Thursday, April 12, 2007

Where is the confusion?

Mother Tounge :- one's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next

Religion :- any specific system of belief, worship, or conduct that prescribes certain responses to the existence (or non-existence) and character of God.

Huh, i have tried my best to come up with a good definition (Courtesy : Google) for Religion and Mother Tounge and this is the best I could manage. Now the answer as to why I have put this definition and what am I trying to say. Many of you must be thinking how stupid of me to take pains to explain something so simple. Trust me, this may appear to be simple to you and me but many people confuse the term. I am a Bengali Muslim girl and am very proud of both. So most of the time when i come get in touch with any new people the question I am asked generally is how come you are both Bengali and Muslim?? I m sick and tired of explaining to people that releigoin and mother tounge are two different things and one can be both at the same time.

Come on no one ever asks a person talking in english, how come you are a Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or from any other relegion and speak english. Its a foreign language, then why are they never asked how can you speak english and you are a Hindu, Sikh etc as well......i just can't understand why are people so confused about this? Why can't they simply understand that bengali is my Mother Tounge and Islam (Muslim) is my religion. Is it really so difficult to understand?? I don't think so, would love to know what is causing the confusion in the first place??

The funniest part is most of the people who have put this question to me are the so called "EDUCATED" people who work in big profiles in reputed companies. Huh, so much for being educated!! I have been staying in Delhi (Our capital city) for more then 1.5 years, and have faced this question innumerable time ( I have lost track of the count.....he he he he) I don't know whether to laugh at this or pity the fact that many people do not know even the bascis and claim to be educated.

Its a very very sad state of affairs, don't know if this scene is going to improve anytime soon. Personally i am tired of explaning the difference to so many people, now I just don't bother (but it makes me angry nonetheless) and wish something could be done to make people get their bascis correct. Well, i don't know if I have confused more people or made things clear now, but the idea was to clear up the confusion.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

good one!

Sanjay Mazumder said...

Very true.....

It's hard to guess where humanity is gonna take us in the near future.

All the religions do speak the same thing but people are making a mess out of it and creating different meanings..... And the result is a big fight....

Is the color of the blood different for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs & Christans??? I'm really getting confused.....


So confusing, Ayesha..... Really Sad....

Ayesha said...

@Sohid
Thank You

@Sanjay
Its going to take a long long time to clear this confusion!! Till then all we can do is make efforts in our own small way to remove this confusion.

Anonymous said...

there is no confusion...
more than 100 milloion Bengali Muslims are living with pride around the globe...
.. nobody is being embarrassed by such a silly question....never...

I don't know how did u experience this... may be you are the unlucky one.

AZIZUR RAHMAN

Ayesha said...

@ Azizur Rahman

I wish I was as lucky as you and had never came across this exprience. But I did and that is why I hve written about it. You said that more then 100 Bengali Muslims live with pride in the World and I am one of them!

First I am not embarassed by the question, just find it very stupid and it makes me wonder why people can't differentiate between Mother Tongue and Religion?

I really wish I am the only unlucky one and no one else ever faces this stupid question over and over again!!

Thanks for posting the comment.