Meera Nanda in her book " The God Market " says that religiosity is increasing among India's youth. Excerpts from one of her articles :
""According to the 2007 State of the Nation survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies among Indians, the level of religiosity has gone up considerably in the past five years. A mere five per cent of respondents said that their religious belief had declined, while 30 per cent said they had become more religious. The same poll found that education and exposure to modern urban life seem to make Indians more, not less, religious: "Urban educated Indians are more religious than their rural and illiterate counterparts [...] religiosity has increased more in small towns and cities than in villages ""
""Another measurable indicator of rising religiosity is the tremendous rise in pilgrimages or religious tourism. According to a recent study by the National Council for Applied Economic Research, religious trips account for more than 50 per cent of all package tours, much higher than leisure tour packages at 28 per cent.""

But in my humble opinion, Religiosity is actually decreasing among today's youth. The old religious traditions are fading, the old norms of society based upon religion are giving way to more modern norms. For example, it has been my observation that inter-caste marriages are becoming more common ( though still a tiny minority ) , reflecting the fading importance of religious diktats among the youth. Moreover, people are becoming more flexible with their diets, shedding the old hindu taboos of compulsory vegetarianism. Many orthodox hindus in north india include eggs in their diet now, if not meat.

True, as revealed by the survey quoted by Meera Nanda, religious tours are increasing in popularity. But the rise in their popularity can also be explained by the general increase in prosperity and income levels.

It has been my observation that in Indian society, religion is something of a " fashion", with people performing religious rituals to conform to the social trend. Such tendencies, as per my observation, tend to be more pronounced among females, who , in general, are under more social pressure to conform to the norms of society, including religious norms.

it is my belief and hope, that with increasing economic growth and hence prosperity and better educational facilities, and more and better vocational opportunities, the mindset of Indians would become more flexible , open to new ideas. Better education and better jobs would make people more broad-minded and make them realise that there's much more in this world than gods and rituals. Whats more, globalization , both economic and cultural , would make the youth aware of global developments, and make them realize that their religious customs are by no means universal , and of course, make them aware of the fact that religion is coming under severe crticism in the west.

Economic growth is bringing better job opportunities , and many of these job opportunities are in a place far away from a person's hometown. For example, a person from UP going to Bangalore for a plum job in IT sector. ( Earlier, most people preferred to work in or near their home state/town). This would expose the youth to a new culture, and since the gods and rituals are quite different in Bangalore than in UP, this would make the person aware of the fact that his religiuos customs are not universal, and he is likely to realise that religious customs are merely arbitrary creations of human imagination, hence they differ from region to region. The person would now no longer attach a great importance to his religious customs, knowing that they are arbitrary.

In any case, the fast pace of life would leave little time for people to devote to religious customs and rituals. Whats more, since more and more women are taking up jobs, they would have little time for relgious worship and rituals , compared to their mothers and grandmothers. Also, many of the old superstitions are highly absurd and often impractical to follow : for example, its a taboo to get a haircut on thursdays, and buy iron/steel products on saturdays-- such absurd, impractical taboos would be rejected by well-educated youth.

Greater economic prosperity would make people quite geographically mobile , and as a result, people of different cultures and religions would meet more often. This would dilute the importance of religious customs in the people's minds, since they would realise that the other person performs different religious customs and rituals, yet is doing quite well. Ultimately, this would reduce the importance of religious customs in everyone's mind.

Achievement or Punishment ?

While evaluating the various career options available to me, I have examined the option of applying for the post of Probationary Officer in Nationalised banks. Selection is based on performance in a written test followed by an interview. While the only formal requirement is a graduation degree, I have also considered pursuing a diploma in banking from Indian Institute of Banking and Finance , to gain advantage for selection in the interview ( diploma-holders are given preference for recruitment by certain nationalised banks ). One can attempt the Bank PO selection exam upto the age of 30 years.

Sounds like a good plan. A systematic method of recruitment, no major investment required, and the possibility of gaining an upper hand in the interview because of my diploma qualification in banking . And of course , the peace of mind that comes with a lifelong permanent sarkari naukri with the benefit of perks like LTC, medical benefits etc.

But wait a minute : Where will i get posted ? No, not in the swanky neighbourhoods of South Delhi or amidst the splendour and glamour of Gurgaon or Bangalore. But , in all likelihood, I would have to render my services to the nation , posted in a dusty, sleepy town in Uttar Pradesh. Common, small towns have their own charms : Simple, rustic people, lush green fieds, open skies, relatively pollution and traffic free environments. Of course, well, regular power supply would be too much to ask for. I would get rewarded for my hard work with power cuts ranging anywhere from 4 hours to 10 hours in duration, possibily even more in peak summer season. And did you mention internet or Facebook ? Nah, these are luxury items for the humble servants of the nation , who relenquish the comforts of modern life for the benefit of the aam aadmi of rural and small town india.

My life would be enriched by the constant pleasant sounds made by the generator sets , their pleasant and rejuvenating exhaust fumes. ( That is, if there are generator sets where i live ) It would be a great privelege for me to taste the sweet sweat of my body , and to have the enjoyable experience of having my sweat drip from my arms , drop by drop. I might even be inspired to write a book " Tales of my experience with heavy-duty perspiration".

Common, not all things in life require electric power to work. You can read a newspaper , provided you have an "emergency lamp ". Wait a second, what did you say, newspaper ? haha.. do you really think english newspapers are published from Gorakhpur or Sitapur ?

Now wait a minute, don't other bank officers and clerks stay pretty much in the same environments and continue doing their job without complaining too much. After all, a bank officer gets a handsome salary. Is that not compenstion enough for the tough living conditions ? But then, there's a difference between me and other officers : The other officers have families back in their hometowns, and they have to " sacrifice " worldly comforts for their wives' and kids' welfare. ( thats what my father did all his life ). But whom would i "sacrifice" for ? Being a non-believer, I would never get to experience the bliss of married life . Hence , I would have no family to sacrifice for. My stay at Sitapur would seem futile : After all, what would i do with INR 25000 in a place without regular power, shopping malls, or good restaurants ? ( Money-currency notes have no intrinsic value, they are just pieces of paper. They have value only when they can be exchanged for attractive consumer goods or services )

I would wonder whether my job selection was an achievement or a punishment .

I have been very depressed since the past 2 days. At this hour, the depression seems to have subsided. I am taking this opportunity to write about the thoughts occuring in my mind since the announcements of the "results"
I have worked very hard for the past 7 years of my life. I have worked with good , if not exceptional , dedication and with ambition and planning. But I have got nothing in return, other than frustation, depression and mental illness. These 7 miserable years have destroyed my youth, my career , my life beyond repair. For the first 3 years, my hard work went waste because of B12 deficiency and the resultant memory and cognitive decline. Thereafter, it was mental illness which made my life hell and ruined any attempts to revive my career. And now this case of fraud has destroyed the effort i had put in since last year.
All these years of putting in hard work , but getting only frustation as result, have completely sapped me of morale. I wonder if i would ever be able to gather the motivation and dedication to re-start my career. Doing goal-oriented work requires motivation and dedication, where will i find them now ?
The most frustating thought is " Wish I hadn't worked hard, then i would have not been so depressed on getting a poor ( or no ) result ...... Its better to do nothing , and expect to get nothing , than working hard but getting no result "


one part of my mind says " manu, do not give up , try something new. work hard for a new goal and you will surely succeed " , while the other part of my mind says " .. haha, even after 7 years of continous failure, you still have dreams of success... what a fool you are "

How to make friends in india?

The past 7 years of my life have been dominated by two central themes- the first phase , from 2003 to 2006 being dominated by B12 deficiency and its disastrous effects on my memory, mood and of course, academics and career. Then the second phase , from 2006 onwards dominated by mental illness - something which has destroyed whatever i had in life.
Both these central themes have one thing in common- they are taboos in this country. B12 deficiency is extremely common in india, yet few know about it. There is little awareness ,either amongst the general public or the doctors, despite its alarming prevalence. Most probably, the absurd lack of awareness of such a common disease is due to the fact that this condition is linked to vegetarianism. In a country where many communities consider eating meat a ghastly sin, awareness about any medical condition related to this religious practice would be almost nil.

Due to cognitive and memory decline , my performance in academics during the most crucial phase of my career, declined greatly, and ultimately i fell prey to the stress and humiliation of watching one's career destroyed before my very eyes . I succumbed to full-blown mental illness- depression, anxiety, OCD . This destroyed attempts to revive my career, and has left me with no choice other than joining a substandard distance education course, which , has proved to be a simple case of fraud.

I have joined social networking sites like Facebook and DailyStrength, and i have made a great number of friends there with history of mental illness, but my greatest complain has that been that hardly any of those friends are from my own country, India. Understandable , since there is almost nil awareness of mental illness in india, so there its extremely difficult to find a mentally ill person , or someone who knows a mentally ill person. I have a strong suspicion that most mentally ill people in india simply commit suicide, as the society considers their problems to be symptoms of cowardice and weakness , instead of a severe illness. Unable to bear the double burden of severe suffering and the humiliation and condemnation, most of them commit suicide, and the Indian police force would register a criminal case under IPC.( Attempting suicide is considered illegal in india )

When i had gone to my distance education psychology class, i had told my classmates that i had joined this course due to my background in mental illness. Most of them just responded with puzzled faces . It was clear that even they did not know what mental illness is. I had thought that atleast students who have come to study psychology , would know something about mental illness, but it was clear that even they wondered what on earth was mental illness .
But i have noticed something else- that when i tell my facebook friends about the reality of B12 deficiency , most of my foreign friends seem to read and respond, but indian friends do not. It seems that they are too offended by the reality that their religious customs can make people severely ill.

It seems that Indian society is extremely immature and backward even today, and continues to have taboos ,superstitions, prejudices and lack of awareness about very important and basic issues. And i have been a victim of two of these taboos one after another.....