UU

I have had quite a nice weekend. Starting with a nice evening with my colleagues on Friday. I guzzled down quite a few beers followed by a couple of gin 'n tonics and after a few good arguments with one of my colleagues came back home feeling rather happy!!! Its been a while since I had a hearty argument and I was thrilled :)

Had breakfast at V's on Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the day catching up with some reading that I had been putting away for one reason or another. In the evening I went for a play. It was an original production the theme focusing on different variations of characters out of the wild west. I enjoyed it. At the theater I also met a rather nice girl, N', who has also recently moved here from somewhere in the east coast. It was nice talking with her. I hope to see her again soon. She looked like the kind of person who'd be fun knowing. Lets see.

This morning, I at last got myself to go to the local Unitarian Universalist service. Its been a long time (more than 2 years) since I have been wanting to join the congregation and for one reason or another I kept putting it off. The final push I guess came this summer when I was visiting Oak Park, IL studying Frank Loyd Wright's architecture, and I found myself in an Unitarian Church that he had designed. I liked the atmosphere and that was the final push. In any case, this morning I finally managed to land up at their door.

This calls for a brief explanation about my faiths/beliefs. I am for all intents and purposes an Agnostic who comes from the Hindu tradition. Having gone to a Catholic school (and everybody else in the family having done so too) the Bible was not foreign to us while growing up. At home we were never instructed in any religion per se, the emphasis having always been on humanistic principles of truth and honesty. Ramkrishna and Swami Vivekanada were always there as guiding lights: good practical humans who exemplified the humanistic principals. Vivekananda with his inspiring practical speeches, Ramkrishna with his record of having practiced every religion and Sister Nivedita balanced the equation with her devoted service. All in all you have the foundations for a faith that puts humanity ahead of everything else. It also compounded the understanding that all religions are worthy of respect, and each had something wonderful to offer.

At home we primarily celebrated Durga Pujo, Kali Pujo and Saraswati Pujo (staples of Bengali socio-cultural life) and the other staple for a lot of people, Christmas (Borodin!) and New Years. For Id, it was a custom to eat a good biryani from Shiraz or Amina (oooooh!), and of course how can you ever forget that the best confectionary in the city: Nahoum's in New Market (Inspite of all the new fangled stuff these days, I still swear there is nothing as good as a rum-ball from Nahoum's) is the oldest Jewish business in the country. So all in all, I grew up with a strong belief in goodness and also the understanding that religions were essentially about celebrations... which automatically translated to good food, new clothes and always lots of fun. In Bengal there is a saying, "Bangali'r baro mash-ey tero parbon" - translated: Bengalis have 13 festivals in 12 months. So we grew up enjoying each of these festivals: the pearls that intersperced the colored beads in the necklace of our lives.

After I left Calcutta, I have never been able to find that same joy again. Bengalis the world over get together for Pujo and try their best to recreate that wonderful feeling of joy, that so closely defines the community in Bengal. But the further we get in time the more ritualistic such practices become, disconnected from the context to which they belong, till they lose their meaning. In the last few years, I have often found myself disappointed or even opting out of such occasions because of ridiculous reasons like "I'm tired." The spiritual nourishment is missing.

In the meantime I also came out, and be it enough to say that in the midst of such ritualistic practices, where the focus is on holding on to that which is lost, growth is limited and I don't expect any acceptance either. In fact the strong ritualistic edge scares me at times.

So here I am, almost thirty, a single professional, gay man who is still in touch with his humanistic spiritual background but without any opening to express or practice. The UU kind of fills in the space. Here are the main reasons why I chose the UU:
* They are the only liberal religion in the country with principals that are deeply seated in humanistic and spiritual approaches to equality and social justice. Read their principals.
* They emphasize on the plurality of religion, which is in itself a step ahead of the polytheistic approach and miles ahead of the narrow confines of monotheism.
* Its a congregation that is affirming to the BGLT community.

I liked what I heard and saw this morning. It was very welcoming and I was glad to see a couple of Indian families there. I look forward to getting involved with the community.

After the service, I went shopping and came back with a carved pumkin lamp (that sits on my picture window now, grimacing at passers by), holiday lights that I like to decorate my living room with, a bunch of candles (that I can't light because I forgot to get matches!!) and a wreath of dried maple leaves and berries that I have put up on my front door.