In the name of God

We are known to look for God in every stone; we try to please him by sacrificing lives of life stocks; we put lacks of rupees in offerings while the other side of the people stay homeless to keep our promise and then when we are not satisfied we are ready to toss the infant kids from the height to thank the Almighty for his blessing. End of the day no one is sure if God smiled.

I sound like an atheist, don’t I? Well I shall keep you guessing and I will proceed.
How does it sound when I say –“Let the infants wear a bullet-proof vest and then shoot him/her with a shot gun and the condition is, the distance between you and the infant shall be 50 meters”. What if I say this is the way God can be pleased. If anyone agrees with me, I will better put him in place of infants and try out my aim.
I must have narrated a modern way of a ritual that is followed in Sheikh Umar Saheb 'Dargah' in Solpur in Maharashtra.

Here an infant is thrown from the height of 50 meters from the roof of the Dargah and caught on a cloth, and this heinous ritual is followed since 500 years; now match that! The incident that actually was very close to knock off my senses was when a mother, very gleefully after finishing the ritual for his 8 months old kid said that she will bring her child for two other times as she promised to the Almighty! Another believer seemed to bet his life on the SACREDNESS of the ritual and said that not a single child is reported hurt; rather the child grows up stronger. The medical science seems to bet to the other side of it. Any sort of policing does not help as they say that they can fight the people but what about their faith on the ritual. And in India if a single police person turns to be a Hindu there revolting to it, it would be enough to incite a religious riot national wide.

From Maharashtra we move to Gulbarga of Karnataka. Both the states are known for their brotherly attitude along their borders (sarcasm not intended; if you are unaware of the land disputes).

In Gulbarga people are reported to burry children with disability for hours at the time of solar eclipse, because it is supposed to heal them. I wish it were possible but polio (and others too) seems to be quiet resistant to this therapy. Solar eclipse can occur two to five times in a year and the parents are quiet responsible enough not to miss this therapy (even though trauma is visible on their child’s face). It is that they got busy on the polio drop day of their child. State government seem to be ready for the coming solar eclipses not to let this happen again; though it just missed the solar eclipses all the years before. Here again, you may stop people but what about their faith?

Putting the burden of their beliefs on children is no less than child exploitation. These rituals traumatize the child and results to mental imbalance. Dropping an infant from 50 meters can cause minor injuries which can turn up to something incurable later. Polio drops in time sounds like a wonderful and effective substitute to burying children for hours together wishing for a cure. In the name of Almighty doing anything shall not bring about a miracle.

But does it really matter to the country where God seems to reside everywhere from the television adds to the ice formation; a country where praying to God also serves as pardon to crime and shortcut to every possible difficulty; where number of God surpasses the population of the country; everything is a miracle here or else Matrix won’t have come up with the concepts in Bhagwat Gita.

And by the way I am theist.