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some lovely words from my friend, Ammu, A destroyer does not know the pain of a creation……… A destroyer does not know the joy of a creator………… So let us not destroy anything …………… So let us not kill religion……….

The way is long n distinct,,, the paths r twisting ……… But they all lead to the same destination, God ….. Thanks Ammu.

As I have already said, There is nothing wrong with the idea of God. It is the interpretation of God in the hands of a few humans that is wrong. You ask me to change these people. But people like them will always be there. You cant expect every person to be sensible like you are. All I said was, Let us take away the weapon they use : Religion.

I got a hundred odd responses to the rediff.com article that I wrote ( If you havent read it, read it here). I am happy to find that 85 % of the people agree with my views, around 5 % agree partially and the remaining 10 % disagree. I am happy with these numbers and I can live with them.

Some are the responses, I got are :

Manoj says Hello, I cannot conceive of any more simplistic way to say GOD IS LOVE and to make a point that no religion or god ever preached fighting.

Thank you very much, Anand. Tirumal says Hi I just wanted to say that this was very powerful. How true... every word that is said in this diary... what a service of Rediff to humanity... Just keep up these standards of excellence. Just made my day.....I have printed it... saved it.. Thanks. and so on.

Some of the very negative comments include "Let us kill this guy" and "This guy is a complete failure in life" . I dont know what to say other than criticism should be directed towards what i said, not a personal attack on me.

Some of the more positive criticisms were centred around the communist idealogy and how such experiments have already failed. What I have to say here is this : Communism took away much more from a person other than his Religion. A person was stripped of all his possessions. What I was wishing for was the removal of just the religion. Maybe, that will result in a more pleasing endresult. Again, you cant suppress something. If we have to end religion, It has to be by a majority decision. Once you suppress something, it will rear its head in some form or the other. So if at all something of this happens, it has be accepted by the majority as the best way forward. I know it is wishfull thinking and that was precisely the tone in which the article was written. A wish, A hope for a better world.

My good friend, Ammu wrote in saying Man's basic nature is the problem and that has to change not religion. What I had to say to her is this : Agreed, Man's basic nature has to change. There is something of the animal left in all of us. It lies sleeping in all of us, waiting for the right amount of provocation to rear its ugly head. Religion is the one of the biggest triggers for this. There is something fundamental about Religion and God that provokes a Man more than anything else. So I suggest we take away this trigger. Hopefully, things might improve.

As usual in a debate, People agree and disagree. I am happy that i have struck a chord in many a heart and that is the good that I will carry forward from all this.

Thanks for reading.

Today is an important day in my life.

From a very young age, at an age when other kids wanted to be detectives or pilots, I had wanted to be a writer/journalist/poet. Infact, I would have opted for Literature during graduation if my mother had allowed. Sadly, a writing job, though satisfying ur creativity, doesnt sound as glamorous as a software engineer nor does it pay as much. So finally, I had to do Engineering and end up in a zero creativity job in Wipro.

But today, i acheived something. I had written an article in pain after the recent incidents in Gujarat. And Today, it was published online in india's premier website, rediff.com. You could go to the main page and click on the link in the middle saying "let's kill religion". Alternatively, you could use THIS direct link. Do visit it and tell me what you think.

Posted by a happy /.\ nand :)

I have not been blogging for the last two days. There is a reason for this. I have been quietly re-designing the site and it turned out to be a more lengthier process than I had imagined. But now most of the stuff is in place now and I am happy to unveil the new version of my site for public consumption.

Taaliyaan :)

Expect some changes in the weeks to come as I add more features. But the overall look should remain the same till I get tired of it.

Do play around the site and tell me what you think.

Have fun.

I have always been a big fan of advertisements. The latest Asian Paints ad with the punch line Har ghar kuch kehtha hai caught my eye today. Fascinating. That simple line says a lot and took me back to my home in Trivandrum. So much of my life has happenned there. So many of my memories are attached with my home. If only the walls could speak. If only ...

Going back to advertisements, some of my favourites are : Most of the ads of Bajaj ( I like the way, they portray the indian middle class ), the famous ericsson ad ( one cup of black coffee, please ), some of the fevicol ads, the song in the kingley mineral water ad etc etc. It is indeed amazing how creative the ad agencies are and how they pack so much in so little time. If only, i was half as creative. If only ...

I look down this page and I see only English being used here. Inspite of knowing three other languages, I wonder why I write in English.

Part of the blame should go to the Education system in India where English is given a lot of stress. Part of the blame lies in the fact that my family, an Orthodox Tamil Brahmin Family, was living in a different state and I ended up learning neither Malayalam nor Tamil well. But most of the blame lies with me, I guess. From a very young age, I have been reading a lot of English Literature and as such whenever I start thinking seriously, English is the first language my brain turns to, for words. I have largely ignored Indian Literature and I feel terrible about that right now. I need to change. Yes, indeed.

Indha film romba nalla irrukku. Do watch it. :( . English crept in somehow in the first line that i tried to write in Tamil. Let me try again.

Indha film romba nalla irrukku. nerram kidaithaal neengal poyyi paarrungo. orru chinna ponnu tannoddu real appa ammavai tedi pokkarthu taan indha kathai. Mani Ratnathai patri naan adhikkam solla vendiyya avasyam illai. Ungallukke terriyyum. avarrodu mauna ragam tamil cinamavillayye romba nalla padangalil ondraaga consider chayyapadaruthu. After that, I think this is his next best effort.

oof, That is better. Although, English did come in, I managed to write a few lines in tamil too. In time, I hope to start using all the four languages I know on these pages. Stay tuned.

Yesterday was different. At work, i was forced to attend a personality development session. Pretty soon, as is my wont, I got into a major debate with the presenter on what exactly is success in life. While coming to office today, i thought, i would post our conversation here and add a few thoughts of mine. But looking down i see a lot of serious stuff already posted by me and i dont want an accidental visitor of this site to think, this guy is too serious and there is no fun over here :-)

So while i do my usual aimless surfing, u go over <a href="www.demotivate.com< to get a little dose of motivation.