A...B...See?

Today is International Literacy Day. Despite India having the highest number of illiterates in the world – nearly 304 million – I wish to celebrate it.

For, literacy is no guarantee to enlightenment. You know the alphabet, you learn to read and write, you can sign your name with a flourish, but can you ask probing questions? Can you seek answers? Do you make an attempt to accept that there are several ways of seeing?

This might seem like the elitist view of someone who has had the benefit of education. True. I would most certainly want every child to go to school. More importantly, I would like the parents to know how to bring up that child. And for the child to grow up and flourish in an open environment. Merely hitting out at someone whose views you do not like does not reveal any superior talent or even perspective. As a matter of fact it reveals ignorance.

Anyone who cannot fathom a simple sentence like, “On another note, a Muslim friend, yes friend, had told me a couple of months ago that I should find a Hindu rabble-rouser to keep me happy” cannot be literate, leave alone educated. Even a most simplistic reading will tell you that it means a Muslim friend, as opposed to anyone else, is equally biased when he told me to find a Hindu rabble-rouser. How different is this attitude from those asking me to seek jihadis? Is this not why I stated, “I guess there are lots of potential happiness-givers. That is also the reason I will not permit groups to be bracketed, any group”?

But what would an illiterate mind understand of this? That I only have Muslim friends and I am saying all Hindus are rabble rousers! I would say, holy cow, but that too will be deemed an insult to a certain religion…

Okay, from two comments in the mail, one a criticism, the other I am told was appreciation of my 'self-control'.

“The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.”

Thanks whoever you are. Heaven can wait.

“I have to say you have a fantastic appetite to take criticism and insults.”

No. I differentiate between a critique and criticism. Flinging pieces of glass is not the same as showing the mirror. Also, my standards for accepting praise as well as critiques are extremely high, and both need to come from a genuine desire for dialogue in a language that is coherent. Well, praise can come just like a dewdrop on a flower; I rather like subtlety.

As for insults…were there any? I say what I always say: if I haven’t received something then it has remained with the person attempting to give it.