Religion - The universal binder?

As I went to Prabhadevi's famous Siddhivinayak temple for the first time, I couldn’t help but notice a few idiosyncrasies that faith and religion brings in.

Tuesday being Anagaraki Chaturthi(a special day for the elephant headed lord) the MNS folks were operating a free trip to the temple from Dadar station. The queue for this free trip amazed me and I am sure they won quite some hearts there. The temple premise was under heavy surveillance and you can’t help but feel sorry for the number of police force posted there in the scorching Mumbai heat so that the common folk have a safe meeting with the lord. The footwear stand was managed by a north Indian guy who had an amazing Punjabi dialect....they have this amazing Hindi diction that’s not heard anywhere else. A few steps later I saw a Bihari guy serving water bottles to the devotees. The darshan took almost 2.5 hours but friends told me that it was still quick considering the day; ideally it should have taken 4-5 hours. Wow! And I thought that the world was turning atheist ;). After a little pushing around near the main idol I was mesmerized by the flower decoration. I stand by my view that the most exotic jewelry for lord are fresh flowers. The gold, silver and diamonds are no match for the multi coloured gerberas, orchids, roses and the ever smiling marigold! After my darshan, I was thinking about a way back when there came a Muslim taxi guy who needed one person to complete his Dadar round. He told us that operating Dadar to Siddhivinayak on Tuesdays is one of his most preferred routes.

Religion must be the primary cause of so many conflicts worldwide that instances like this make me feel it also has the capability of being a great leveler for humankind. If only we were more tolerant.......

Any time, Party time :)

I wouldn't have noticed him if he had not been wearing a shirt that crossed his knees. That reminded me of a cousin's kid who looked cute whenever he wore exceedingly long shirts, so long as to safely forget wearing pants or knickers ;). This kid looked adoringly cute too, inspite of the rags that he was in. He was in a local train in Mumbai selling the railway timetable.

He went and sat near a blind lady and voiced his pleasure a little loudly - 'Aga pahilya pheritach 50 rupaiye zala bagh' (I earned 50 rupees in the first round itself). The lady, probably his mom, smiled and asked him to count.
He took out the money, all 10 Rupee notes, and as he counted each note, he handed it over to his mom. She checked the note, feeling it probably and understanding its denomination and making sure her kid was not making a mistake.

As I watched both of them counting and re-counting their treasure I called the kid and asked him to give me a copy of the timetable. His delight was worth a million bucks. He darted off to his bag and promptly gave me a small booklet. I handed him a 10 Rupee note and he went berserk as he looked at his mom and beamed - "Aga atta tar saath rupaiye zale; chal na kahi tari khau ya aani mag dusrya ferila jau ya." (Common Mom, now we have 60 Rupees, let’s go and eat something before we come for the next round). And off they went as if to a party!!!

Since I have been upset for many days now, I suddenly felt at peace at their happiness. As someone rightly said - "Life may not be the party we hoped for but while we are here, we might as well dance".