Aurangabad, And Good
Playing cards in a field outside Aurangabad
I asked the kindly old Muslim man where we were. He said something. I was like OK. I’d woken up a hundred miles away. He asked whence I came, and how I liked it. “Aurangabad is a bit, well, dirty. I don’t like it.” He grinned. He said he was from there. Chagrin. The gentleman bought me a chai. I asked him where we were going, more generally.
The jist was, well, he’s conservative. A conservative Muslim. He believes the Koran is the word of God, the absolute truth and that this modern value system leads nowhere good. On many counts I agree. I mean, I asked him about homosexuality and evolution and stuff and we don’t agree on that, but on the crux, on that old-school morality, I dig. I understand it and in many ways wish I could live that way, but I am torn.
The issue with the old ways is choice. That the youth cannot choose. But – in my experience – it’s also hard to break away from western mores. If I say I’m waiting for sex till marriage my scene would laugh. If I don’t drink people look hurt. It’s not like they’re going to stone me or whatever, but it’s still hard to be different. Not that I am. I mean, I don’t know what I am, but part of me wonders whether one might just listen to what prophets and parents have been saying for years.
I told him this. I told him I agree, but it’s hard, and I worry about what people might think. That this is not the way of the world. That I don’t live among the umma and I tend to go along with whatever looks normal and right.
He smiled. He told me more, but one thing sticks with me. “Where are you going?” he asked. “Hyderabad,” I said. “If you want to get to Hyderabad, what does it matter if everyone is on the train to Mumbai?”
Really liked what you wrote here…I still stick to old school stuf as I’m comfortable with them…and care a fig abt how not “fitting in” with the new ways of the world…!Really nice post!
was the 7 in the photo intentional?
not intentional by me. By God perhaps?