Never On A Sunday
It was Connie Francis who sang *Never on a Sunday* and made it her own. She warns everyone in this song not to kiss her on a Sunday as it is her day of rest! While thinking of her well known song I feel in my heart the need to say a thank-you to her even though she is no more with us for giving me the cue for this article. For whenever I'm in Goa on a Sunday, not only is Sunday a day of rest for me but something more. I am from a village in south Goa along the busy tourist coastal belt. Sunday, which is a weekly church going day for most Roman Catholic people, can be quite restful. After mass, however, a lot of local folks congregate in cafes along the coastal villages and towns in south as well as north Goa, and indulge in a hearty breakfast of deep fried foods most of which - you guessed it - are not at all healthy. I always make it a point whenever I can to visit various cafes along the coast and coastal villages where I often feel like a voyeur, all good clean fun though. It is as if Goan Roman Catholic spirituality has been satiated for the day, can take no more, and it is now time to balance body and spirit. Please spread the word widely so Indian and foreign tourists can also participate and enjoy this after-church-breakfast-activity and restaurants which specialize in Sunday morning after church breakfasts can do even better business than now. God bless the good people, the ones who cater to the faithful and the ones who enjoy an after church breakfast too. I only wish the food were a lot more healthy. "It's not necessary to believe in God to be a good person," said Pope Francis recently. Nice to hear the good news as I do not believe in God nor do I go to church. An important and radical comment if you consider the statements of previous popes and leaders of the Roman Catholic Church over decades and centuries. Maybe shocking, even. A good man, this pope is, although I've always viewed the papal seat as the devil's workshop. Will I go to hell for my belief? If so, will I be condemned and deep fried unlike Italians who go to hell but are given olive oil and not high cholesterol coconut oil. Life is not fair, is it? Now the current pope who is also a great man is sadly trying to revive a two thousand year old dead body. It is too late. He should walk away from his own Church the way King Edward VIII who was the British monarch and head of the Church of England did in 1936 when he walked away from the throne all for the sake of the woman he loved! Another great man, indeed. If the Pope walks away from the papal seat he will create a big bang which will reverberate all around the world even filtering into our media and local newspapers. Breaking news, this. Most people know every silver lining has a dark cloud and Sunday for people like me can be more stressful than restful. For, you see, whenever I meet someone on Sunday on the street or anywhere else, the usual how-are-you greeting, is invariably followed by I'm-going-to-church or I'm-coming-from-church statement invariably emblazoned on a pious-looking face. They look more fearsome than my idea of hell. As John Stewart often said on his late and famous show, ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for the international moment of Zen and, for me personally, the all-important question: Have you been to church? That question I have heard more times than my math skills allow me to keep track. My deep belief in living harmoniously brings me almost to my knees every time I hear the question even though I'm not in church. The truth is simple: I do not on a Sunday visit God's house - church or temple or mosque or any other- as it is not God's. The edifice in fact - old or new - is made by men and women. That is not God's effort, it is the effort and glory of the human ego. When people step out of the holy edifice of whichever religion it may represent - no doubt made by human beings - and then go beyond the human made asphalt car parks and compound walls only then do they enter God's house. What human beings have built since the beginning of history can never be attributed to God. That is our wonderful ego which has the same meaning in all languages in the world whichever way it is spelt - Romi or Devnagiri or any other. And, it is for this reason, and our extremely egotistic way of thinking which makes it so easy for us human beings to destroy the environment - air, water, mud, trees, … God's house! When I'm next in Goa I'll visit after-church-breakfast-eateries where I will not indulge myself by eating oily food as it is not good for my health, and besides, I'm diabetic although I promise only to look. As the Kashmiri salesmen and saleswomen love to say: looking is free!
