Today i, after a very long time, rode a bicycle, and after a VERY long time, rode a scooter.

The scooter ride was FUNNNNN!!! It was an archaic Vespa, which i rode around the town, running errands. Having ridden a bike for SO long, the scooter was slightly strange (and exciting) to my reflexes. The motorcycle has gears on the left foot, rear brake on the right foot, front brake on the right hand, and clutch on the left hand. The scooter has the clutch and the gear on the left hand, the front brake on the right hand (absent in my ride) and rear brake on the right foot. The left foot is free for you to tap to whatever tune the ancient piece of engineering puts into your head. The tune, in my case, was one i'd picked up from the flower shop i'd just been to. It was 'Bachna eh haseeno'. Ironical, i'd say.

Most of my aquaintances who were passing-by were expecting me to be embarrased of the scooter, pointing at me and laughing. Anyway. The scooters in India has mostly been need-fulfillers, and so little attention has been paid to their appearance. I once saw a Lambretta (which did once use to be a hotseller in India, but the model selling used to be quite similar to the scooters i am talking about) in Delhi, being ridden by a firang chick wearing a kurta. The whole deal was looking pretty good, but the most beautiful thing was the scooter (followed CLOSELY by the firang, and the other way round if the firang is reading this :D). Nearly two third as broad as a vespa or a chetak or a super, it was painted in two tone in metallic car-paint, and had a very cool drub to its engine, that gave it a very classy feel. Somehow reflects on our hand-to-mouthedness, on the medium- and lower-middle class's struggle to survive. And the new and emergent fleet of 'cool' scooters and scooterettes probably shows how much the development has actually trickled down to grassroots. People are looking to more than just to 'meet their needs of transportation'.


I like scooter ridin on a weekday morn,
'Cause it doesn't remind me of anything
And while i'm at it i love to keep blowin its horn,
'Cause it doesnt remind me of anything.

Being every you, i see myself;


And i see myself being no you;

But most importantly, i am no me.

(Chunnu doesn't want to go for coffee; so here goes my first page)

Religion

(Quite a 'heavy' thing for a first page, eh?)

1.) When asked by Rod Liddle in the documentary The Trouble With Atheism "Give me your views on the existence, or otherwise, of God", Peter Atkins replied "Well it's fairly straightforward: there isn't one. And there's no evidence for one, no reason to believe that there is one, and so I don't believe that there is one. And I think that it is rather foolish that people do think that there is one."

2.) When asked (and i have actually witnessed this dialogue personally) how he could believe in the existence of God (being a scientist, probably), having never seen, felt, touched, or talked to Him, Kalam said to the questioner, "I, just like you, have never seen, felt, touched, or talked to my (and for that matter, your) brain either".

When a friend of my cousin, asked me once if i believed in God, i said "No, i don't". That was like 2 years back. About a year back, i drew up this figure to best describe my religious beliefs:

This was some time back, not a year back, maybe 9 months, when some 'really good things had started happening in life'. Or so i thought. i had actually placed a wager with myself, saying that if a certain something happened, my faith in a higher being would be restored. It did happen, and my faith was, in fact restored. Columns titled 'religious beliefs' in all forms i filled started to read "Spiritual". But then that thing became a control freak, started controlling my life and made me a miserable and, for the first time in my life, pitiable creature. More importantly, it came to me because of the very wrong reasons. Ergo, i broke up with that thing [:)]. And after this fiasco, i think i've turned plain atheist once again.

I never sat down and analysed my religious beliefs' trends before this. Before i was atheist the first time, i was actually 'more than' spiritual (quotes subject to reader's belief, in place only if he is not religious); i was religious. I used to be a devout brahmin, i actually used to pray 2 times a day, every day, without fail. But that was before i (due to no fault of my own), fucked up my 12th grade exams; i mean, i used to ONLY STUDY (or try to). And i know that i am not of low intelligence.

But then it all does come down to every man asking: if there is God, why is there so much suffering? And it is not just i who has suffered. I mean, come on, the Tsunami, the earthquake(s), the terrorist attacks.

Ah! The terrorist attacks (sorry for the apparent lack of sensitivity). Brings a very different perspective towards religion to the fore. I once read a quote in the orkut profile (of a girl i SO admire and totally want to meet), and it went thus: Good men will do good, evil men will do evil. However, it takes religion for good men to do evil.

Anyway.



I don't want to, but whatever i have written thus far is only forcing me to quote the oft repeated cliche: If you have had a fall now, don't lose faith; God has bigger things in store for you. What if this is true? What if the 'He' is actually, umm, there (!), and is actually trying to teach you stuff through these otherwise major catastrophes?





My answer is: Does it even matter? Do u really have to define yourself as 'atheist' or 'spiritual' or 'agnostic' or 'religious'? Doesn't a good-at-heart atheist (Stephen Hawking, Chandrashekhar, Feynman, i could go on) do good? Or don't we see enough hindus-charring-muslims (or the other way round) incidents anyway? The point is: so much importance is given to religion that being good is in fact subdued.



The other thing is that, most of the religious scriptures that we have (especially hindus) are too complex for lay-men to understand. From what little i know, one sentence can imply tens of different things. Now, how do i call myself a hindu if i cant understand the Hindu scriptures 100%? Hell, i can't understand them even 1%! That, well, is because i haven't read that much :).



Again, i don't have to define myself in terms of religious beliefs.



Hence, i think i am atheist, and my being so is justified.











Clear?



Now go explain this to my mom :)