Man and Human

Abad Nagar

It is the story of a village named Abad Nagar inhabited by both Hindus and Muslims together, about 40 years ago. The inhabitants were mostly farmers and labourers who lived together with peace and fraternity for which they were known far and wide. What the Hindus and Muslims living there stood by one other in their weal and woe and celebrated the festival together. They also fought together against the British in the freedom movement of India. But there came about a gradual change of independence of the country. Some bigoted politicians and religious tricksters cast their evil glance at this peaceful village of bliss. The simple and innocent farmers and labourers of the village could not get at the real motive of the cunning tricksters busy in horse trading and failed to keep themselves off their influence. This helped to promote religious differences souring the sweet relations among the villagers and widening the rift among them. Further, they busied themselves in searching out some clue, to humiliate one another.

Adopting a stubborn attitude, the Hindus and the Muslims decided to erect a temple and a mosque respectively side by side in the village. Competition and jealousy compels man to indulge in any action good or bad. Their ensued a keen competition among the Hindus and the Muslims prove their respective constructions superior to the others in all respects. The inhabitants got ready to invest in the construction, even at the cost of being half fed with their children. As a result of this competition, both the temple and the mosque turned out to be matchless compared to the temples and mosques in other villages. Even after the completion of the construction of the temple and the mosque, their attitude of humiliating one another did not seem to decline in the least, the Hindus planned a drainage system facing the mosque and the Muslims also followed suit. As a result of this the water emerging from the temple began to flow towards the mosque and vice versa. So both the Hindus and the Muslims stopped the flow causing a stink all around. Such is the result of a deed done with ill feeling. A situation of deadlock was created in offering prayers in the temple and the mosque owing  filthiness and stink. Both the Hindus and Muslims started blaming one another for the filthy and unhygienic environment prevailing around the temple and mosque. As a result of this, there was a gradual increment in the conflict and tension between the two communities leading to further complicacies and entanglements.

One day, a traveller happened to pass through this village. He was surprised and at the same time pleased to see a temple and a mosque erected side by side at the same place, he felt wistfully anxious to have a close view of the temple and the mosque. The temple and the mosque, though magnificence  had very thin presence of the devotees. There were only a few persons near the temple. On seeing this pitiable condition of the place the mind of the traveler was crowded with various kinds of questions and queries.

The traveller approached the mosque first to the know the real cause of this incident of this attendance of devotees. He asked the man present at the entrance of the mosque.

"May I have a meeting with the Imam (the high priest at the mosque)?"

" yes certainly," was the reply.

He took the traveller to the Imam. He saluted the Imam by way of courtesy and received a similar response. After that the Imam took him inside the mosque with due respect. The traveler said

"I beg your pardon for my untimely visit causing some inconvenience to you."

Imam replied consoling him,

"everyone is authorised to the shrine of God. I am highly pleased at your visit to this holy place." The traveler said

"Im surprised as well as pleased to see the magnificence of the mosque established here. Ive traveled different places but couldnt come across such a beautiful temple and a mosque erected so close to each other but at the same time, Im a bit puzzled to find such thin presence of worshippers to offer prayer at the mosque. Is there a dearth of Muslims in this village?"