Tolerance

Dear Tim,

Today I had a chancce to talk with my eleventh year students about life in Kolkata. One big aspect of Kolkata life is the Durga Puja, a huge seven day festival that transforms Kolkata in October. The statues I saw in Kumar Tuli yesterday were being created for Durga Puja, and will be awarded prizes. This festival celebrates the Hndu goddess Durga and comprises seven different offerings made to here during the festival.
You will be surprised to find out that second to Durga Puja, Christmas is another big holiday celebrated in Kolkata. The girls described the cakes and decorations, including Christmas trees that mark this Christian holiday. What also surprises me is that though I am teaching at a Christian school where the Lord's Prayer is said everymorning and the school song is a hymn, not all of the girls who attend are Christian. In fact, quite a few are Muslim and Hindu.
This brings me to a baffling realtiy of India, religion is seen as an extension of daily life from the shrines on the street to the statues of gods and goddesses in taxi cabs. But religion is not exclusive to daily life at all. In fact, Indians seem to embrace every religion at once. It is assumed that you have some belief and accept that everyone else does as well. The result is a kind of blurring of boundaries and an acceptance of constant spirituality. It is a shocking and refreshing experience for my Western sensibilities that say I must define myself as one denomination over another and not bother to learn or celebrate any other faiths or beliefs.
I think these students at St. Johns have a deeper respect for one another's faiths and beliefs than I have ever seen anywhere. That Christians, Hindus and Muslims can go to school together side by side, learning and appreciating one another is a refreshing experience, and a practice we should all learn to follow.