Be proud, we are hindu.

Be Proud, We are Hindus !!

I was about 10 years then and hated my mom accompanying me till school, more to avoid the shame-shames and goof ups from classmates then to my own daring to go alone. My school stood 1 or a half more mile distance from my abode. The path was not straight, it traversed many gullies, muhallas, meadows, playgrounds and few big roads as big as highways. One fine day, I rebelled and decided to go alone to my school.There was a difference. When I walked alone, I saw everything around me and when I went with mom, I talked about everything that happened in school and everything I did at home. That talk lacked any insight. But now when I walk alone, I could see with my eyes broad open. The distance seemed to be never-ending today.

'Garv se kaho hum hindu hain !!' (Be proud, we are Hindus !!)

This slogan was over all the walls, written in bold red paint. Sometimes I felt very secure that I lived in hindu-majority area, protectorate of Shiv-sainiks. I was not educated enough then to understand the separatist overtones in the slogan. Thanks to my textbooks, that time, I was always overwhelmed by the more humanitarian side of insights then to the separatist ones. Chankya said,'Never trust a politician, any human with weapons, a thief and women'. I don't know about others but one should trust Chankya and never trust a politician. Fifteen twenty years ago, they were against muslims. Today, they are against uttar pradesh and Bihar people. Tomorrow, they will seperate east maharashtrians from the Konkans. Separatists don't have the limit. There is no limit to division. Scientists are breaking their heads on disintegrating substances, molecules, atoms, neutrons, electrons, quarks, strings and what not. There is no limit to this endless separatism. But unification is one shot, complete and sustainable. It gives just one slogan to the whole mankind, 'All human are born equal'.

This single slogan is superset of all sects, all societies, all languages and all the religion, known to mankind for creating a dividing bar amid people of same blood. 'Garv se kaho hum hindu hain!!'. This slogan has very far reaching impact on people who read them every time they come accross it. Especially, the children who just learned reading and writing, will read it aloud everytime, they come accross it. They will ask its comport to their parents. Then the onus will lie with their parents to align their children to the correct philosophy, to the correct outlook.

One of my neighbor, I called him 'chacha' and sometimes 'nawab chacha', brought his family from one of the remote district of uttar pradesh. He had fathered 8 children and husbanded two housewives. However, he shifted with only his latest housewife to mumbai. His eldest son was as tall as six feet and named 'Charan'. I did't know, Never did I intend to find out,why such hindu name was given to a muslim boy. He was nice guy indeed. He nurtured my appetite for learning new things. He taught me few alphabets of urdu and I could write my name in it. Surprising part for me was that urdu is written in right-to-left fashion unlike all other scripts known to me. Charan was occassionally distraught by the behaviour of her step-mother. My parents occassionally discussed the agony of Charan, about the step mother and her atrocities. I knew, he won't be able to sustain out here in mumbai, not because of riots and situation in my area but for her 'kind' and 'loving' mom.

Nawab chacha had two sons and six daughters. The younger son was about my age and got admission in my school. By that time, I was well verse with the traversals to my school, with all the alternatives, spots and junctions in between. In all, for a thirty minutes way, I took one and half hour. Now I was no more alone, as Mudassir, the other son of Nawab chacha joined me to my adventures to school. And so joined the lady, Mudassir's mom. She was typical muslim lady from a rustic background. Rarely, one could find her mouth without Paan. and a bucket to keep various ingredients to prepare paan. My parents never had any such habit, even though it was quite benign to the health but my father believed not to waste money on eating such things that add no value and are addictive. Mudassir's mom had many contacts in Dubai, Saudi and Qatar. Her step brothers, blood brothers, mamu(maternal uncle) everyone resided in bahargaanv(Foreign country). She was very talkative and I was very reserved. So she got a prey and my travel time to school shortened to 20 minutes from one & half hour. She talked a lot about Saudi, Dubai, Qatar, Iraq and about the electronic trinket her kins get from there. I wondered where these places are and what it takes to be there. From her talks, I was ascertained that people who go there earn lot of money and come back with lot of gold & digital electronic stuffs.

After few months of accompanying, Mudassir's mom realized that we could go to school alone and she stopped coming with us. Me and Mudassir, our hand-in-hand and water bottle in other, were coming from school and talking about happenings in class, until someone stopped us. They were couple of people and resembled localite maharashtrians. Few of them, had chandan/kumkum on their forehead.

'What is your name, Chap?', asked one of them, in a typical marathi tone.

I glanced over other people behind. Two of them had swords, they looked like warriors in Mahabharata, others had hard polished sticks.

'Dint you listen, What's your name?', He repeated and one of them gestured the sword forward.

I was frightened.. No sooner, I drenched my pants and stuttered, 'Durgesh'.

They muttered something among themselves and said, 'Don't move around this area. It could be dangerous. Now go. Swiftly go home.'

I was old enough to elicit that my name saved Mudassir. Just to avoid such situation again, I decided to refer him as 'Pundit' whenever I find such people or any unknown person around.

My father started to put kumkum on his forhead to patently look Hindu and avoid any shameful situation like being examined for circumcision in public. Nawab chacha always looked fearless and carefree but the bad time was yet to arrive.