Taxi Drivers - Movies & Religion.

The last two times that I hired a taxi to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) from my apartment in LA, I came across a Serbian and an Armenian taxi drivers. A bit unconventional to my actual silent nature, whenever I take a taxi I start conversing with the drivers. On both the occasions I was surprised to learn that these people watched Hindi movies at some point of time in their lives and were aware of the legendary actor Raj Kapoor. This kind of makes me feel proud of being an Indian, that our movies are global right from the age of black and white movies.

But the opinion that these people have in general about Indian cinema is something the Indian filmmakers should consider giving a thought. I was awe struck by the observation of this Armenian driver, who said that the Indian movies were all routine and were based on the same kind of stories. The examples he cited wee 'Sita aur Gita', 'Ram Aur Shyam' etc. of course he had a point in it. Even we Indians are also so much into these love stories that we rarely admire any experimental movies from our film makers. Today, I was watching some Hollywood movies, where a teacher takes up all the responsibility to provide better education to her students, by getting them away from the gangsters, and the other movie in which a lady fights for the rights of her pets, some time back watched a movie on terrorist attack being screened from the perspective of different persons involved in the incident etc. the movies in Hollywood are never really love stories but they are commercially hit. I am sure, that these movies have great collections in India too, then why not Indian film makers make some good pictures apart from the routine love stories. Anyways, I am sick of the typical Telugu movies and Hindi movies, though I rarely watch them.

The other important discussion I had with this Armenian driver was ( sorry for referring him as a driver, since I don't remember his name) the awareness that he has about India, its history and politics. He is an Armenian who moved to the states about 19 years ago and he had worked as a baker and a taxi driver. He was one of those few guys I came across, who knows about India and its politics. This guy was talking fluently about the Indian prime ministers Indira and Rajeev Gandhi, about the circumstances that led to their assassination, about the partition. Though he knows that India was partitioned into two countries based on religion. He thinks that the religious partition was because of the fight between the Muslims and Christians, where as in reality it was the problem of Muslims not able to live with the majority Hindus. Of course from the further discussion I had with this guy made me think that his opinion was based on his experiences in his own country where Muslims had issues with Christians. Before he explained about his country Armenia, he challenged me that he knew about India and asked me if I could tell anything about his nation. Unfortunately I did not know anything about his nation. Anyways, moving ahead with his experiences, he said that Armenia had issues with the neighbouring Muslim nations and around 1915 Turkey invaded Armenia, committed forced conversions of Christians to Muslims and massacred thousands of people who did not obey. His family was one of those who suffered the pains and it was during that period when the Armenians fled all around the world. He told that France was the first nation that rendered a helping hand to them in times of need and all the nations had identified that genocide expect 2 of the powerful nations..one in the west and the other in the east. These were those nations that locked horns as part of the cold war and could not take action against Turkey because of its strategic geographic importance. I was however sorry for having made him talk about his painful past.

Things like the religious fanaticism of some of the groups in Muslim is seriously a threat to the world, which has already created a large scale havoc and disturbance all around the world. When the guy was explaining about the problems which Muslims caused to Armenians I recollected the havoc these people created in my own country and my own city. I am not sure how many of you remember this, but there was a period before Hyderabad was liberated from the clutches of Nizam, when the Muslims conducted a large scale murders etc..against the people in Telangana and Hyderabad which was known as Razakar Period (Razakar Zamana - as my grand mother puts it). I don't understand why these people are so hell bent on there own agenda and forcing the conversions to Muslims and treating other religions as enemies. We still run into communal clashes in my city and my nation.

Though my best buddies are Muslims, but the tolerance in Islam and followers of this religion is too much to be improved. They need to understand that every religion in this world is created to help the humanity lead a better life and they should need to understand the importance of other religions and the good in other religions. Anyways, I have my own ideas and understanding about my religion and other religions. But it is always a best practice to follow your religion and have respect for other religions.