The beautiful and the secular

I begin with the beautiful aspect of last week. And it feels bizarre to say that that good, wholesome peaceful feeling in me and a lot of other Keralites, was created in the first place by a death.

And not just some usual death. Last week, one of Kerala's finest bi-lingual writer died.
Kamala Surayya. A strong woman, and the epitome for secularism. She was born into one of Kerala's most established families. One that was amongst the founders of a leading newspaper. She was born into an upper caste Hindu family and later on in life converted to Islam. That created a huge chaos back then in Kerala. She was under tremendous pressure from several to take back her decision and got infinite threat calls and all.

Anyway, that's not the point. The charm of all this was how gracefully her children accepted her decision. So there she was. A converted pious Muslim living under the same roof with Hindus. No ill-will, no bitterness.

And when she died. All her family, her Hindu children and her2 adopted Muslim sons. all of them together offering prayers together, shoulder-to-shoulder, praying for her.

Isn't it beautiful?

That this happened at the very time when there is so much fights happening in the name of religion?

So what if I'm Muslim and you happen to be a Hindu or Christian or Parsi or heathen or anything?

As long as we understand that beneath all this difference, we are all just the same. What matters?

So what if there are all those fanatics imagining themselves to be oh-so secular? We can show them the way and show them what true secularism is. Like this one incident.

All we have to do is put some effort into reaching out and being there for others. Don't bother what their race is, what their religion is or anything. Because in the end, nothing else matters, ya know?

Reaching out, with lots of hope for a much more happier,stronger,safer and secular India,
Raphael. I dont give a damn what god you believe in, I just love you all!