Belief!!

Today there was a religion and culture awareness drive at the center of campus. Animesh asked me to stop by his meditation booth. Its really interesting to talk to people about what they believe.
First I heard the advisor of the atheist group speak. One of the things he said and I quote was "We want to convert people from being believers in God to being believers in mankind". That was enough cue for me to go chat with him. I first asked him why he thought both of those were disjoint. We spent a little time discussing what the objectives of his organization were. It seemed like a liberal group that thinks of "God" as something not needed in everyday life.
Next up there were three students (or they looked like ones) who came up on stage. They had T-shirts that said "I am a whore" in the front and "Yet he married me" on the back. These were kids who believed in Christianity. The statement being made via the T-shirts was that even though they were drenched in the worst of sins (prostitution), Jesus Christ still embraced them (marriage being the ultimate communion). A radical way of accepting one's mistakes I should say. I had a bone to pick with these guys. People are pushed into prostitution for various reasons. How can anyone judge that that is the ultimate sin? I know, its deviating from the general message that he was trying to drive home. But sure enough, I went and spent a good half hour with this guy discussing what he believed in. Turns out this guy graduated from UCSB and now spends all his time evangelizing Christ. That is amazing to me!! How can one give up life as you lead it (especially during your youth) and spend it away evangelizing something that you neither know is true or can verify to be. His claim was that every life had a purpose and he feels that his purpose is being fulfilled in doing so. Fair argument at some level. However, as someone who has been taught to be skeptical about everything told to you unless proven, I sure would not go down that path. However, I do admire his faith. I wonder if I would ever be that devout to anything?

Now to the lighter side of things. I finally went to visit the Pagan booth. At the outset, let me point out that there was a cute girl manning (heh .. ironical) the booth. That was motivation enough. But I also wanted to seriously find out what this was all about. I was handed a couple of pamphlets about how they were witches and .. well, that pretty much lost my interest. So, Im not sure what else.
I am standing at the booth when a girl stops by. This girl asked the girl behind the booth if she would finally get back with her boyfriend. The girl behind the booth handed this girl a pack of cards and asked her to shuffle them. Then she picked three cards from the top of the pile and placed them on the table face up. One said "Be strong". The girl rattled advice on how this girl should be strong. The second one was Aphrodite (I forget what the card said). It said something on the lines of eternal love. The girl behind the counter concluded saying "you and your boyfriend meant to be together forever .. right now(I know .. I see the irony). . You should be strong. Focus on yourself. Make yourself feel good. Go to a spa or a massage parlor ..." etc etc.
Reminded me of the parrots coming out of their cages and picking cards back in India.
Looks like this is what cute women believe in .. their lives depend on a bunch of cards. No wonder I dont seem to find anyone who matches my thought process!!! :-)

All in all, it was a fun afternoon. Now, back to work!!

KAR.

Lazy long weekend!

Had a rather lazy long weekend. Celebrated Sankranthi with friends. Made Ven Pongal alongwith coconut and tomato chutney. Thats a big achievement for my cooking skills. Watched Russell Peters again. Man is this guy hilarious!

Watched the movie Raincoat (review). Interesting movie .. atleast moves away from the usual dance/song/action routine. However, I find it hard to appreciate or identify with the artificiality of the relationship between the two characters. How can two people who like each other have such egos as to not tell each other the truth?
Ok, before I get carried away with my rants, I thought both Aish and Ajay did a great job. Aishwarya seems to have gotten better. She was very good in Choker Bali as well.

KAR.