Hello,
This thinking activity is about Jonathan Swift's religious satire work "A Tale of a Tub".
1) How far do you think Digression is necessary?
Ans
A Tale of a Tub is one of the best allegorical and satirical works of Swift, which satirizes so-called religious society and the three branches of Christianity: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, or Church of England, and Protestants.
Here, Swift represents his work in two parts: one is the fictional part, which follows the story of three brothers as three branches of Christianity. And the other one is the non-fictional part or digression, in which he discusses various things, such as who is a true critic and who is better among ancients and moderns.
Such digression is necessary in our day-to-day lives as well. In modern times, the lives of most of us have become so fast that sometimes we just live our lives like robots without really enjoying them. Sometimes we feel like we are missing something, and that something could be any little thing; it could be a little vacation, traveling with friends, talking with your favorite person, or spending some time with a family member. which can help us find little moments of happiness in our light-fast lives.
2) Identify any one movie/web series/song/poem/novel which talks about the sensitive topic like religion. Write in brief about it and explain what kind questions are raised through that work.
Ans
One such Bollywood movie that talks about sensitive topics like religion is "Oh My God," directed by one of the most famous Bollywood directors, Umesh Shukla. The movie follows the story of Kanji Lal Mehta, played by Paresh Raval, a shopkeeper who sells idols of god. He blames God for the earthquake in which his shop was destroyed, and he decided to sue God. In spite of his business of selling the idols of different gods, he is not a believer in God and just sees God's idols as business material.
While everyone is against Kanji Lal Mehta, the God comes, a character played by Akshay Kumar who assists Kanji Mehta in his hard times. This movie raises many questions about Indian religious beliefs, and Kanji Lal is the prime example of this.
In spite of his business of selling God's idols, which is seen in India as a religious kind of work, Kanji Lal has a belief in God. Any religious person in India would find Kanji Lal's behavior towards his business very disrespectful to God.
Through this character, this movie raises questions about India's blind faith in God, and yet God still favors Kanji Lal.
Moreover, we can examine the hypocrisy of religious institutions in several scenes of the movie and ask the audience to reflect on their own perspective on faith and spirituality.
Thank you.
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