God of All Things

I was in small town North India, Lucknow to be precise, today. This blog has nothing to do with Lucknow exclusively but since the stimulus happened there, I thought the city deserved a mention.
I noticed how we seem to have various ways of using our Gods and Goddesses in our day to day lives. The stimulus in question was a wall tile with God’s picture on it. This tile, for the ignorant, was placed so that passers by refrain from painting the town ‘red’ with their paan and other products. So I passed a beaming Goddess Lakshmi, a meditating Lord Shiva and an ever enthusiastic Lord Ganesha all playing divine guards to cheap walls. It seemed to work, for I saw the walls around them spotlessly clean. The tiles were small ones, occupying just one tile space in huge walls. But they seemed to hold enough power to thwart any miscreant. The casualty of course was the atheist wall, which was multicolored and looked like a poor man’s Hussain.

God appeared in a different avatar in a cheap rundown hotel that I had to spend four hours in (more on this experience later). The hotel was called New Radha Krishna which symbolized old sanctity combined with recent modernity I presumed. My impressions were corrected the moment I entered the hotel. Far from being Brindavan and romantic, it was more like the cell in which Kamsa had locked Vasudev and Devaki. A quick glance around at the hotel and the run down shape of the room gave me the impression that Raas Leela of a different kind would surely be happening there. Thankfully I had only four hours to spend there, that too during non Raas Leela hours.

In Mumbai too, a lot of erstwhile dance bars, which have now been orchestra bars just for namesake, have names like Lakshmi Palace, Durga Palace. Lakshmi of course meaning opulence and all that comes with it I guess. What’s interesting is that the inside of most of these places, am sure, will have a small mandir for Gods just above where the cashier sits. The more audacious ones will surely have larger murtis. Quite a paradox this, Gods being mute spectators to sleaze and skin show.

Autos, Sumos, Qualis’ which serve as tourists vehicles also often have Gods messages written right at the back. They scream down expressways, cutting lanes and causing palpitations. As you stare at the rear of the vehicle disappear, the words “Sai Baba Cha Aaashirwad” stares at you in bold saffron. My read of that message is simply “God help those who travel in this vehicle”

Gods have percolated our office tables, wallets, walls in rooms and every other avenue. The ease with which they gather dust, get shoved around by careless peons and bais and sometimes find themselves under immense duress because of fat posteriors is not a joke.

Maybe it’s high time we looked at how and where we place our Gods, for godssake!