God of all things!

I was in small town Maharashtra, AmbavaNe to be precise, last Saturday. Where on Earth did you say? Okay, then how about referring to it as Amby Valley? Snazzy? This blog post has nothing to do with AmbavaNe aka Amby Valley exclusively but since the stimulus happened there, I thought the village deserved a mention. By 'village', I mean AmbavaNe!

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 run-down hotel that we had to spend an hour 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 of the flea-bitten shape of the hotel gave me the impression that Raas Leela of a different kind would surely be happening there. Thankfully we had only an hour to spend there, that too during non Raas Leela hours!

In big cities 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 Aashirwad” 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!

PS: I'm no big follower of any God, nor a complete atheist. This is issued in general interest :)