People often assume that my faith is Muslim because of my first name. When they become aware of my unidealistic juggling of different faiths as a child, they then go on to assume that I have somehow grown to be an overly religious person who despises anyone who takes the Lord’s name in vain, or a free-sailing hippy whose spirituality flows with any religion.
My relationship with religion has always been a complex one because of how it was imposed on me. Religion had always been something that was paramount to my immediate family, so much so that they sampled different faiths and practices possibly hoping to find something that they could relate to. At one particular time in my life I remember being both Hindu and Christian at the same time.
I remember me and my sisters, as children, partaking in Jhandi ceremonies on some Saturdays with both my mother and father and then the following day being made to attend church with our Godmother.
