No, it was not my hidden intention to "Orhan"ize this space with an overdose but it may seem so after this post as I attempt to make some sense of my own thoughts. So my apology in advance. *Traffic and Religion* is one such essay that stood out in Other Colours: Essays and a Story. It highlighted Pamuk's astute skills at observing environment inside one's mind and surrounding along with understanding and translating that into rationale thereafter. And to quote few passages from the essay:
And this got me thinking about the way various religions organize themselves to offer prayers and wonder if it impacts its people in their thinking and hence their immediate surroundings and community fabric. Consider two examples, Christian and Hindu modes of prayers. They both conjure up very different images in mind. Don't they? One gives a sense of orderliness (in appearance externally at least) while the other chaos. The mode of prayers for Hindus offer freedom of choice and imagination to flourish and hence beliefs in Hindu prayers spill out on the streets, sidewalks, buildings and trees, stones, rocks, rivers and so on. This also baffles me about the existence of innumerable forms of deities and how each region has a slightly varied and modified mode of prayer and offering and related mythological tales associated with God that are shared, each with equal fierceness in beliefs. Can it have to do with the amount of freedom to think one's religion provides? Some Hindus pro-rate their wealth as offerings to God. Bigger the offering, bigger might have been the gains. Other way to look at it is, bigger the offering, bigger his/her expectant share in God's blessings might be.
Coming back to fabric of urbanization, think of ways civic bodies try to control peeing and spitting in the public spaces in Indian cities. One distinct example, is to put posters, tiles or scribblings of God's images on walls, where "Yahan thookna mana hai" (which translates to spitting is not allowed here) warning alone doesn't work. Religious symbols are used to feed fear in followers' mind. Though, this does not explain what excuses us to not provide public restrooms but this combative strategy works rather effectively. No God fearing human being would dare to mess with this system and that explain that how deep that belief (or fear) might be running. If it is blind faith or not, I will skip to say anything on it since I am no expert on this but merely an observer.
One possible explanation that comes to mind to this staunchness could be the degree of suffering. Despite the attempted hogwash of India's emergence as a superpower, large percentage of its citizens live in dismal condition. In such abject condition and state of helplessness, one may only turn to divine help.
One last thought, does one's religion and religious practices liberate his mind or provide basis for unfounded fears? And does this liberation or captivity, as the case may be, affect the way we organize ourselves in public and private spaces. And how does it impact our community and its development that may follow in hierarchy, structure, zoning, segregation of land, spaces and its organization and lastly of course, how do people with particular religion who inhabit such places behave in them?
***
As an aside, I peeked into two new books recently which looked promising. One being Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk and second one which looked mighty intriguing from the few pages that I read was Pankaj Mishra's An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World. I have started reading something thick and fat and if I do get to the last page, I will be delighted and also have stronger biceps and triceps (!) and there is one other place that I am spamming these days, twitter.
To obey a NO LEFT TURN sign on a back street when there wasn't another car in sight, waiting for the light to turn green, was to bow down to an authority that made no allowances for the intelligent pragmatist. We had little respect for those who obeyed the letter of the law in those days; people only did that only if they lacked brains, imagination, or character.***
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But as I sat on the edge of this square on the outskirts of Tehran, watching the driver waver between obedience and pragmatism, I could tell that this man, whom I knew well enough by then, had not the slightest interest in making a national statement. His problem was much more mundane: Because we were in a hurry it seemed a waste of time to go all the way around the circle, but he was glancing anxiously at all the other roads that led into it, because he knew that if he rushed the decision he might end up crashing into another car.
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When I went to visit Tehran and saw the chaos and destruction these drivers brought upon themselves as they fought the highway code with furious ingenuity for the preservation of their autonomy, it seemed to me that their little bursts of lawless individualism were strangely at odds with the state-imposed religious laws that dictate every other aspect of life in the city.
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Oddly, it's when you're battling your way through the mad traffic, fighting it out with the city's lawless drivers, that you feel the presence of religion most keenly. Here's the state proclaiming that all must bow to the laws laid down in the Holy Book, mercilessly enforcing those laws in the name of national unity and making it clear that to break them is to end up in prison, when meanwhile the city's drivers, knowing the state is watching, flout the highway code and expect everyone else to do likewise; they see the road as a place where they can test the limits of their freedom, their imagination, and their ingenuity. I saw reflections of same contradiction in my meetings with Iranian intellectuals, whose freedoms were so severely restricted by the Sharia laws the state had imposed in the streets, the markets, they city's great avenues, and all other public spaces. With a sincerity I cannot help but admire, they set out to prove they were not living in Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union by showing me they could discuss whatever they wanted, wear whatever they liked, and drink as much bootleg alcohol as they pleased in the privacy of their own homes.
And this got me thinking about the way various religions organize themselves to offer prayers and wonder if it impacts its people in their thinking and hence their immediate surroundings and community fabric. Consider two examples, Christian and Hindu modes of prayers. They both conjure up very different images in mind. Don't they? One gives a sense of orderliness (in appearance externally at least) while the other chaos. The mode of prayers for Hindus offer freedom of choice and imagination to flourish and hence beliefs in Hindu prayers spill out on the streets, sidewalks, buildings and trees, stones, rocks, rivers and so on. This also baffles me about the existence of innumerable forms of deities and how each region has a slightly varied and modified mode of prayer and offering and related mythological tales associated with God that are shared, each with equal fierceness in beliefs. Can it have to do with the amount of freedom to think one's religion provides? Some Hindus pro-rate their wealth as offerings to God. Bigger the offering, bigger might have been the gains. Other way to look at it is, bigger the offering, bigger his/her expectant share in God's blessings might be.
Coming back to fabric of urbanization, think of ways civic bodies try to control peeing and spitting in the public spaces in Indian cities. One distinct example, is to put posters, tiles or scribblings of God's images on walls, where "Yahan thookna mana hai" (which translates to spitting is not allowed here) warning alone doesn't work. Religious symbols are used to feed fear in followers' mind. Though, this does not explain what excuses us to not provide public restrooms but this combative strategy works rather effectively. No God fearing human being would dare to mess with this system and that explain that how deep that belief (or fear) might be running. If it is blind faith or not, I will skip to say anything on it since I am no expert on this but merely an observer.
One possible explanation that comes to mind to this staunchness could be the degree of suffering. Despite the attempted hogwash of India's emergence as a superpower, large percentage of its citizens live in dismal condition. In such abject condition and state of helplessness, one may only turn to divine help.
One last thought, does one's religion and religious practices liberate his mind or provide basis for unfounded fears? And does this liberation or captivity, as the case may be, affect the way we organize ourselves in public and private spaces. And how does it impact our community and its development that may follow in hierarchy, structure, zoning, segregation of land, spaces and its organization and lastly of course, how do people with particular religion who inhabit such places behave in them?
***
As an aside, I peeked into two new books recently which looked promising. One being Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk and second one which looked mighty intriguing from the few pages that I read was Pankaj Mishra's An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World. I have started reading something thick and fat and if I do get to the last page, I will be delighted and also have stronger biceps and triceps (!) and there is one other place that I am spamming these days, twitter.
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