Heart-to-Heart

Pain, Panic and Prayers

Dear Readers,

This post begins with thanking you for reading.

Several posts are ready to be shared. Some specially designed to thank you all, with art, and imagery and even a short upcoming movie.

But today, I want to do a bit heart-to-heart. Substack tells me that this blog is read in 18 countries, and 13 US states.

If you can, please read this till the end.

On this blog, I write both from academic and creative standpoint.

I have shared pictures, ideas, movies, poems, stories, memoir and some academically oriented posts, especially the series on Media and Its Ways.

There is some opinion too, but all of it is wrapped in context to ensure that the arguments are sound.

As grateful as I am that people read, sometimes, when I am notified of ‘unsubscription’, it stings.

People have the choice. So, it shouldn’t.

But when have people unsubscribed?

When I have written about Hinduism or talked about Media bias.

I only see the drop in numbers. But I know enough about correlation to notice when exactly does the drop happen.

This post itself might become a series. For now let me begin.

My hands are trembling as I write. My heart pounds. I am angry but the tears that I want to shed have dried.

I mourn the death of the lively, starry eyed person I was ---who was raised on Hinduism—‘Vasudev Kutumbhkam’—The world’s a family.

We learnt all religions were good, all people were good.

There was no original sin, and we were all born divine.

My travels taught me something entirely different.

Let me clarify, I have lived on a country in each continent. You name a country –quite likely I have met, known- have shared a meal with a person from that country. At least once. Mention any religion or race, I am close friends with them, even today.

When I say close friends, I mean visiting them, eating with them, celebrating with them and keeping in touch over the years, across the continents.

“We won’t kill you, go tell Modi” said the terrorists to the woman, after shooting her husband. April 22, 2025

Knowledge of the World

Most of the world has been converted into two Abrahamic faiths, both of which believe that their prophet is the last, and the only representative of God. And the kingdom of God will come when the entire planet has converted to their faith.

It was learning all that, that made me want to learn about Hinduism.

For we have no Sunday schools, no madarassa for religious teaching.

We Hindus were told to simply put our noses to the grind and study hard and take care of our families.

I arrived in the US towards the tail end of ‘dot-busters’. The dot-busters openly talked about killing people who wear Bindis—the dots….that Hindus wear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotbusters

But starry eyed that I was, I never thought much about it.

I attended catholic mass and Lutheran sermons. I just wanted to hear good words. I always bowed to any image of Jesus, as I would when I see Krishna or Rama.

Then I started my second degree at a very prestigious university in the US.

The mighty Penn State.

There I encountered ‘The Willard Preacher.’

A young man in his 30s, his ‘job’ was to stand outside the Willard Building and denigrate all ‘non-Christian’ faiths.

All the ‘—isms’ as he called them.

Willard is the busiest building on campus, so he gets maximum traffic.

For eight years, four as a student and four as an instructor, I heard him nearly everyday insult what my parents follow, what I believe in¹.

What do I believe in?

That we are all divine. That Jesus is a son of God, not THE only son of God. That Allah is another name for Krishna and Rama.

But for being open, Hinduism was denigrated.

The question is, ‘Who was paying Willard Preacher’s salary?”

Why did no one stop him from speaking? How about all the academics, the open-minded people who write about ethics, and power of words?

The question remains, ‘Who and why was someone paying for this man’s salary?”

There is a whole another story of the International Hospitality Council, which offers cheap trips for foreign students. The primary aim of which is to introduce you to Christianity. Most trips happen on a weekend and often students are expected to attend Sunday service. In the pamphlets offered in their office, this is what they had to say about Hinduism, (paraphrased) “In talking to the Hindus it is important to keep superiority of Jesus. Hindus were colonized by the British and have a sense of inferiority.”

Still, I remained on friendly terms with the leader of the group. Both he and his wife were good people. And I could not believe that people can hold such negative thoughts about a nature loving faith like Hinduism.

One Diwali, our festival of lights, I woke up to hear a pastor on TV say, “Indians live in the dark, because they have not seen the light of Jesus.”

On Diwali 1999 (you can look it up) Pope John Paul II said in his visit to India “Hope Christianity takes root in India like it has in Latin America.”

Imagine, on the day that is equivalent of Christmas to the Hindus.

And imagine then hearing people say, ‘Christianity is the religion of love.” We are told repeatedly that our ancestors were stupid, heathen, infidels—and we are to believe that these faiths are of love and peace?

In 2008, when I was living in Fiji, I watched live on TV Hindus being massacred in one of the finest hotels in Mumbai. In fact, their targets were Hindus and Jews.

They killed based on religion. They were also wearing sacred threads on their wrist, so in case they died, their bodies scorched –in the cross-fire—and by any luck their wrist survived the attack, it would be labelled as a Hindu terrorist attack.

They were young Pakistani men, trained to kill both Hindus and Jews.

Check out November 26, 2008. It was for that reason I started the series on Media and its ways. We all know 9/11, how many know 26/11?

In the last several years, numerous Hindu girls have been found in body bags, cut into pieces by their Muslim boyfriends after they refused conversion.

Then slowly I started to learn about the massive conversion projects by countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, Australia and even Sweden. This blog should tell you about my love for Sweden. So, learning about Swedish Church being all over south of India feels like a sister betraying me.

A few months ago, on Substack I read a blogger’s tagline, “The future is Christian.”

What does that mean, I wondered. That no other thought will be allowed to exist?

How is that a definition of love? Or diversity? or peace?

A question:

For all that we have heard about Palestine in the last 1.5 years, how many of you have heard of other war between two Muslim countries? Check out what has been going on in Yemen for a while. But we never hear it.

That is the reason I do the series on media.

Media that shines the light on what it wishes and hides what it wants, including those who pay for these news stories to be shared.

How many of you know that as of now Hindus are being killed (genocide) in Bengal (as state within India, that has a large Muslim population), Bangladesh (for nearly a year now)? How much have you been forced to watch and hear about it, compared to how much you have heard about Palestine and Gaza?

The red bangles she is wearing are a sign of newly married woman. They are to be removed on the first anniversary of the wedding, after which she is supposed to have assimilated in the family. The couple married on April 16, 2025. The husband was shot dead by terrorists after they ensured he was a Hindu on April 22, 2025

Why Today?

(This will turn into a series.)

People are welcome to unsubscribe.

But I must share.

Today, On April 22, 2025—20 plus people have been killed in Kashmir.

The terrorists asked the men their name, which is indicative of their religion. Then asked them to drop their trousers to check their circumcision status and shot them.

Yes, ensured they were Hindus and shot them.

A movie titled the Kashmir Files was released about 3 years ago showing what happened in Kashmir. Some scholars called it ‘Propaganda film.’ It just so happens that one of my brothers-in-law grew up there and like others had to flee.

On January 19, 1990—that is right 1990---barely 3 decades ago Hindus woke up to slogans ‘Convert, leave or die.” By their Muslim co-habitants. The internet did not exist. And I had already been out of India for a while. Not that it mattered because even people living in India never heard about it.

A quiet genocide of a nature loving people. Because they believe that entire world is divine. Because they create beautiful images, because they paint and sing and dance.

Did you hear about it? For all the talk on what Gaza is going through, how much did you know about the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir? Or presently from Bangladesh and West Bengal (a state in India)?

Hence the series, Media and its Ways.

I need to stop. It’s been difficult to breathe. The silence of educated people—and even friends is hard.

Be nice for educated people with hearts to rise up and say, ‘no more conversions, pull all our churches back, not more ‘missions’, instead teach people that Allah and Krishna are the same, May there be a 100 more prophets –all spread, love and understanding and peace…..

Let good educated people acknowledge there are 100+ Christian nations, 50+ muslim nations. There are only 2 hindu majority nations. Only 2, and they are not allowed to live in peace.

Let good educated people from Abrahamic faiths acknowledge the forced conversions, and the fact that many languages, religions and cultures have been eliminated in promoting their understanding of the divine…

For future is not Christian or Muslim,

The future, is, should always be Human.

Sadly the only one saying Vasudev Kutumbhkam---(the world’s a family)—the only one saying you can believe what you will, one God can have many names and numerous forms, God does not punish you for choosing the way wish to worship— will be the silly, idealistic Hindu, even as he/she is being brutally killed.

To be continued….

1. His primary argument was that only one religion is right. All other religions are fake or from the devil.—distracting you all. And every so often he would name the ‘—isms’ and talk against them