Religion- 101

This was what I wrote before Sophie and I had our first religion class. After all this time when I read it today, this came to my mind: No wonder she didn’t get very interested in religion.  

Although she got very interested in the festivals and rituals. A nice example of why we follow when we are in the beginner level. I've done the same too, tried to belong. 

But that became a "শাপে বর" for me. Now our house celebrates whatever is there, say it Christmas, Durgapuja, LokkheePuja, Hanukka,  Thanksgiving. What doesn’t   change every year is the celebration of Eid, twice. 

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In life, we all come across grief and misery. Bad things might happen to us, to the people we love. Our life comes to a pause to bear the burden of those sorrows. And there's uncertainty, chaos. Nothing goes as we want them to. There's sadness, and then there's unhappiness. Also don't forget, life isn't fair. Not at all.  Some of us are born in a loving family, some of us do not have anyone to love at all. Some of us have the world on our feet, and some of us struggle even to manage food. 

And it has always been the same. We people have been around for 300,000 years. All this time, we have been loving each other, making families, finding new ways of playing; but also, some of us are fighting, hurting others, and making others miserable. All these make our life on earth very very chaotic. The world is pretty much a wonderful and beautiful place, thanks to Mother Nature! But it also can be dreadful and dangerous.  But throughout these long 300,000 years- people have always found ways to cope- with good times and bad. When we are happy, fulfilled, and surrounded by love- life is pretty easy to get by. But when misery strikes, it's hard to be alive, especially if you are alone. 

So what do we do then? How do we find peace and calmness in this chaotic world? A lot of people- I might call them scientists- have experimented with different ways to find peace and calm in life, especially in times of suffering (and some still continue to do so). Some of them have come up with brilliant ways of life that might help us. A few of them are well-known and remembered in human history. The ways they found to do so are generally called religion.

Nowadays, there are more than 4000 religions practiced in the world. All of them have their own beauties and quirks. The major five of them are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. Your Nanu, Dadu, Khalamoni, and Afsheen,  practice Islam. So they are called Muslim. And you can be one too if you want. Suvra Aunty, Trina, Suvro, Aninda- they are Hindu. Hanameel and her family are Christians. I don't remember anyone you know who practices Buddhism, but that is one of my favorites. 

Today we will learn about Islam.