Co-existing is the best way to be
Six months back I was out on a late evening walk and there was a sudden hunger pang. This was a period where COVID-19 was around in a full swing and bakeries and restaurants in my vicinity, in Hyderabad city, India were opening up. So I went to the bakery which I used to frequent. The bakery had a different look and a new name and it looked more chick then before. So I entered the place and asked for a vegetarian hotdog. The new owner, a Muslim elderly man, with a skullcap and beard welcomed me very warmly and expressed gratitude. Apparantly they had opened the same day and I was one of the few customers of the day. His son made one of the best tasting hotdogs I have eaten. The son went inside the kitchen and I started a conversation with the elderly man.
I asked him, “The hotdog is so delicious. What is the secret?”
He looked at me with a warm infectious smile and said, “It is all Allah’s blessings. We only buy best of raw materials”. Then, suddenly he eyes got moist and in a half frenzied speech he said, “We have to show our face to the creator. This bakery is nothing. The objective in life is to prove your worth to the creator”. I suddenly remembered the sermons from mosques in my hometown, Agra (in North India) where in high octane emotive voice, the preachers used to glorify the virtues of Islam. And i used to get curious of this style of preaching or speaking.
I was a bit surprised about this emotional frenzy of this bakery owner. Then he said, in a little authoritative yet emotional voice, “If you are interested in the way of Allah, please join me next weekend. There is a congress of Islamic scholars happening. Not big or great scholars. People like you and me who would discuss the path of Allah. We believe that everyone born is a Muslim so I insist that you come”. It was like an indirect invitation to convert, I imagined.
I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to sanitize my hands. I got up to do that through the sanitizer spray kept at the bakery. He stopped me and said, “Allah only allows you to wash hands by water. This sanitizer has alcohol, forbidden by the almighty” and he directed me towards the wash basin. I washed my hands and when I was wiping the hands with a paper tissue, he smiled at me again. That warm smile was in a strange way intimidating me. He said very politely, “Allah forbids wiping hands before having food. You should only do it afterwards”. I was totally zapped, upset, confused and angry at the same time. I thought, “How dare he link everything to his religion”
Fortunately another customer came and I ate my hotdog in peace. Once I was done and was paying my bill through an online app, he looked at me with that warm yet piercing smile and asked, “So , are you going to come for the meeting?”. He continued, “I promise you that you will come back as a changed man”. I looked at him and replied gently, “I am sorry Uncle but I am busy next weekend with something” and I came out of the bakery, without looking at him.
This incident made me feel a bit of consternation within me. On one hand I was feeling a great level of anger against that man and on the other I was guessing that the old man was actually conditioned by his beliefs. I was in these double thoughts for few days till the time I came to one conclusion that all religious people are bound by strong beliefs, whether they were Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs. There are religious zealots in all religions and they are facilitating a lot of wrongdoings in the world. And of course Islam is more codified than any other religion and that brings in bit of “intensity of belief” within the followers. This awareness was a relief for me. So, that old man was doing what he was conditioned with and that had influenced him so much that he was perhaps an activist for introducing people towards Islam. White supermacists and Hindu fundamentalists equally carry muddled beliefs.
This event is not much significant to me as it takes all sorts to make this world. The best bet, even considering this incident is to work towards co-existing and accepting each other’s lucuna, vulnerabilities and inadequacies. In many ways everyone is not perfect. It is a continuous struggle to be better in various things including our behaviors, actions or decisions. That old man was exercising his freedom to invite me and I was exercising mine in not accepting it. Being an agnostic, I may have found this episode wierd but nothing more than that. This was a transaction which I did not participate in and that settles the mattar.
Religion plays a big role in people’s consciousness and from that point of view, a communal harmony is always a fragile proposition, which the political leaders play around with all the time. Appreciating co-existance and accepting inter-dependency is the only way to achieve it. There is no other alternative. But of course, I have not visited that Bakery ever since because I am uncomfortable to have a religious discourse while I have my snack break.
