Tuesday, November 08, 1994

MURDER - An Agnostic Overview

In one of those wandering, meandering, wanderings of my mind,
this, just quite a few days before I thought I'd given up on religion
I remember reading somewhere in some Holy book,
that till justice is not forthcoming,
GOD gets so very angry,
that His house in Heaven
continues to shake and rattle, when commits
a crime, called MURDER!

Why I asked dear GOD as only a child like me would ask Him
Why do you get so damn if man kills man,
since you have foreordained birth and death,
what does it matter to you, if we go ahead and murder somebody?

Till a very long time the thought continued to worry me,
GOD being busy elsewhere
did not bother to reply to me,
and since I love "GOD" much to much
and cannot quarrel with Him,
I have almost come around believing,
that GOD does not want to get involved,
in man's quarrel !

I pleaded,
But GOD we are going to die anyway,
so what if we,
figured out some sharp way and
squirted a little blood out, and dispatched
somebody to you earlier than necessary ?

After all you have created a fast paced world,
and wait a minute,
aren't we doing this everyday to dogs, cats....
even to the little chickens on our dinner tables ?

The thought last night ( the booming voice of of thunder) quite rightly was..

"I have planned your, coming and going,
you are only mortal,
I have taken lot of pain in working out,
the minutes details of your EVERYDAY,
and you had the audacity,
while I was busy elsewhere
to,

UPSET MY PLANS FOR YOU ?"

Because man has cheated on God's plan,
because Man decided to act God,
man therefore has to take the responsibility
to sort out this quarrel
to the 'satisfaction of all concerned'.

Hang him, set him free, forgive him or her or whatever,
justice is always forthcoming in a murder,
Time alone remains the greatest deception

Of late there is a murder story getting being printed everyday,
the space is growing,
with faithful representation of the crime,
reflective of our collective contempt for murder,
I am glad the space is growing,
for I think sooner or later,
we will have all the stories that we have been waiting for,
For all the murders dear Bangladesh bore,
of her sons, lovers and mistresses,
of all the patricide, matricide, homicide, infanticide,
......maybe even the '71 GENOCIDE !

It gives me immense pleasure that the process of GOD,
is already on the way,
we will have everything straightened out very shortly,
I trust you GOD thankfully,
while religions continue to quarrel endlessly,
as I revel for agnostic -ity.

But before I leave Dear God,
two questions,

of all your great inventions,
could you not have perhaps forgotten religion ?
Also please tell me,
what happens to those that murder in YOUR name ?

I guess, they still have not got this figured out
that YOU are not as small,
as they think YOU are !

Dhaka : 1994

Notes: Reflection on Late Major General Manzur's murders investigation. Hopefully the process of law will lead on to Sheiikh Mujibs' murder of August 1975 and if we are to look up the calendar of events of the same year the murder in January of Comrade Siraj Sikder - the first state approved homicide in independent Bangladesh, to my reckoning the first blood letting and our penchant for gory blood nostalgia.