It was friday 16th july 2010, 8 am, i was in college sitting in my class room, waiting for classes to commence, at 8 there is an usual morning prayer to which everyone 'must' stand wherever they are, if they are walking in the corridor they must stop walking and stand, even if they are somewhere inside the campus(which is not very big), they must stop doing their work and pray, there are loud speakers on the exterior walls(no intercom speakers, great infra-structure) so that everyone hears the prayer, my college is an christian institution so obviously they only do a christian prayer, they don't care if the person who 'must' stand is a muslim or a hindu or an Atheist like me or belonging to any other religion and forces them pray their prayer. This is a college and prayer is compulsory like for a primary school kid. So i thought who the hell are they to decide whether i have to pray or not and did not stand up for prayer and continued doing my work, the lecturer for the first hour spotted 2 other girls me and another one sitting, she is a religious person and i don't blame her, she got angry like a primary school teacher, she sent those 2 girls to meet with the H.o.D and were asked to write an apology letter for not doing the prayer, punished not exactly like in primary schools but as stupid. The lecturer asked me why i was not standing, i said i did not want to pray, she was like shell-shocked to hear that, but she continued her work just after muttering a little 'good' advice. I did not care but after her hour, when i was in the next class, i was called for by the H.o.D, she had complained and maybe the H.o.D thought that was bad behaviored and he needed to talk to me like in primary schools, i went there to his staff room where all of my I.T department staff had their seats, H.o.D is a soft-speaking good person who also teaches well, he asked "what happened today morning sir?", i said i did not stand for prayer, "why?" i did not want to pray, "why, why? what your problem, when all others can , are you trying to be a role model? why you thought it's not good to do a christian prayer huh?", i said , no sir i am an Atheist so i did not want to pray and i was not trying to be role model, i thought i can decide personally, he said "then you do one thing join "va@#$%b"(i did not hear what he said) college that Periyar college know, join that", i got positively excited when he said cos, everyone in my college in some capacity wants to join some other college or at least secretly desires so, then he said "ok first take paper and write a letter why you did that", i took the paper and happily went out the room, for a minute i felt proud, and wrote a letter, i wrote on lines of you have no right to ask me to pray, i did not do anything wrong, according to my policies praying is wrong and i won't regret doing these and these kind of things, and i gave it to him and stood there while he read my 15 line letter, he took time and said , "ok go, go and attend class", i came back.
I don't know what had happened after i came from the room, but H.o.D came to the classes with that letter in the hand stood outside for a few secs and went back to his room, then in 4th hour which is hour of the class in-charge of my class 3rd year I.T 'B' section, she came made us stand for a while and then she started addressing the class saying she never thought we would be like this, not looking into my eyes, but i was staring at her, really wanted to know what her reaction would be like cos, she also was a religious person, then she said that don't act like what others have taught you, don't imitate them blindly(ya i don't i prefer logic and reasoning), you are just small children(oh ya 20 year old children, enough to produce children) and inexperienced to take decisions, somebody asked her why are you talking about this topic suddenly, she said "chumma i finished my portions", then suddenly she said she cried many times after joining this college(that one is common to students and lectures too i thought) and then she shed a few tears and asked "how many are absent today?" 18 was the answer, so everyone thought she felt hurt for so many bunked classes on fridays, she said no other department has such record, she was wrong in the C.S.E department 21 were absent, and it was for my reaction to the morning prayer she shed those tears, or i felt so.
For the evening prayer i stood though, cos my class in-charge was passing by and i did not want to make her cry another time, she is on of the very few lectures in our college who had some some knowledge of what they were lecturing and was an excellent teacher. People join my college as lectures in their very early carrier just to gain some experience and leave for better colleges after they have gained the so called experience, they normally lack knowledge of the subject and don't teach well. As far as i am concerned i don't know if i'll stand up for these stupid prayers here after. This is Loyola Institute of Technology my stupid college.That pic below looks very similar to what i feel when ever i was forced to pray.
