Our Muslim maid’s daughter asked my wife, “Aunty, is Christmas a Muslim festival?” My wife asked her why she had asked the question. The little girl said, “Our teacher told us today it is not a Muslim festival.” The girl was most upset. Pain was written on her face, “What about all the gifts and fun we had?” She came back the next day with another query, “Is Diwali too not a Muslim festival?” We could offer her no explanation. All we could tell her is to come and get her Christmas gift and cake.This incident took me back many years, to life in our neighbourhood as a child. The memory brought back an old sadness. We had great fun when we were kids some decades ago. My father’s best friend was a Muslim and my uncles had Christian colleagues. Through the year we had many occasions to celebrate. At Dussehra, the Muslims and Christians would give us new clothes. At Diwali, they would bring us a variety of Indian sweets and fire crackers. And at Eid, they would bring plenty of exotic food, which we ate for a whole week.We never saw any difference in any of these festivities. To us, everything looked exciting and rewarding. We had no idea that forms of celebrations differed with religions. We only noticed that while we went to the temple on some occasions, others went to church and still others to the mosque. That did not bother us and we never inquired about that. Our neighbourhood celebrated all festivals with equal zeal.At Holi, we playing with colours. Once a fight broke out between two boys of the neighbourhood. One of the boys was a Muslim. He was told by his family not to play with colours. None of us took his objection seriously, until it led to a fierce fight. The whole neighbourhood was in a state of shock. We did have skirmishes among ourselves but never on the basis of religion. We all had hoped it would die down, and we would emerge reunited.Soon after this incident, we were visited by some local politicians belonging to different religions. They succeeded in dividing us with their fiery speeches. Gradually, our Christian and Muslim friends moved to other localities. We lost touch with them. What is left behind is the memory of the old joy of bonding at Diwali, Eid and Christmas.
