the more I try to be nonjudgmental, the more I see myself being judged by others.

question 1: why do people hold family as so sacrosanct? and not just their own but mine too, in their opinion of how important it should be for me.

situation: diwali. apparently being alone for diwali is the saddest thing people (south asians) can imagine. really? even if the person being alone is me, and I am not sad about it, but rather seem to like it, to be away from all of that exaggeration and noise and crowd, and over what?!

related question: why does an honest statement that you don't miss your family on diwali dismay people? why does it make them judge me as inhuman and cold?

question 2: religiously fervent people pity people lacking beliefs and look at you with shock and abhorrence. why?

situation: because I have a cartoon of hanuman on my office desk that is in no way derogatory but still a caricature of his mythological strength. and because I'm saying that this country makes one question the very idea of religion and although I still pray I don't know what the target of my prayers is.

question 3: (and I know I've said this before umpteen times) why do women who are also mothers consider other women - who're not planning to make a family or don't seem to care for those questions - to be less womanly? and why do they talk about kids as if its my duty to have some, as if I don't have a life if I don't?

I hope someday Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich will try answering those questions on Radiolab. till then this post was supposed to only say that I love what they're doing. their podcasts are not just informative, they make me feel like I'm there with them, travelling, learning, seeing for myself. and each is heartwarming, and in some ways a revelation into human life and existence.