Wanted to share something that happened yesterday (25th Feb 13) when I was doing TA (Teaching Assistant) for a programming course. I forgot one of my student's name and he corrected me. I said sorry and in an further futile attempt to justify my mistake, I said that its hard to keep track of all student names etc...and we broke into a discussion and a third student also joined in...
Then this student started asking me about Islam religion. First I thought it as a general question and started answering him. Then I realized that he assumed I was a Muslim.I was shocked and maybe a little offended and quickly replied "NO!".. Then he said "Hindu?"...and I followed "NO!".. and before he ventured another guess I replied with a strong resounding answer, "Buddhist!". He smiled and said "Close enough!.. You all look the same..".
Later that evening, I was FB and saw another of these Halal posters claiming how different the Muslims were from Buddhists. But it seems, to a foreign eye, we all look the same. That got me thinking...the more I thought, the more similar we appeared to be. So these differences are nothing more than a problem of the perspective we take. You see the world through colored glasses and you ll see everything colored!. This post was not meant to claim anything more than a personal reflection I just had. Hope everyone will have similar experiences in the near future and will stop alienating all brothers in every other religion. We are people divided by casts, regions, provinces, elevation (upper country/lower country) etc... don't bring religion into the mix...and always remember, no matter how different you think you are, to a foreigner, you all look the same!.
Akila Subasinghe
26-02-2013
