A Picture and A Few Questions…

The following picture was published in ‘Times of India’ on September 02, 2010 on the eve of Janmashtami. The picture shows a Burqa-clad lady carrying her son dressed up as Lord Krishna for probably some festive celebration at the school.

My mind has been abuzz with various thoughts ever since I saw this picture.

We often find vivid descriptions of rising communal tension and the unrest due to growing religious divide splashed across the print and electronic media whenever some unpleasant situation arises. From early on children are sensitized and ‘fine-tuned’ to see the ‘difference’ between people, but we hardly ever inspire our kids to believe that religion does not cause the divide and people do? 

This picture raised the following questions in my mind. Is this the face of revival of secular tolerance or is it just another routine that the parents must follow as directed by the school authorities? What about the scenario back at this woman’s home? Did a fundamentalist elder at home ask her not to dress the child as a Hindu God? Did the child enjoy this activity of being painted all over his body and the experience overall? What happened after he went back home? Did the child realize that religion is just a path to speak to the same divine force and that Allah and Krishna might just be two sides of the same coin? Would he have learnt that?

And more importantly, what did you tell your child this Janmashtami? Did you just say we were celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna or did you realize that it was also the celebration of the basic philosophy of being true to your work and duties and the ideology of love that Krishna stands for???

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I am reminded of another post I made last year on the same occasion. Click HERE to read on.