My Religion

This time i wanted to write about religion, specifically my religion.

Born and bred in hinduism, from a very young age i loved praying and had no issues with fasting. Afterall, vegetarian for a few days would not bother me at all. As i grew up, my belief was intact until i came back for good in Mauritius after my studies.

Coming back from studies in the United kingdom, it was difficult to adapt. I spent most of my early adult life, in a country where almost everyone was atheist and surrounded by friends who were too. But once i came back, it was fasting after fasting, praying. I didn’t mind. I was getting back to my roots, to my culture and was loving it at first.

Then after a couple months, i was struggling to get a job. Bare in mind that i was one of the most qualified person in my field. I was specialised in Advertising and Digital Media and it was just about to hit Mauritius, where i would think, it wouldn’t be difficult to get a job where, the industry is now evolving in the country. I struggle for months with endless interviews but not landing one single job. My family was supportive actually but what hit me the most was that everyone kept saying you will be fine, you just have to pray and leave it all in God’s hands! And i did so for 8 months. I gave up. I was even planning on going back or applying for jobs abroad.

In the end, i settle for a job in Mauritius with not a good salary but at least i was getting out there and that i was the time i stopped praying. I realised that, for over a year, i spent time praying and fasting but nothing happened. I was not doing anything wrong. i was striving to achieve something but would not catch a break. My parents were furious, after-all they are the conservative hindu, who will celebrate everything.

I then realised that why do we pray? we live normally, eating meat, chicken, fish and eggs daily but we deprive ourselves from that for a few days and pray. We do not drink alcohol where in normal days, a bottle of wine would be the most welcome during dinner. So why do we stop all that for a few days and get back to the same old afterwards?

I was working with a guy after a while, he was muslim and very much religious. He was smart. Smart as in he would, treat you as a King while sucking your money out of you. He would backstab people, he would give false promises to customers, every dirty trick in the book. However, ever since i known him, he would never miss Jumma on Fridays. The Friday morning, he would be the calmest, the friendliest person and in the afternoon, he would be back at his dirty tricks. The guy lived like a Prince. This was my real eye opener. It was then that i realised that most people trick themself into believing that they were good people while they pray.

I am not a bad person nor a good person. I do bad things. I do bad things which i get satisfaction out of it. I drink alcohol sometimes, i smoke cigarettes, which are bad things but does not harm anyone apart from me. I lie. Which is always a bad thing but i would never lie to cause someone trouble. I lie for my own benefit. We all do that. That means we are normal people. Then why should be behave differently just because we are fasting.

The guy who kills, cheats, lie and caused harm to others are normally the guy who lives his lie well. We can all say that they will pay for that at some point. But don’t we all?

I respect God or more like in a higher power. There are things which are inexplicable to human nature and can only be defined as an action of God. But It does not mean that we should trick ourselves in behaving a different way only during prayers. We are here live, by trying not causing any harm to others, by living in peace, by respecting everyone. I will teach my child, to live that way, the right way.

The guy who kills, cheats, lie and caused harm to others are normally the guy who lives his lie well. We can all say that they will pay for that at some point. But don’t we all?