Religion matters

I don't give a person's religion much thought when it comes to my relationship with him/her. I take more of a "live and let live" approach and if you're this or that it makes no difference to me.

Here in India, religion is huge. You are almost defined by your religion. Like the caste system is alive an well in India, so I believe a lot of the lower caste people become Christian to try and brake free.

I'm writing this because now religion does matter and it's something I take into consideration, like:
- I can't go to my favorite grocery store between 12:00p - 3:00p because they're Muslim and close shop to go to Mosque
- Christian cooks will cook beef
- Hindu staff will work on Christmas (but Hindus have LOTS of other holidays)
- I feel guilty going to the butcher because Gopi is Hindu, he doesn't seem to care, but I feel like he knows there is sacred animal in my shopping bag
- People assume I'm Christian and are shocked to find out that I'm "nothing"

My cook, Angel, is a form of Christian that does not wear any religious symbols - so she does not wear a cross, or the rosary, or a bindi, etc. So she thought MOST OF THE US was her form of Christian because on TV or in movies we don't wear crosses or bindis. She was very surprised to hear that her assumption was incorrect.

Living in another culture is very interesting. :-) I feel very fortunate.