Bliss has a different formula for each one of us....for me it was coffee + books + rain and the equation seemed so perfect. While sipping my cuppa coffee, my eyes roved through the crowds and how wonderfully every face presented the painting that can adorn a luxurious living room's wall. There were these chatty college kids for whom bookshop was a place to hangout and ofcourse buy the boring text books. On the other, were these mavericks lost in some best classics and literally sipping in every word. In this era of fast paced entertainment and popular sports knocking us at every turn, real time book lovers come across as a very endangered specie. Many dub them as book worms or consider them to be geeks wearing big black rimmed spectacles. However, midst the distractions and baseless accusations, this category is thriving.

Religious sentiments are one of the most delicate and intricate aspect surrounding our lives.....like the prodigy of Gen X, we all express our secularism in form of apathy towards religions around us. Not visiting a temple, not knowing the scriptures or not being able to recite basic pujas are disguised easily when we proclaim our so called modern religiosity. The convenience based religious concepts are firmly embedded in our fast paced lives..where we wonderful fold our hands and bow in front of innumerable deities ( many of whom we don't recognize) on those marked occasions which crop up a few times every year. Thus, most of the times we do things out of either regard for people around us or habits taught without reasoning during our childhood days.

More often than not, I come across people who give a blank expression why they follow a particular ritual. They then start associating omens and weird non founded reasons to support their acts. Some of them blatantly follow of because their forefathers did it. Some fear a bad omen and few others are scared to question the predicament. I do not wish to sound the eccentric sci-fi person and nullify every ritual. Bowing my head in front of someone who evokes respect or covering my head at a religious place seems appropriate under the concept of common sense. However certain rituals come across as utterly absurd and adding to the absurdity is blind following by educated ( not the snobbish revolting youth) modern generation. They say knowledge is power and when someone questions ' hows' and 'whys' of things around he/she is not trying to demean someone's faith or hurt religious sentiments. If there is darkness in the room don't we make a basic effort of switching on the lights, then why are we so lazy when it comes a corners of darkness in our mind.

Ironically, India is a nation of secularism as well as staunch religious fanaticism. A muslim sitting next to us in a bus makes us uneasy but a song by Mohammad rafi or movie featuring Sharukh Khan makes us feel wonderful. Covering the mouth and washing the hands to worship idols is considered sacrosanct but following few basic hygiene tips while cooking every day food is forgotten. Accept it or not but there is this facade in our daily lives. We are all somewhere making a satire on our lives. We easily point fingers around and the bigot within each one of us tries to portray this modern avtaar of tolerance.