Bonafide Urban Chick

For long am I an observer and student of an individual's behavior on communal matters on social media platforms. The opportunity to gather some concrete findings presented it self when Eid-Ul-Adha and Karwa Chauth came by withing a short span of time. 

Procedure #1:
For Eid-Ul-Adha, I made a communally offensive post, in a discrete manner that got a few likes and one comment.


Findings:
On analyzing the demographics of the post, it became clear that the people agreeing with me were those who hold either a different communal faith, or a similar mindset. however, There were many who agreed, but refused to be vocal at the cost of seeming extremist. Simply because any Muslim who holds up his faith these days gets tainted as an extreme fascist.

More so, it is acceptable for one to go about "offending" "his own" faith if he wants. because everyone likes to read some one bitch about the beliefs they follow.

Procedure #2:
For Karwa Chauth, I made a joke about a sexual act having a better impact that the Karwa Chauth Fast. This post had hate comments pouring in like crazy.


Findings:
On analyzing the demograhics here, I found that people who absolutely disagreed refrained from commenting. The sent me a personal message telling me how insensitive, disgusting and disrespectful my thinking about such a divine custom is. Some who found the post funny, liked it. Some came out and admitted to their dislike for the post.

This time, the difference was that I was "attacking some one else's faith" and so all the gloves came off. Most of them came with the angle that we should not disrespect anyone else's faith, and some simply blamed me for not being able to "see" the sanctity of the custom.

The simple reason for wanting to conduct this study was to get to the know the innate nature of the "broad-minded" individuals in our vicinity. Those who could handle the joke for what it was, responded accordingly and let it go. They did not let this become a matter of war.

I had also posted another post one day before Karwa Chauth showing my affinity for the custom. This post saw only mediocre engagement as I was depicting positive attitude, just like most others.
Despite there being some common commentors and likers, the fact that the "joke" didn't mean to offend was not taken into consideration. In fact, there is actually a blatant show of unlikeliness to participate in the custom here .

The Reason for the Study:
I am sure many must be wondering why I would do such a study. The answer is simple, to unfold the closeted carvings of an individuals mind. The reason for putting up the findings is to let us know that people may not be against you, but there are darker crevices to the persona that gets impacted with the lightest ripple.

Conclusion: 
 "He who gets disrespected will be disrespected." So we need to stop taking offense and keep a sense of humor about all things that are out of our control, or of some one else's perception.

[Disclaimer: This post is my personal opinion and the figment of a questioning mind. It is not intended to hurt anyone's beliefs, sensibilities or faith. If you disagree, you can put it in the comments section, I really don't mind!]

Every Indian, be it a hindu or a non-hindu, knows the story of Ramayan. We all know who wrote it. And we all know how it unfolded.

However, we are so caught up in peer perception that we fail to look at things differently. We have been TAUGHT that Raavan was the bad guy, Sita was the damsel in distress, Ram was the hero and Hanuman was the saviour! What if, we change the perception a tad bit.

Everyone knows that Raavan was a highly educated, maha-buddhishaali, gyaani who had done years of tapasya. He was a great king and managed 10 things at a time. That could be why he was said to have ten heads, maybe? Now, Ram was a good son who, on the insistance of his step mother, went for van-vaas. Now, thats all fine. It shows his strength of character to take challenges with a smile.

Sita, a princess by birth, agreed to follow her husband into van-vaas. That is good too, after all, if a couple cannot face challenges together, what can they do?

Raavan, a king of a kingdom (with apparently hideous women) saw Sita and was besotted. Why wouldn't he be? She was a princess and known to be gorgeous. Raavan was a young, powerful king, I am sure he had his testosterone raging too! He fell in love with Sita, and like 90% guys, made a small mistake in getting her.

Since she was already married, asking her out or talking to her was out of the question. And being a hot blooded, love-struck king, he made the mistake of kidnapping her. He took her to his kingdom in the hopes that she would get to know him, and eventually fall in love with him

Ram sent Hanuman, a celeb-struck blind follower to get Sita back. Hanuman followed the orders, which is understandable, after all Sita WAS RAM'S WIFE! But why would Ram need help? If Ram was the hero, his sheer goodness would have been enough to defeat the big bad king of Lanka!

Anyways, Hanuman went down there, burnt the Golden city of Lanka and brought back his idol's lady. The whole time, Raavan, the gentleman that he was, did not force his affections on Sita at all. He tried resoning, and treated her with utmost care and respect. Now, which VILLIAN does that?

So Hanuman brought our damsel in distress back. When Sita saw her man all she wanted was to see love, and all she got was doubt. Ram did not trust his wife! When she said that she was untouched, he did not believe her! After all, Raavan was believed to be the villian, if he would have done something, telling everyone would only have made his image worse. What would have been the harm in that?

So Ram didn't trust Sita, and sent her off the kingdom while she was pregnant with HIS TWINS! You call that a hero?? While Raavan treated the woman he loved with respect, despite the fact that she was his prisoner and that he could have done anything with her. How does that make him the villian?

All I aim to say here is that there are always two sides to a coin. Ram regretted his decision of sending Sita off, and Raavan died as a man madly in love. Ram's sons grew up hating him, while Sita had to go through an agneepariksha to prove her chastity! Things are often portrayed a little differently than what they are. Or maybe, it is just a matter of perception! Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8