Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Friendship chapter-2 "Faith"

Steve and I were in the same college he was doing a course in journalism while I was pursuing a degree in statistics.
We were not just different in our physical appereance but even in our views, He was a liberal while i on the other hand was a conservative, He was outspoken and open, i was more closed and rarely spoke to people outside of my comfort circle. But it was neither our college nor our subjects nor the study's that brought us together it was god himself that threw us face to face at each other.
It was in a church that i met him, he was there to dig up something to write for a short on the church and its history  and i was there to pickup my mother from the mass. She was standing near the church gate with someone i didn't pay much attention  as i was in a hurry, i had to go to college for submiting some papers and i was already late
"mother let us move now you know how much i hate being anywhere near to your god" i said sarcastically.
"you should not speak badly abut our great father"
"ya then he's no different from my father a drunkard with no regards for his kids" this was our normal family talk, i criticized my mom for having so much faith in god and she pitied me for not having any.
we were both trying to win the other over to our side but we were both fighting with our point of view and so no one was ever able to shake the pillars of faith of other
"My dear friend you have no right to shake the faith of the old woman" i looked at the speaker he was a  small a little dark complexed man with curly black hair his asian traits quite visible in his physical appereance.
"And what right does your god have to fool people in believing that there is someone looking over them" I retorted back
"He smiled and said because it is true" My mother seemed pretty amused with the way the conversation was going she knew that he had hit on my week spot my faith people frequent to the church knew very well not to cross me on that subject. My belief that god was no different than Santa claus a urban legend were unshakable.
"Really i don't see our mighty father providing food to people dying of hunger, Relieving those in pain, giving money to those in need. Do you?"
"So what do you believe in?"
"I am a scientific man who believes in logic or reasoning. do you have any?"
"No" he was still smiling.
"But what proof do you have he is not? maybe he isn't exactly the way people describe him but he is still there looking after us"
"What makes you so sure?"
"Just the answer to this question which a wise men once asked me?"
"really i would love to hear it" i said sarcastically he looked the kind of men that could swear they saw god in their dreams or talked to him, the kind that think they need to spread the lords message and i found these
people no different from those fantasizing about UFO and there alleged sexual assault just to make people believe in a larger than life picture and sometimes for publicity. both type of people if not insane are mentally delusional and fanatic,to me.
"Do you consider yourself different from that stone lying below your feet?"
This wasn't what i had expected i was expecting a question more in likes where will you go after you're dead? Or a citing of a miracle that according to me were a chance event.
"yes we are living organism and it's not" i replied still confused where he was heading with this.
"and as a man of logic and scientific reasoning yo do accept that it is made of same particle as you? atoms namely and event though a little more complex molecules but yet still our basic structure is same and nothing else"
"yes"
"then whats so different about you? why don't you give yourself up to the wind the rain and
the sun to control your destiny. you might be a little bit more complex in structure but if
nothing differentiates you from it, If there's nothing or no one manipulating or at least
messing with the law of physics then wont this world including us all be just following a
scripted path and all are actions and choices meaningless because the end has already been written."
The emotions on his face made me remember this one time the kid in my neighborhood had got a great gaming console and wen on the day he received it he had this same expression of,I have something you want but you don't have.
"Now its up to you whether you believe you are no different than stone and just another object with no purpose no choices or who is shaped by situations or believer who shapes his own destiny"
my mother and i both looked at him awestruck, i was unable to put my views in front of his logic, more than his words and their meaning it was the strength of emotions and his resolve that struck me dumb folded.
He started moving and i could give no reason to stop him and soon he was lost among the crowd
while i stood their still trying to make sense not of what of what i felt he really had something i always wanted that was faith in my beliefs. just like he had faith in his own.
The truth about life is that we don't follow the viewes that are right or even remotely sane,had it been the case there won't be people ready to blow themselves up,people ready to kill and die for religion, mankind has a habit of following one that has what it never has faith and determination, people are weak they break in front of situation giving in to the demand of situation their greed their emotions in process corroding
their ideals and principal and everyday they search for someone to tell them the right and wrong someone whose viewes can if not make decisions for them then atleast tell them what decision to make. that is why people turn to god He had done the same to me he was everything i tought i was and everything i wanted to be a man with belief and that disturbed me more than his words, his bieliefs made me doubt mine.
    It was nearly three weeks later that i saw him, it was in our college cafeteria. it was the first time i saw lilith
 too she was sitting along with him. He immediately recognised me and waved me to come over i usually don't befriend anyone
easily but there was sumthing diferent abut him He raidated a friendly warmth and although we were practically poles apart
yet still i felt at ease while talking with him which was a rare case for an introvert like me.
"Our conversation ended quite in a hurry that day.I was wondering if you'd like to catch up on it over a cup of coffe? By the way i am steve and this is lilith "
He introduced me to lilith as the non-beiliver. "well our faith is our own choice isn't it?" i replied
"Agreed"  it was then i noticed her beautiful eyes for the first time.
"well i surely am cornered here."he said playfully
"Anyways what course are you in?" he asked me
"Statistics, and you?"
"i am doing journalism so is lilith"
over the next hour we talked abut lot of things and imediately a bond started forming between the three of us which lasted for many years after that and although it was clear to me that lilith and steve were meant to be yet still i could not help but fall in love with her over the time, she was the sweetest and most caring person i have ever come to know. She was good looking also but what i loved most abut her physical apperance were her eyes. They were magical and mesmerising.  She had deep blue eyes which i belived sparkled when she laughed.
After graduation i moved to Washington while Steve and Lilith started working for CNN at New York. But even still through our busy office life we would still find time to meet or catch up with one another.
It was in December of 1990 that Steve and Lilith finally got married i was Steve's best man.
He didn't have much family in U.S but he made up for that with an awful lot of friend. After marriage he moved to Washington and i arranged for a house in my neighbourhood for him. I never thought that i would pay up for it this way.

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