My Favourite Story from Class X

 By Bhoomi Gupta

(Final ASL Speech)

‘A Letter to God’, written by the Mexican writer G.L. Fuentes is a story where Lencho, a farmer, writes a letter to God when his crops are ruined. The reason I like this story the most is that this was the only chapter we could do during regular classes before COVID 19. I still remember the question sir asked us, ‘Do you believe in god?’ and our answers to it. 

With the world shutting down and leaving everyone in doldrums, the re-broadcast of Ramayana and Mahabharata brought a huge comfort to us. This got me thinking ‘why do people believe in god?’. The more I thought about it, the more puzzled I found myself. Even the countless walks on my terrace couldn’t give me an answer but now that we have lived a year in the pandemic, I think I have an answer. 

The problem was that I was focusing too much on “GOD”, while the whole point is about “BELIEF”. We all need someone to hang on to in difficult times. It may be our family, friends, work, music, science, god, even mobile phones and for that matter, we, ourselves as well. Humans need someone they can believe in, someone they can trust in, something they can hold on to and probably this is why people believe in God. They believe that God won’t do anything unfair and this positive energy of their ideal figure makes up to the unwavering faith they have. 

All of this is quite obvious but when superstitions overpower God himself, we forget the reason why the concept of God exists. The same happened with me too. So we need to keep reminding ourselves that beliefs are more important than what we believe in. Although I may not believe in god but I do believe in humanity, the humanity in you and in me. Years later, with a change in perspective, I may find myself nonplussed again but no matter what, life goes on and with that, we all find ourselves believing in something or other.

Thank you!