Are you sure you are not reading an overreaction because my views are different from yours? Don’t you see the paradox that I responded to someone’s query based on the truth as I saw it. I have neither tried to convince the questioner nor you but you seem to be getting angry and even calling names such as immature. Do you not see in it an intolerant response to any view other than yours? Well all that I am saying is that everyone has a right to make their choice for personal things else what would be the difference between us and the mullahs who impose burqua and hijab for women while giving all the licentiousness for men? Would you suggest the Iranian girls who have died fighting for their rights to wear the hijab or not? To compromise so that the social order remains? It is not wearing sindoor that is evil. I am not sure how you drew this illogical conclusion. It is the choice of the woman to wear sindoor or burqua. What is evil is to control somebody’s choice either through social compulsion or emotional blackmail. Our choices are sacred, a right given by the Divine Himself. To snatch it away in the name of religion or family values is certainly evil. What if parents or in-laws do not want the woman to study or work or spend her time in the kitchen or wear a purdah! Should she adjust and if she doesn’t, she is rigid! But if the elders are not ready to see reason then they are not rigid! Well your logic defies reason and common sense both.
As to Sri Krishna it is news to me that he asked for 5 villages to satisfy the family ego of the arrogant Dhritrastrians. A war is no more a family issue. It is a sanguinary loss of countless innocent lives. The same beloved Krishna, on the other hand encouraged his sister Subhadra to elope with Arjuna and did the same with Rukmani ji. But can a rigid Islamicised mind stuck in blind customs and rituals ever understand Rama and Krishna. They are too vast for our insecure little mind shut in snall boxes of beliefs in a timewarp.
I don’t rest any case as I do not wish to engage in discussions meaninglessly. Your time and mine are too precious for these futile things. All that I am saying is that allow people to make their choices. Let your thoughts govern your life but not someone else’s. For it is certainly evil to force one’s beliefs and practices on anyone else, at least it is not the dharma of the Age.
Once again you are free to follow your beliefs and practices of sari, sindoor or burqua, hijab. Feel free to do so. This being clear, I am not entertaining any further discussions on this. Our time is too precious to be invested on antiquity and outdated customs.
Affectionately,
Alok Da


