Nose pressed up against the glass pane

It seems to be in my face. It's everywhere I turn. And I don't understand why.

Try this little experiment. When waiting at a traffic signal, try peeping into the vehicle next to you. More often than not, you'll see either a piece of orange cloth with gold tinsel around the edges tied up somewhere inside, a small Ganesha statue placed perfectly up front, a large silver sticker with Bismillah written on it in green or black or perhaps a Cross dangling from the rearview mirror.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it or reading between the lines more than I need to. Perhaps it's a harmless gesture to keep the Almighty in mind. However, I can't ignore that it's as though everyone seems eager to make their faith public.

I've grown up in this city and it's home to me. I've strolled it's strets, watched the city's landscape change, people evolve. The changes so far have been good. Flyovers, underpasses, malls and now the Metro under construction. But faith has never entered the public sphere.

It's always been your own business whether you chose to read namaz at home or do pooja, visit the Gurudwara or the Church. My friends have always been from varied backgrounds, the least coming from the background to which I belong. So these subtle displays that make very strong statements creating an obvious difference between my car and the one next to me, concerns me.

Communal chasms are widening in this country. My city is a stark indicator having been one to whom such matters never mattered.

The statistics are disturbing.