Ganeshotsav-A nightmare.

Hindus celebrated Ganeshotsav last month. The festival of joy,blessings and celebrations, not to mention the festival of polluting sea and rivers,endangering sea life,traffic congestion,illegal road blocks, intoxication of paints and noise pollution.

Lord Ganesh is known as the Vighnaharta-Vanquisher of obstacles, on the other hand, the devotees think that it is okay to create obstacles for others to celebrate the festival of their Vighnaharta lord. What an irony!

The Mumbai High Court, has ruled that you don't have the right to worship idols in public places while the Supreme Court guidelines say that loudspeakers should not be played after 10pm. But still you can see pandals blocking roads everywhere-in Mumbai, 49 roads are completely closed, 55 are opened for one-way traffic and 99 are marked as no-parking zones  and these are just official numbers. For the city already having much traffic issues, festivals like Ganeshotsav are simply nightmares not to mention, devotees creating nuisance with loudspeakers after 10 and even after midnight. Public simply don't give a damn to any laws here, they simply make fun of it. They don't even care about silence zones and hospitals. Because in India, everything is fair in the name of God! No rules or laws apply when it comes to God.

Traditionally, clay was used to make Ganesh idols. Over the years however, plaster of Paris (POP), which is lighter and cheaper, has become the favoured material. POP contains gypsum,lime,sulphate and other harmful chemicals. The dyes used to colour these idols contain mercury, arsenic, lead, and carbon. Plastic and thermocol accessories are used to decorate these idols which are hazardous for the sea, rivers and even for marine creatures. Also throwing flowers, leaves along with plastic bags worsens the situation.

There is a solution to this environmental hazard. People need to avoid the use of idols made from POP. Always go for those made of unbaked natural clay, natural fibre, or even recycled paper. Today, many volunteer organisations make and sell these eco-friendly idols and encourage people to use them. But devotees want their idols to be big and fancy (to compete with others-no words to describe how stupid is that!) so they don't use eco-friendly idols. Again not caring about environment and the world we live in. Did Lord Ganesha (assuming he existed) tell you to pollute environment and put others and the world in danger in order to compete or to show off? The behavior and mentality of the devotees is completely pathetic and foolish ofcourse! As I live in a riverside I can see remains of Ganesha idols drifting ashore the Tapi river for days after immersion. So after they bid adieu to their holy ganesh idols, devotees left them to be disposed of like garbage! And then these same hypocrites file various cases related to disrespect of God!

The problems don't end here. Releasing drinking water from dams for Lord Ganesha idols' immersion is another major problem.The matter is more serious in view of the dying rivers in Pune and the storage levels of various dams and reservoirs which could create a war-like water shortage situation affecting general public, agriculture, industry and animals at large and on the other hand in Pune, around 0.1 tmc water, equivalent to four days' supply for the entire Pune city, is released on 2 major days.No discharge of water from the dam, meant for drinking purposes, should be permitted for immersions.People should make use of the artificial immersion sites created by the authorities for the religious activities. This will prevent wastage of scarce drinking water in such critical times. But once again, very few follow this. On the contrary, a spiritual organization Sanatan Sanstha, on its website and Facebook page, said, ‘Because of the regular prayers offered to the Ganesh idol, the idol turns pure, and hence when this idol is immersed in the water body, the water becomes pure too. Because of the flowing water in the water body, the purity of the idol also flows to several places.’ This is absolutely disgusting even on the theistic level.

Faith should always be practised in peaceful and non-disruptive manner. If you are celebrating or doing a gathering and preaching, do it in a manner which does not effect the lives of others and most importantly does not harm the world we live in.

Kill bloggers, prove your faith!

2 days ago I received a notification from my TOI app ”Another secular blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh-fourth this year”

I was numb for a moment, a little inevitable anger as that was the fourth time in this year when I was about to read how an innocent blogger was killed by bunch of  blind fool religious clowns.40 years old Niloy Chakrabarty Neel was known for his atheistic views and killed by assailants with machetes inside his fifth-floor flat at North Gorhan in the capital Dhaka.

It all actually started in 2013,when a fundamentalists group published a list of 84 intellectuals and free thinkers to be “reduced to silence” and since then total nine of them have been killed, four of them in the past six months.No critic of fanatic Islam is safe in Bangladesh. The moment you start voicing your opinion and in case they are critical of Islam, your life is in danger.

This is exactly what  happens when your belief system is based on zero evidence and has to rely on faith. People who come along and question it, scary the bejesus out of them, and because of this fear, which they can not manage, they resort to base instinct of killing the problem. Mohammad the prophet of  Islam, did this exact same thing, those who questioned his rules and belief system, he had them killed in barbaric manners. So anyone saying that these killers are not true Muslims, they are just religious fanatics who chose the wrong path, are mistaken, they are devote followers of Islam and Mohammed.

Quran (2:191)
And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.

The cowardice of religion is shown in the way it responds to criticism. These radicals just can’t think beyond what they’re taught or what they believe in. They can’t think beyond what they are. They’ve apparently taken the law and order in their hands in following their religion! Recently ISIS executed 19 women because of their refusal to participate in the practice of sexual Jihad. I say it’s time when we have to realize that killing is not a sin and filthy pigs like these need to be killed.

Whom to blame in the end?
Some say as always that it has nothing to do with religion..it’s just bunch of followers choosing the wrong path. This is what I hear and read every time when something like this happens.”Religions and gods have nothing to do with these evil things. Religion is all about peace.” I seriously pity those who are still living in this delusion..

But we all know religions can never exist peacefully and in the end we will all come to realize that religions are the root of all evils.. Obviously some of  us have already realized and we call ourselves atheists but I think in some nations, it is dangerous now to call yourself an atheist. And you thought coming out as gay for you was hard? Try being an atheist!

But no matter how hard it is, no matter how dangerous it is, we are atheists by our choice and we will not fall back. We will not wait for something to happen, we won’t do candle marches because it’s worthless! If they think they are above law and order or anything in the name of humanity and ethics, there has to be someone to show them the right way, to educate their brainwashed minds if possible! We atheist have to do this job because we are the sympathizers of the better world of tomorrow.

Humans can be killed, not their ideas! These types of  incidents will only strengthen the growth of atheism in the world! “Break one, thousand will rise” Youth need to realize this. You need to realize this! You all are brainwashed! You have to understand what religions and these delusions of god have been causing in this world. At this rate we will never find peace and there will be never ending news of  killings of innocent bloggers and women on television. And to all religious extremists, with all these killings, you only keep justifying our theory: "Religions are the root of all evils".

Sad to see the voices of truth and sanity being muzzled. We will not let your spirit die.
Thank you,
Niloy.
                       

26/11-Years passed,nothing changed.

26 November 2008
The date of one of the biggest massacres in history of India.
I still remember it was around 10 pm and I was watching some movie
on TV and someone called me and told me to turn on the news
channel...
10 armed terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrified a nation for nearly 60
hours.A nation which has one of the most powerful militaries in the
world and a billion aspiring to be on the UN security council.Two of
the prime hotels,a landmark train station and a Jewish chabad house
were attacked and sieged.More than 160 people lost their lives,more than 600 got
injured,thousands lost their loved ones,millions panicked.A billion of
this nation were terrorized.City was Mumbai-financial,commercial and
entertainment capital and the most populous city of India.The famous
and 'infamous' city.Famous for its people and Infamous for its history
with terrorism.Mumbai faced 3 major terrorist attacks in 1993,2006
and 2008 and hundreds died in those attacks.A study by the institute
of economics and peace ranks India sixth on the Global Terrorism
Index.Mumbai has been the most preferred target for most terrorist
organizations,many operating with a base from Pakistan.Every time
you take a train or a bus in Mumbai,you can't help wondering in the
back of your mind, whether this could possibly be your last journey…
Nothing has changed.People got furious back then asking for a
permanent solution,asking for safety,asking for peace.Media as usual
showed special telecasts for days and opposed government and
politicians.Newspapers published hundreds of articles.People showed
their anger on internet.Celebrities also tweeted about peace and all
that.People saluted martyrs and news channels gave a tribute by
showing a special one hour telecast on their life.We also watched the news channels for hours for updates and all, we showed a huge despair,we showed pity to the victims and in the end we ended it by blaming the politicians and corrupt system.This is developing as a new 'Indian style' of reacting to any national issue,a new style of living-Blame everything-tweet suggestions-post on Facebook-forward messages on Whatsapp-put indian flags as dp on whatsapp-go on a candle march-pray for the victims-pray for the peace and at last once again blame the system while sitting quietly at home but do nothing.This is what we all do-this is what Indians do, right? Ask yourself-is this the real tribute to all heroism acts of the martyrs of 26/11? Is this what they died for? And it's not for this one time. We do this all the time.We did the same during the Anna Hazare's lokpal bill,Delhi rape case and many more.We protested for 20-30 days.Then nothing

happened,nothing changed…
After 26/11,nearly 17 terrorist attacks took place in India in which
nearly 100 humans lost their lives.17 may seem unbelievable but it is a
fact! So what are the roots of terrorism? India faces a primarily
jihadist terror threat from Pakistan as a state as Pakistan helps Al-
Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba .Although led by Arab terrorists, Al-Qaeda
is fundamentally a Pakistani organization and it is practically a branch
of ISI-Inter Services Intelligence.Both Al-Qaeda and the ISI share the
same ideological objective - establishment of the Islamic
Caliphate.Despite making all
welcome noises over bringing the perpetrators of 26/11
Mumbai massacre to book, none of the 35 main accused
listed in the Mumbai police charge-sheet have been
taken to task by Islamabad.In short the massacre of 166 innocent citizens in
Mumbai of 26 November, 2008 has been given a decent
burial by New Delhi except for stray mandatory noises
in the hope that Pakistan will not repeat the strike once
again.Sometimes it seems so unusual that why government is not taking any steps apart from seeking the help and praying all the time to UN.We have the 3rd largest active military manpower! Still we were brought down on knees by just 10 armed gunmen.Sometimes I wonder if it is just a part of a big conspiracy...
Islamic terrorists are in many different countries and are
working, independently of each other,taking their direction from the
top islamic mullahs.Our enemy is the islamic extermist who thinks
anybody who doesn't believe the way he does is the enemy and is
"fair game" to be murdered "in the name of Allah".One thread that
goes through all the terrorists countries in the world is islam.As an
atheist I can not stop thinking the religion as the root of all evil! Just for a second imagine a world without religion, imagine no suicide
bombers, no 9/11,no 7/7, no crusades, no Indian partition, no Israeli-
Palestinian wars, no Jihad…
We all know that 'the non religious world' is not gonna happen, not in
near future at least, although we want it to happen very fast but I
guess the odds are not in our favor, by 'we' I mean the atheists of this
world.So what is the solution then? There are many solutions but I
prefer only one:There is only one realistic way to tackle and stop
terrorism-'Enhanced counter terrorism'-that is to subject the terrorists
and their families to the same, or ,very much more intensity of pain
and agony they cause to the innocent public by their actions. We have
to include their families because they have failed in their social duty
and responsibilty to shape their children into rational human beings
and hence will have to pay the price. No other human method can ever
be understood by the terrorists- as they have learnt no other
language- and hence will not work.It is a gross failure on the part of
the society to think that "human rights" will have to be followed and
applied while dealing with terrorists.The government have to show
their willingness instead of praying to UN every time to take steps and
living in a make-believe world of peace.Some people just don't like the
idea of 'fighting'.However, when you are confronted with an irrational
enemy, who sees no sense or knows not what his aims really are,
other than blowing people because someone drilled into them or they
think they are doing this 'in the name of the Allah', what can you do
but fight and fight hard?
From an atheist point of view:

Our nation and its deeply religious people continue
to believe that religion is actually for the noble,
it is only misused by a few who are misguided.Well they are in a big delusion!

In secularism, We have been taught not to question or doubt another’s form of religion and gods or their method of prayer. So why blame the terrorists? It was their form of prayer! They were merely following their form of religion. So we shouldn’t act surprise by the violence!

There have been many dates like 26/11 and there will be many of them. Millions have died and will continue to die, until we realize that the only survivor is the religion and it will continue to kill!