Is my Facial Feature a Curse?

(Sometimes, the unlikeliest situation forced on you the hard reality that is also called ‘discrimination based on facial feature’ and you are given no option but to gulp it down)

I feel guilty to call myself an art-lover as I know pretty well that I know nothing about art. But whenever I do have time, I love visiting old buildings, museums and heritage sites to amuse myself with the intricate stone carving, architecture, and painting and absorb myself in what the builder, craver or painter want to convey through his/her art.

Even thought I am a Christian, I never hesitated to visit temples or mosques as long as I have someone to explain to me the painting, craving, belief and other customs and traditions associated with it. In fact, I have been to quite a number of temples like Chinpurni, Jwala Devi and Naina Devi in Himachal Pradesh, Anandpur in Punjab, Akshardham and Birla mandir in Delhi, Kali Mandir in Tripura and many small and less famous temples whenever and wherever I have the pleasure of staying.

My boss knows me pretty well so she was not really surprised when I became the most excited one when she proposed one afternoon to visit the famous Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar. Lingaraj temple is over a thousand year old with a unique architecture style and intricate stone craving, so it was a ready temptation for me. Apart from that we have been in Bhubaneswar for over two months and we hardly get the time to go around sight-seeing or take time off from work, so we all saw this as a good proposition to get away from the damp work place that we have imprisoned ourselves for the whole two month.

We left the office early and went straight to the temple. The moment we landed up near the entrance, priests (panda?) started following us around hoping us to make some offering. We were told to take off all leather stuffs with us like belt, watch, wallet and mobile phone and leave them inside the vehicle.

Once we get to the entrance, my colleagues and the driver went straight but as I was to enter, two policemen and three priests come up to stop me. They surrounded me and started asking me my name, my native place, and of course, my religion. I don’t understand a single word that was rapidly fired at me in oriya. I looked around for some help from my colleague or my boss and it was then that I saw something written near the gate in English –Only Hindus Allowed.

I heard my boss’ voice coming out from among the crowd telling all those people that I was a Hindu from Manipur. My boss was someone who will always get her way no matter what, but she was helpless here as more and more policemen, priests and crowds started gathering around us and her voice was lost in the mayhem. I withdrew myself and told my boss to go inside and enjoy her time.

I stand under the tree across the gate and watched at the crowd who watched me. I feel like a stray dog that people find it not fit to be admitted inside the house. I understand that they have rules to follow, but what I don’t understand is if religion is written in the face or if that rule is based on someone facial feature since I know pretty well that the driver (an oriya) is also a Christian but was allowed to enter inside without even a single glance.

I felt hurt, I feel pained, and discriminated. At the same time, I feel elated; I feel like a martyred missionary while my ego groaned in pain. I want to stomp in, I want to stomp out, and tell them that their idols disgusted me and the place is way too low for me. All those painting and carving that I adored so much before seems disgusting and ugly now. The situation forced me to fully comprehend what a little discrimination can do to someone.

I can very much do without seeing the temple; it has no religious attraction for me like my colleague. But I cannot believe that I was not allowed inside a place where even beggars can hold their head in pride just because of my facial feature. It would had been another story had the Driver been not allowed or at least being asked the simple question, but I was selected out. My boss had given me a Hindu name, telling them that I was from Manipur, I talked to them in Hindi, but I was still not allowed.

When I returned back to the hotel, the first thing I do was fish out the crucifix that my Mom gave it to me a longtime ago. I kept that in one of the side pocket of my trolley and never bothered about it. That night, when I put the crucifix around my neck and let it hang above my shirt when we went for dinner, never in my life do I felt so proud of my religion like that before.

Update:

A week later, we went to Puri inside the famous Jaganath Temple Complex. This time round, my Boss hired a Panda (Priest) as a tour guide. No one bothered me as we walked past the long queue without a single question being asked. In fact, I even take along my Camera Phone and the Crucifix, but I did not take them out of my pocket as a mark of respect.

The place hold nothing special for me, but the simple fact that I managed to enter this temple after what happen the previous week give me a big sense of relief and satisfaction, a satisfaction that someone only in my situation know.

Tags: mizo, zomi, zogam

The Other View

There are two sides to Christianity. Most often, it always goes hand in hand. One, of course, is the religious side and the other is the outlook that it brings about.

The outlook, in its real context should have been a stringent one. Christianity is a narrow, stringent and conservative religion and its outlook cannot be so out of way in its form.

But wherever Christianity goes, it brings about the outlook of its main proponent or its early proponent i.e. the western world.

And today, Christianity is more of a civilization rather than a religion. It is associated with a liberal or westernized outlook which in its every essence is totally against the value that it propounded.

Today, looking at the Christians in Manipur, Mizoram and Chinstate, I see more of the outlook rather than the religion. And looking at the few said to be dedicated Christian, I don’t know how much of them is flesh and how much of them is spirit.

I remember attending quiet a number of ‘crusades’ and camps sometimes around in 1997. The few things that I recollect of such meetings were the ‘jargon’ used, which to me are very cheeky. Well this may be a totally different thing, but what I wanted to say is that we, as a Christian, are very far from being Christian.

I think no one can deny the bad effect that comes with the outlook bring along by Christianity. To us and to most of the world, the west is the role model when it comes to everything, including lifestyle and spiritualism, and the west, in its totality is an undesirable influence, it is foreign –culturally, traditionally and in its essence.

Westernization or the outlook that was brought to us by Christianity is like a virus. There is no denying that no matter where it goes, westernization acts like a virus, bringing about a clash in the society.

To us, Christianity comes along with the westernized outlook and it cannot be separated. So my question is –is Christianity guilty of ailing the Zomi and Zogam? Is it responsible for killing our traditional and cultural identity?

If you ever ask me this question, I don’t need a second opinion. To me, it is as simple as that –GUILTY AS CHARGED.©lyan

Tags: mizo, zomi, zogam

BE A SUCCESS

(While going through some of my old notebooks this past week, I found this short essay which I wrote for an inter-school competition when I was studying in Standard –VIII. By the way, it won me the first prize!)


In our day to day life, we used to use many platitudes to encourage each other never knowing the real meaning. Such platitudes are not only empty but are also dangerous.

We used to say that there is nothing impossible. But in reality there are many things which are impossible. Our wishes, dreams and hopes are proofs to those impossibilities. If everything had been possible there would be no wishes, dreams, hopes, regrets, surprises, sadness etc.

The fact is there are things which are in our reach and there are things which are simply beyond our reach. Our capability, our nature limits the possibilities. The criteria are defined by nature and one had to accept them. Thus it is not only a failure but a suicide to want something which is beyond our reach.

My father used to tell me the higher you dream, the higher you fall. Now I understand what he meant. If you are to be satisfied by reaching the moon while you aimed for the stars, let me remind you –you are a thousand million light years failure!

It is our insecurities which give rise to these sayings. We could make our life more secure by focusing on the small matters. Why should we give room to failure when we can replete our life with successes? We should focus on the next step that we are to take, after successfully taking that step we can focus on the next and so on.

Life is not a bed of roses. For every rose, there is a thorn. Removing the thorn one by one will make our journey called life a bed of roses all along. After all it is not the star that we hold, but the journey that we happily called life. ©lyan