A man on my floor at work came up to my desk yesterday and asked me for 500 rupees. He said it was because he was taking a trip to a temple in the South and would offer it to the God there. He also smiled and told me that he didn’t want me to miss out on blessings which where powerful enough to cure his neighbour of cancer. He assured me that he would bring me the Prasad from the temple. He probably picked up on the fact that I was both busy and not particularly jumping at the opportunity to be rid of a grave disease; he told me I could leave the money at his desk later.
This man had once, not a very long time ago, come and put rice in my hair while I was typing away furiously on my laptop. Now this situation irked me on many levels. Mainly, I really don’t care if the rice was holy, I don’t want you dumping it on my head without my permission. Also, I have curly hair. Even three days after this event, I would randomly find rice grains popping out.
I didn’t end up giving him any money and that earned me the wrath of more people than you’d think. I am really not a stingy person. But I will not pay up for something that I don’t believe in.
Yes, I am a non-believer in general, but this is a whole different problem. I specifically don’t buy into giving out money to temples and such because it isn’t really benefitting anyone outside of the temple priests. If there is a God, and we are assuming he is smart, I am pretty sure he wouldn’t dole out his blessings in proportion to the money people contribute.
A lot of people gave me dirty looks yesterday. Some told me that the money offered to God is a mark of respect and that I had angered the greater power. A co-worker narrated a story of another soulless person he knows (outside of me, of course) whose son got polio because he refused donation at some temple. I tried pointing out how they have polio drives all the time to avoid precisely this situation but no one listened to me. Since I am now the person who is risking all kinds of misfortune, my opinions aren’t worth too much.
In the middle of all this, none of these people remembered that last year while they all cited the inflation and rising household expenses as excuses, I was the only one who gave a thousand rupees, so some child somewhere would be able to have sixth grade textbooks. And I don’t even like children.
This man had once, not a very long time ago, come and put rice in my hair while I was typing away furiously on my laptop. Now this situation irked me on many levels. Mainly, I really don’t care if the rice was holy, I don’t want you dumping it on my head without my permission. Also, I have curly hair. Even three days after this event, I would randomly find rice grains popping out.
I didn’t end up giving him any money and that earned me the wrath of more people than you’d think. I am really not a stingy person. But I will not pay up for something that I don’t believe in.
Yes, I am a non-believer in general, but this is a whole different problem. I specifically don’t buy into giving out money to temples and such because it isn’t really benefitting anyone outside of the temple priests. If there is a God, and we are assuming he is smart, I am pretty sure he wouldn’t dole out his blessings in proportion to the money people contribute.
A lot of people gave me dirty looks yesterday. Some told me that the money offered to God is a mark of respect and that I had angered the greater power. A co-worker narrated a story of another soulless person he knows (outside of me, of course) whose son got polio because he refused donation at some temple. I tried pointing out how they have polio drives all the time to avoid precisely this situation but no one listened to me. Since I am now the person who is risking all kinds of misfortune, my opinions aren’t worth too much.
In the middle of all this, none of these people remembered that last year while they all cited the inflation and rising household expenses as excuses, I was the only one who gave a thousand rupees, so some child somewhere would be able to have sixth grade textbooks. And I don’t even like children.
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