelly of society. But to make an open confession out of it and in the presence of the very near and dear ones who the confession will devastate the most is ridiculous. There were actually live reactions of these people reacting to these "truths". You had a heart broken father listen to his daughter dosowning him, a sister who had to listen to her sister refusing to have her as her bridesmaid should she get married and that was supposed to be worth a hundred thousand dollars

What are getting to? Are we saying that emotions are calculable, can be valued with money and that breaking people's hearts is actually a sign of strength that requires rewarding? I think the entire thing is just a sign of how materialistic and self centered we have become as a society and how instant gratification and salacious fun is now justified by any violation - be it one of privacy or values

Nature the perfect balm to all your worries

Life has been pretty hectic the last month so have not had a second to write. Many thoughts slipped over each other and disappeared into the vast sea of consciousness, never to be expressed. How many times have we had a beautiful thought, an observation that desperately wanted expression but due to absence of an audience or a willing ear, it just fades away into the mundanities of day to day living. What a pity. Wish I had a recorder embedded in my brain to save these thoughts..

Normally my husband is my confidant, my sounding box who has to listen to my every thought but he is so busy of late that it seems criminal to disturb him with a passing thought.

When I used to be younger and life was less complex, I would retreat to the water tank at every opportunity. I would sit with my back against the wall of the water tank and look at the senset and converse with the gods. I have always believed that if there is a God then he resides in the sunrise and the sunset. Such beauty could only be possible by the master artist himself. And what would surprise me is how original each masterpiece would be..no two sunsets are the same. Sometimes the sun is in a hurry to slip away from the world and all its weariness and some other days he takes his time, painting a myriad colors on the canvas of the sky. As the skies were streaked with tongues of fire and the horizon took on an orange haze slipping into vermillion and then finally azure the stars would suddenly make their presence known, one by one. Isnt the fact that the stars are always there in the skies but visible only at night a classic example of Maya- an optical illusion.

The other sight that never fails to calm me is the sight of the waves crashing on the shore. I can sit for hours on the beach and listen to the sound of the sea. The sight of the frothing waves, the sound of the mighty walls of water beating down on the shore can drown every worry every sorrow and make your issue seem so insignificant in the general scheme of things. Issues that seemed mammoth in proportions can suddenly shrink to oblivion when we see things in proportion. The problem is that when we are in the issue it is quite like the frog in the well. The issue assumes collosal propotions and significance and threatens to blot everything else. However nature has the ability to set things back into perspective, to help us realise that we are only a small part of the great scheme of things.

True teamwork

Being wedded to a producer/director is sometimes great fun and sometimes a drag. It is impossible to plan anything with him involved as I never know his schedule. It is maddening when he sometimes wakes up to a supposedly free day and by mid day he is swamped with calls and sudden urgent meetings. What is worse is when he needs to travel at the drop of a hat with no known date of return.
But let me instead talk about the better aspects of my life. Thanks to him, I was able to sit through a shoot of his serial which features some of the biggest names in the Kannada film industry. I had this once in a lifetime opportunity to watch Dwarkesh, Chandrashekar and Mandeep Rai on the sets, as they were giving their shots. To say that I was excited was putting it mildly. I was not quite sure of what to expect, but nevertheless I was very suprised by what I got to see.
Despite being a huge name in the industry and a favourite amongst the masses, I didnt see a trace of ego, pride or for that matter any starry airs in Dwarkesh's behavior. Instead he was working very hard to improve the performance of every body else on the sets. He gave them tips, coached them on their dialogue delivery and more or less took over the direction of the scene from my husband's hands. He truly raised the bar and elicited sterling performances from the other senior stars - something that my husband could not have done without bristling a few egos. As for his part, he was superb. All he needed was a few minutes. He would close his eyes, rehearse his dialogue and then go for it. His shot was invariably fine at the first take. Such dedication and pursuit of perfection was enthralling and inspiring.
However what really amazed me was his desire for the project to succeed, the complete lack of insecurities and pettiness that sometimes makes people want to outshine others and stand out in a crowd. This was what sets perfectionists apart. They want the product to be perfect and they are mature enough to understand that the chain is as strong as the weakest link. So they try to plug all the holes and strengthen all the weak links. Their aim is not to stand out and perform alone but to perform as a team. Therin lies the sucess formula of any team. And cinema is possibly the biggest example of team work where everyone needs to excel for the project to be successful. It is not enough for the actors to act well, the cinematography, music and rerecording, the story and screenplay, the dialogues, direction, editing everything needs to make the grade for the film to be successful.
It is hence quite tragic that a film gets panned in a second without any due thought for the untiring efforts of all the unsung heroes behind the screen.

You need to come first..

For the last couple of days I have been recieving calls from friends of mine, all with kids who have grown up and husbands busy with their jobs, feeling lonely, unwanted and frustrated. Having spent the better part of the last 5-6 years bringing up their ward and looking after their homes, they now just dont know what to do with themsleves. On pouring their woes to their husbands they, more often than not, face apathy or worse - open ridicule at their mental weakness and a stern reprimand to pull up their socks and look at the brighter side of things. I can well identify with what they are going through because I was in the same place a few years back. I would get frustrated with my lot in life - at having to give up my career and life in general to look after my daughter and this anger would invariably creep into my interactions with her leading to a compounded sense of guilt and self-hate that can cripple the best of us. I would look to my husband for support and understanding but sadly he would never quite understand. He would exhort me to do whatever I wanted but for God's sake to be happy. (in short he wanted me to spare him my sob story)
That was when I decided to be self reliant. Not just financially but emotionally. I decided to take my life in my hands and make the tough decisions that I was earlier procastinating. I am not sure if I have made all the right choices and I am still trying very hard to accept the truth that it is not humanly possible to do right by everybody. No matter how hard we try it is not humanly possible to excel at all the roles that we play in life. But it is important to realise which roles are most important to our happiness and then work around and yes even compromise on the others. I decided that while my family and most importantly my daughter was important to me I also needed something that I could excel in. I wanted to try new things and learn something new daily. That is what makes me feel alive. I then went ahead and made my decisions accordingly.
I really think that we women need to focus on ourselves first. Only if we are happy can we make our child, husband or anybody else happy.

Women bartenders. So what?

The Times of India had reason to cheer this morning. Splashed across the front page was this supposed great news of women being henceforth allowed to work as bartenders . Heralded as a landmark legislation that would provide occupation to close to 50,000 women and break the last male bastion, it is being billed as some sort of reason to celebrate. As always you had the views of the glitterati echoing these sentiments.

Pray tell me what is so great about mixing drinks in front of an inebriated audience and how will it serve to liberate women. There was some judiciousness in the law that forbids women from working in a place that serves liqour as the male populace in our country is not liberated enough to view women with any degree of sanity once they are three or four drinks down.

I fail to understand why women want to defy every law that is formed to protect them in some ill-formed attempt to liberate themselves and get even with the men and then suffer the consequences. I understand not wanting to have restrictions imposed on what one can do but there is also a certain rationale in staying away from tricky situations. There is no bravado in advertising your presence in the jungle when you cannot ward off the advances of a hungry lion. Please understand that I am all for women's liberation but I certainly dont think that it can be achieved by women serving alcohol in bars. The only benefit will be that the bar girls will finally get their jobs back minus the dancing. But thats it. Why glorify the whole damn thing. Maybe it would be cool to see a women bartender at the Oberoi or the Taj but pray how many of those will there be. Instead what you will see is skimpily clad women plying their wares to a drunk audience to solicit business for afterwards.

If we really need to liberate women, get the girls from slums to attend school. Provide better healthcare to the women, ensure better birth rate and more importantly provide free childcare. Give them better options for respectable labor and provide them with the bare essentials at a subsidised rate, if not for free. Protect them from their drunken husbands and sons and give them affordable and clean housing options.

Then you will be talking. Mixing a drink just doesnt have the same punch.

Proud to be an Indian

My husband and I were having our usual late night banter on all possible topics under the sun, when we started talking about secularism and India. Actually it started with my relating to him the anecdotes of one of my colleagues who was born and brought up in Saudi Arabia. He was telling me how strict and intolerant they were in Saudi about religious beliefs and practices. During the month of Ramzan none of the shops and restaurants were open during the day..people would go for prayers leaving their shops unattended..no one was allowed to openly practise their religion..you couldn't celebrate a festival at home by inviting people over..idols couldnt be brought into the country..and other such mind boggling nuggets of information that I found completely horrifying and unpalatable.

That is when we commented on how secular India really is. It is the one place where you can practise and live by your religious beliefs with all indepedence and due right. This is the one country where we have been tolerant to all religions from time immemorial. We have embraced every new faith and given it refuge in this land. People of every faith have found India to be a safe haven where they will not be persecuted on the basis of their religion. More importantly we have absorbed them into our social framework so that they have become a part of our land. This is what makes India special. Never will anybody be told that he cannot worship his God. No God shall be decried, no religious called pagan. Except in certain times in History, never has there been a Hindu conversion drive. Because you cannot become a Hindu, you have to be born one.

I am not religious by nature and do not frequent temples. But that notwithstanding I think as Hindus we should be proud of our religion that is all accepting and tolerant and proscribes no rigid laws on what is right and worng and teaches us to do our duty and go with the flow while keeping an open mind about things.

It is hence with digust that I view the recent acts by supposed Hindu harliners who are transgressing this very essence of Hinduism to further their selfish, political agendas. Let them not do in in the name of this timeless religion that was the forerunner of environmentalism in its reverence for all natural forces and elements, that realised the plurality of religious beliefs and truly understood the omniscience and omnipresence of God.

Finding the answers..but at what cost

The tora-tora spun round and round, faster and faster. The world was spinning with it, distorted and blurred. She liked it this way. It blotted out the unpleasantness and unfairness of reality. The incessant spinning somehow brought her restless mind, constantly seeking the happiness that had always eluded it, the solace that it could not find in the real world. Her everyday turmoil and frustrations were somehow pushed to the back of her mind. She would deal with them tomorrow.

She was living for the moment – this moment filled with the uninhibited screams and laughter of others, probably like her, dealing with their own internal demons. Her parents, disapproving and judgmental, stayed tangled in the spinning trees. Her husband, whose hand she had held in her pursuit of happiness, but who had let her down miserably, was lost in the melee. The thought of him brought tears to her eyes, and these tears of sorrow mingled with the tears brought upon by the breeze, trickled down the tired lines on her face to fall on the plump, dimpled cheeks of her daughter.

Her daughter looked up and smiled at her.

For an instant all her worries dissipated. This is all that matters – she thought. This child I shall rear and nurture. I shall give her my all – she shall be my vindication, my deliverance from this unfair, unforgiving world. I shall be her shield against all the disappointment, all the tribulations that life throws up – she pledged. She clutched her closer to her heart.

And then the tora-tora suddenly jerked and her hand loosened around her baby. One split second she tried to regain her hold on the child and the next saw her child falling into the void below. Her eyes widened in horror and her reflexes snapped into action. No time for thought or rationale, no time to reach out for her confidante sitting next to her - the man who had promised her a new life in a new city far away from her disappointments, her one ray of hope. No time to discuss or decide – the plunge had to be taken, it was her onus no one else’s. And the mother did the unthinkable.

Unthinkable? She thought. Why, it is the most natural thing for me to do – she reasoned even as she hurtled down to the ground – the dirt streaked grass and the muddy slush closing in on her at breakneck speed. If it is a choice between her life and mine, of what use is my existence if not to protect and save her? A million times shall I lay down my life if it can save her tender existence.

But where is the apple of my eye? Her eyes searched desperately for her child. She hasn’t hit the ground, thank God for that – if there is a God that is. In the instant before her head bludgeoned against the ground she looked up to see her baby safe, ensconced in the hands of a stranger, drenched in her own blood but definitely alive – her traumatized wails bore evidence to that. She smiled her last smile and thanked the living God in words that stayed in her throat – unsaid, unspoken. She had finally seen God. She had finally understood the reason for our living – and why there was still hope for tomorrow. She was finally at peace – her search had ended.

Mother and Child

Which is the more painful of the two I wonder?
For the mother to lose her child or the child to lose its mother

Neither should happen, I suppose you will answer.
But life doesn’t work by the rules of the book
It is governed by something higher and stronger
Merely leaving us to put the pieces together

Impotent and futile are our raves and rants
The power above just doesn’t understand
His sense of humor seems all skewed
His plan like a puzzle that leaves us confused

A childless mother, a plundered womb
A mirthless void, a life of gloom
A knife through the heart won’t pain as much
As the sight of your offspring covered with blood

Anything is better, may death befall
The luckless mother who has to cleave her heart
Forever bound are mother and child
The umbilical cord just never dies

But what of the child who stays alive
To watch his mother kissing life goodbye
There can’t be a life worse than that
Of an orphaned child with no one to care

No mother’s hugs, no kisses on the brow
No nags, no scolding, none of the above
What joy is childhood without the warm touch
The comfort of a mother to hold your hand

No bedtime stories, no tasty savories
No special smiles, no shared giggles
Nobody to stand by you no matter what
Nobody who showers unconditional love

A heartless God it must take to separate
The earthly magic that even He can’t recreate

Maybe India Inc has the answer...

I was sitting in the waiting lounge of a large MNC in the city and since clients have this endearing habit of making you wait for hours before they deign to meet you, I had quite some time on hand with little else to do but twiddle my thumbs and watch the goings on. As I watched people come and go, it struck me that it was amazing the number of people who rub shoulders daily in any one of these MNCs. The variety of people employed here come from every nook and corner of the country and in some cases outside it. Here they meet and converse daily, work together on complex accounts with a common goal in mind. I am sure their background is furthest from their mind. It doesnt matter which caste you are from or what your religion is. At the very most you could be labelled North or south Indian but that is more to do with your fluency with Hindi than anything remotely communal. But with more "south" Indians speaking fluent Hindi (I am one of them) even these walls are gradually disappearing.

Isnt it amazing that it takes a foreign entity to truly unite us. It takes an MNC to bring us together on no other account but our talents and our skill sets and then make us play to our strengths for the common good. Cheers to all the Intels, IBMs, Microsofts etc out there. If nothing else you bring out the Indian in us. You demonstarte that when we come together forgetting our diverse backgrounds and throw ourselves into anything - there is nothing that we cannot achieve. You prove to us that India has what it takes to win - we just have to spread the revolution, the so-called urbanizing to other parts of India as well. We have to recreate Bangalores and Mumbais in other Indian towns. We need to make economic growth and betterment more important that petty issues like where we come from or which caste do we belong to. Then India will be unstoppable.

Are we a little too tolerant?

I woke up yesterday morning with a start. My entire house was reverberating with some seriously LOUD cacophony that was threatening to burst my ear drums. I jumped up to investigate the source of this din. It turned out to be some celebration or commemoration that some community decided to observe in a vacant plot right behind our house. This auditory rampage comprised of an eclectic mix of Hindi songs of the kind that even the music director cringes when he has to listen to them, live music from the vocal cords of somebody who must be deaf or has been seriously mislead about his vocal skills and some devotional songs that woe betide everybody decided to join in. Mind you I have nothing against celebrations or music. But I fail to understand why it has to be imposed on everyone within earshot. My daughter sprang awake (well that was one good thing that came out of the episode) with a complain on her lips. Why cant we go and stop them, she asked. She even suggested that maybe the police can be involved in stemming this blatant violation of personal space. I chose my words carefully coz frankly she had voiced my very thoughts. But somehow it seemed rather harsh coming form her. So I adviced her to be tolerant as this land was as much theirs as it is ours. She seemed to get it and thankfully didnt come back with an intelligent retort (as happens usualy).
Which brings me to the crux of my rambling. Are we a little too tolerant. Have we been schooled in patience and adjusting to such an extent that we have now been reduced to become mute spectators to most artrocities.
We tolerate people who litter right in front of our door step. We tolerate people who defile our historical monuments with stupid odes to their so called romances or worse still some pornographic doodling. We cringe in silence when we see brats littering the place with beer bottles, empty packets. We tolerate people spitting at will, relieving themselves aginst any wall or tree- sometimes right next to designated places thoughtfully constructed by the government. We turn a blind eye to bribery, incompetence, mediocrity. We never call the advertised numbers to report rash driving for if we started doing so, we would probably do little else all day. We quitely swallow the indignity of people rubbing themselves covertly against our back in buses and trains, we shrug our shoulders in dismay at delayed school vans, we waste our breath with the delivery guys when LPG cylinders dont come to us on time or when they unduly charge us more than stipulated. I could go on and on..
Are we being a little too tolerant. Should we start imposing and more importantly enforcing stringent limits on what is allowed and what will not be tolerated. If we keep cribbing about the state of the traffic, the filth on the roads, the ineffeciency of our government but stay mute everytime a violation happens in front of us, arent we condoning the act and in essence being party to it. If we want to transform our country into a Singapore for example then we need to emulate their stict laws on anti-littering or anti-corruption. We all need to put a stop to "adjusting" and start becoming intolerant to all the small "crimes" that keep pulling India back.

Keeping the faith

For the last couple of weeks I have been reading about communal riots in various parts of India - first in Orissa, followed by UP and then in Mangalore. While communal riots are not uncommon in India what is disturbing is that this time it is between the Hindu and the Christian community which has so far coexisted in harmony over so many decades except for stray incidents in the North east.The entire brouhaha seems to be about the convesrion drive embarked upon by the missionaries through bribery and various other unfair means. The Hindus want to keep their kind in their fold and stem this supposed exodus to another faith.I have a few questions here. First what is religion to us and to what extent does it matter in our day to day lives. When compared to three square meals, clothes on the body and a roof above the head, I think it ranks pretty way down in terms of priority. Consider a typical so called low-caste or tribal individual - he is scorned by his fellows and sees no way out of a life of poverty and exclusion. He then comes upon people who are willing to address his immediate issues - they give his children free education and of the type that is relevant (namely English medium education), provide him with some employment and most importanty dont discriminate or persecute him because of the conditions of his birth. Which person can resist this passport to a dignity. From an unfriendly, apathetic religious fabric he is transported to a very active, close knit network that prays for him, helps him and his family. Believe me, I dont think it matters to him that he needs to bow before a Jesus instead of a Krishna, in order to get this. For him it is a treachery that is pardonable in his eyes.If the Hindus want to retain their brothers in the fold then they need to do more than protest. They need to give them viable options that take care of their day to day needs. They will have to offer these lesser born mortals the feeling of belonging and acceptance, affordable education options, medical help, social security and a social fabric that is responsive and helpful. If that is possible then maybe they will not see the need to convert to another religion and disown the Gods that they were taught to worship since birth.