Cops at Varanasi Temple Shamed Me for Having a Tattoo in Arabic

I have a tattoo on my arm which says “fear nothing” in Arabic and that was enough to make the cops uncomfortable.

I'm in Varanasi for a few days and my parents wanted to visit the Vishwanath Temple because apparently it's a very auspicious place for us.

A very funny thing happened here though. While I was offering my prayers at the temple, a police officer pulled me out asking me what the tattoo on my arm meant, little did I know what his intentions were.

I have a tattoo on my arm which says “fear nothing” in Arabic, and this tattoo was enough to make a lot of police officers uncomfortable.

The officer who pulled me aside then called a whole team of officers and started questioning me as to why I have a tattoo in Arabic and not in Hindi.

While all of this was happening, my parents realised something was wrong as they were in the middle of their prayers and intervened. The cops then went on to ask my parents why they allowed me to get a tattoo in Arabic (they basically thought I was a Muslim or a terrorist. I don’t know which one).

It was funnier that my parents literally had to remind them that India happens to be a secular country. But whatever happened today really makes me think about whether or not this is the kind of India we are rooting for.

(Soorjodeep is a 21-year-old entrepreneur currently residing in Mumbai.)

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