God or Gods ???

Being born and brought up in a country like India is truly fascinating! And I feel all the more lucky to be in a city like Mumbai - the city of dreams, the city that never sleeps - as they call it! This city has given me much more in terms of experiences than I could have ever imagined; both good as well as bad. (Ahhh !!!! ...whatever ! As if anyone cares ! ). But I somehow cannot ignore the fact that it is these very experiences that have helped me grow as a person and be a mature individual.
Interacting with people from different castes, communities, religion on a day-to-day basis makes you more tolerant towards accepting people who are different from you. But it's really sad that some people do not think the same and try to cash in on votes and create politics over sensitive matters like discrimination on the basis of caste, community, religion and so on.
I belong to a family where religion is given a hell lotta importance! And I wouldn't refuse calling myself a thorough catholic who is also very spiritual, thanks to my upbringing. Personally I strongly believe in secularism - equal respect for all religions. No! I do not believe in any other God or worship any other God or pray to any other God! But I also believe that no matter what religion one belongs to when you pray, it is to that one Almighty God. Then how does it matter which religion you belong to! Inspite of endless arguments on the topic I still haven't been able to convince my parents, so I'm not sure that my writing this article whether I will be able to influence the thinking of atleast one person. I honestly feel very strongly about this issue and it's the only reason I'm writing this article.
My religion does not permit me to 'worship' any other God. It is considered as a sin. But would also 'praying' to any other God be counted as sin? In the numerous catechism classes I have attended since school, we have always been thought that there is a vast difference between 'worshipping' and 'praying'. In that case worshipping is definitely not the same as praying! But yeah, if you're praying to any particular God / Goddess means that you believe in Him /Her and catholic religion does not permit you to believe in any other God besides Jesus Christ, which explains why you can't only worship but also can't pray to any other God being a catholic.
But according to me being religious & spiritual is not enough to survive in a country like India. You have to be open to accepting other religions as a part of your society and have equal respect for others religions, their customs and traditions. It is when ego & pride regarding your religion creeps into your mind that you are forced to accept the make-believe speeches given by our dear political leaders.
The other day I was at the railway station and there was this infamous local political leader I'd never even heard about. He was delivering a speech on how their party planned to better the matters of electricity load shedding & insufficient water supply. Believe it or not he'd somehow related these two issues to religion! And wow !!! Was that a speech or what ! (Except for the fact that he'd spoken in favour of Hinduism only - which I didn't like.) He'd done that in a way that left me utterly speechless! I seriously thought he deserved an award for whatever shit he'd blabbered (and votes... hmmm.. well.. that deserves a second thought !). At such times I wonder the plight of the uneducated lot. They'd believe anything that guy out there was saying!
Ego and pride with regards to your own religion (doesn't matter what religion you belong to!) is gonna take you nowhere. It will instead be disastrous for our own country.
In a country where we pledge that every Indian is my brother and sister, I think its high time we start behaving like that in actual life!