Enjoying Secular India

Perhaps I'm looking at India all wrong. Actually, to think of it that way, of COURSE I'm looking at India all wrong, but I'm also looking at it correctly. There is enough India to go around.

Why I may, however, be seeing India all wrong is that generally speaking, I'm not interested in seeing Temples and mosques and churches. I've been to a few sure, this is India. Religion is such a huge part of the cultural background here that it's difficult to ignore completely. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not Hindu, I don't plan on becoming a Hindu, marrying a Hindu, or remotely having anything to do with reasons in which I would go into a Hindu temple for reasons other than tourism. Now, with that said, I don't quite understand using temples as tourist destinations. I always feel like I'm missing something. For example, I went to a beautiful church in Evanston, IL when I lived there, but I didn't take people to see it very often. In my mind it's hard to really get anything out of a religious place if I'm not into that religion. As it turns out, I'm mostly secular except for my attention to ECUSA and sometimes the wider Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion doesn't have much presence here in south India. One might be fooled into so thinking if researching on the anglican communion webpages, but being here, not so much.

So what's my point? My point is that there is enough to see in this world without having to worry much about the next one (or previous one or whatever you believe in). So it is in south India. I basically don't go in temples, mosques, or churches if possible to avoid them. They just don't interest me other than being pretty buildings. So what do I do?

Last night, I had the good fortune of being knowledgeable in some of Chennai crappy bars and invited with me an Italian, a Frenchman, and a Brazilian. We went to a bar that not only served alcohol, but also served beef. I'm not kidding you, beef and beer at the same place in India. It can't possibly be Muslim or Hindu... We sat around and had a "usual" westerners Friday evening ending at 11:00 PM. Oops. It was going well up until that last part. Oh, well that and we certainly didn't order the beef or have decent beer or a good juke box, but other than those small things it was just about right. Moreover, the discussion of religion last night was limited to football and why Lebanese politics are a total mess.

Lack of religion, decent AMOUNT of booze flowing, good conversation, snacks, I'd call it a success. Furthermore, the Frenchman drinking with me last night was the one I got irritated with a few days ago for my perceived insult to American education. A few beers washed all that away.
Let me end with one of my favorite all time quotes and come out of the secular world for a moment to a deeply held religious belief...

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
-Ben Franklin