Insiya Amir: The more things change...

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

I t was 'live music' night at a popular nightclub in Mumbai. I bumped into some old friends, who were there with some new friends. One of them, Bashir, seemed most interested to engage in (any) conversation once he found out I am a Muslim. He began with telling me about the "looks he gets" when he is travelling in the 'first class' of a local train "" because he has a long beard (without a moustache, mind you) and wears jeans and a t-shirt. "Once there were these stockbroker-types who kept looking at me suspiciously... I finally had to call up my girl friend and say, 'Hey babe, what's up?' to ward them off," he proudly told me.

"You know," he went on, "They don't expect you to dress the way I do if you are a Muslim."

"But they expect you to keep a beard?" I asked.

"Well, I started keeping it because I want to feel what real Muslims face everyday," came a pat reply.

Apparently, people like Bashir are hot property. He looks urban enough, speaks fluent English and views the world through "Muslim lenses". He says he wants to change the way the world thinks of Muslims, and so on. "We are not grimy people who spend their entire day praying in one corner or going to dargahs," he said. [Bashir said he was on his way to a much-romanticised UN job in Israel.]

"So," he asked, "What do you do?"

"Well, I am going to get married to a Hindu boy," I said, just to test the 'real' Muslim in him.

"You know, we need to keep our identity alive. This is what they want and you are doing just that. They want to wipe us out!" he exclaimed.

That was the last thing I heard Bashir say "" he was making me uncomfortable and contesting his outburst would ruin my evening, so I ran as fast and as far as I could.

But what he said stuck. There is no hope if this is what the 'new' Muslim is like, I kept thinking.

So I asked my ageing driver what he thought of my marrying a Hindu boy. I expected him to deliver the Islamic equivalent of Hail Marys and then not talk about anything at all "" the usual reaction "" so to get him talking I told him about Bashir.

I was very surprised with what he said. "I don't know what has got into these youngsters beta. Who are they to say who you can marry? Imagine, he thinks that marriage translates into losing one's identity! In this day and age, you think these kids are 'modern' and will change the world, but no!"

His 23-year-old grandson, Ahmed, prohibits him from consuming alcohol, even once in a while, accusing him of being a kaafir.

Ahmed even makes sure that everyone in his family prays five times a day. He has no friends and recently got into a huge brawl with a very close friend of his for seeing a non-Muslim girl. He has no hobby either and considers entertainment a waste of his time. "He is nice boy," said my driver. "He looks like an executive and talks like one also. I was the one who wanted him to go to an English-medium school. I sent him to a co-education college also. I wanted him to get a good job and not join our 'line'. Staying in our colony would be bad for him... I thought exposing him to diverse cultures would open up his mind. Little did I know that this is what he would learn there."