For God's Sake

Last night I saw a movie - "Khudaa kay Liye - In the name of God". A very hard hitting movie with well sketched plot and almost real life characters. Loved the intensity of the movie. Liked the message of the movie. Well, talking about message, many a times it so happens that the person who is the creative head of a particular article/movie/song/advertisement etc may have a particular message in his mind which he wants to convey but different people perceive his product differently. Which is absolutely normal, I guess, for the best thing about human beings is that we all are different, unique individual. And this movie has hit me in a particular way which may or may not be the same as you perceive it, but nevertheless to celebrate the uniqueness of individual characters, I shall share my observation.

The movie revolves around certain characters, mostly Muslims, Britts and Americans. The movie celebrates human relationships, interaction of one individual with another in the socio-politico-religious backdrop prevailing in Pakistan, UK, and America immediately before and after 9/11. Initially i thought this movie is anti-muslim, then I thought probably this movie is anti-american, but by the end of the movie I realised that the movie is neither of the two. This movie condemns human ego, selfishness, hatred, and how these negative traits when not curbed, destroy love, life of people and society at large. Whether the character is a Muslim or a Christian, whether the character is residing in Lahore or UK or America, is immaterial. The movie is beyond the petty human made boundaries and defferences based on Religion, Caste, Creed etc. Actually as an afterthought, I realised that the negative, destructive traits of human beings can be seen everywhere, in every corner of the world, amongst the followers of every religion, amongst the believers of every faith. Likewise, virtues are not confined to any particular religion or belief or society at large.

A father (a Pakistani residing in UK for years), who cheats his own daughter and brings her to Pakistan and forcibly gets her married against her wish to her cousin, so that she does not marry outside her religion, is to be condemned irrespective of his religion! But having seeing this movie, I know people will generalise, "Ah Muslims are like that! Ah Muslims treat their women in a pathetic way!" and so on... nobody will talk about the individual, and no body will bother about the girl who is unfortunate to have a father like him. But exploitation of women is something which is found all over the world, from remote villages in 3rd world countires, to metropolitan and cosmopolitan cities to even developed countries like USA and other European countries. May be the ways get subtler as you move from villages to cities, from developing countries to developed ones, but lets accept the fact it is still there, and probably will remain in the years to come as well, though the degree may vary and so vary the ways. So why single out a particular religion or a community?

A young boy is convinced to be a Jihaadi, he is brain-washed into believing that religious belief is reflected in one's dress and beard. That singing is a vice. His life gets almost ruined, but do you find this only amongst Muslims? Think again. The real life stories of dooming intelligent youngster's career by brain-washing them into joining the dirty politics by giving their patriotism a wrong boost - you see this in every society across all the times. Naxalites movement ruined so many lives of young, bright college-goers! DId the movement bring about any change towards betterment of the society? No it didnot. It just catered to the selfish interest of handfull of our eminent political leaders. But the ideology of those lost youngsters were not vague. They were genuine, only that they were being manipulated by crooked politicians. This once again proves the point. Its explotation of some form or the other to cater to the self interest of handful of people. Wonder why we never take lessons from history? Wonder why we spend our liftime in hatred and vengenance? Wonder why we are anti-Islamic, or anti- American, or anti-this and anti-that? We should actually be anti-exploitation, and take an oath to fight this terrible disease of human kind.

If you really want to fight terrorism,then fight hatred! Spread love, in your way, no matter how small it is. And the first step you can take towards this, is stop having inhibition or pre-conceived notion about any group, caste, creed, religion, or society. Open your mind and follow your heart. Your God is inside you. And He only wants you to love. Love unconditionally, and love all - Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Atheist. If you have to condemn someone for his act, condemn him, not his religion; not his country; not his province. It is he, who has let the negativity affect him, no religion teaches you violence and hatred, only corrupt people do.

Follow the path of ultimate truth and unconditional love. You may not go to temple or mosque, but if you are honest, and have a heart to love all unconditionally and move ahead in life, you are the best Muslim, or Hindu, or Christian, or Sikh, that your God can be proud of, and you can make this world a much better place. Let og of vices like hatred and vengenance and make this earth a better place to live in. For God's sake, our kids deserve a better place to live than what we are leaving for them.