Religion and Me
I was born in a Hindu household where I participated enthusiastically in many festive celebrations. As a child, I listened to stories of the partition from my grandmother and saw her gratitude for the life she was able to rebuild. My relationship with religion was of enthusiastic engagement with rituals and expectations. In my formative years, I moved to the UAE, where Islam is the State's official religion. I heard the azaan five times a day and I did not eat in public during Ramadan. I went to an Indian school where students and teachers came from three dominant religions - Hindus, Muslims and Christians. I began to see religion as an unalterable part of identity. To me, Hindu, Muslim, or Christian were nouns and adjectives. However, I never thought critically about the practices and philosophies of different religions, except for the visible aspects, like clothing and food choices. I didn't know the ways of being, doing and relating that made me belong to a particul...