Monday, December 21, 2015

So this does happen ...

Yesterday I was on tram in Zurich and a guy comes and sits next to me. He looks at me again and asks - do you speak English. I say yes. Then he fetches something from his bag. I thought maybe he wants me to read something, and I am thinking I cannot translate it in German! He shows me a 2016 calendar - "for you" and I notice that he has bag full of those in many languages. I say, thank you - is it from your company? He said - no its for Christ - or something like that. I am flipping through it, its nice calendar and I don't mind what's written on it. I still say thank you.

Then he starts saying something about - our God died for humanity .... one true God. Something that I am not really interested in following, I have other things to think about. So I try to return the calendar and tell him - I am sorry I cannot take it, I am Hindu. Then I add I am not Christian, just to make sure he gets the message. He insists keep the calendar and then adds something like - you know ours is true religion because our God dies for sins or something like that. First I am surprised, then I am thinking should I keep the calendar? Then I read a line from calendar which could very well have been a line from Geeta about loving human beings. So I show him the line and say - all religions say the same, you have your belief and I have mine. He is still muttering something about someone died for something. Its my stop, so I getup, decide to keep the calendar, say thanks again and leave.

This is the first time ever that I have had such encounter. I often see people near hauptbahnof distributing calendars, papers about God. They don't stop you because they can see you are not least interested. Here I was a captive audience, and of course I accepted the calendar in first place, so can't blame him. I found it quite amusing in the end. 

1 comment:

Rajesh Jenny said...

haha.. Tulika. You are lucky you got this encounter first time after so many years.. Even they come home.. How much ever you insult they smile and come back.. :)