The God of convenience's

I can't get up on Sunday morning to go to church .. Why do I need to pray only on a Wednesday and Friday... Why fast... God does not want to see me hungry.. Blah blah blah!!!

There are rules and there are people who follow it religiously. Whether it has meaning or not but we still do. We twist and turn custom as per our comfort. This little piece of information is true for all cultures and religions.

Incident 1: The broken statue

I was cleaning my alter at home and there I notice that one of mother Mary's statue is broken. Since I have another statue I will absolutely fine to discard it. So I keep this on the table and tell my mom to discard it. Mom in return informs me that she will do it next week when she goes to church. Which simply translates to leave it, I will do when when I feel. So being a little irritated, I volunteered to do it my self. My sister is super upset because I am practically throwing away God from my house. She asks me " how will u discard it". I said I will throw it in the dustbin what else. To which she is hysterical and give me a look as if I have just ordered the destruction of the planet. I then go on to ask her what to do, to which she says either u give it to the church or put it in the water. I have a really hard time absorbing this information and I jump asking her "what".. Her usual response " what, what??" Just don't use ur brains and do it. The conversation gets more interesting. What will the church do?. The and was more amusing. Let them do whatever they want you don't use ur head.

The church would also crush these statues and then dispose them in the dustbin. Most of these statues are made of plastic so discarding them in water is the worst idea thus spoiling the most beautiful creation of God.

Incident no 2-

My neighbour is a nice, very religious lady. Her day starts with cleaning the house , then taking a shower, prayers etc. One day she saw me throwing away my used garland in the regular waste. She hysterically asks me "yeh kya kar rahi hain" (what are u doing). I said " kachra phek rahin hoo" .  As per her I should preserve this in a plastic bag and then respectfully throw it away. That's exactly what she does. So all those flowers will be rotting away in a plastic for a month and its finally given to someone to dispose them of. I was just curious.. What's different in what I do. I just have a daily process and not monthly activity. I tried to explain all these facts, but it was to no avail.

Incident 3-
Same Aunty has a fast today. And she's stocked up sabudana, mungfali , potatoes, fruits, some singhada atta paratha etc etc. All these things ensure that you stomach is over stuffed so its technically not a fast. The sages who introduced these wanted to pass on a simple message. Let your body relax and your mind be nourished . but then we have made it convenient for us all.  Upwas mein yeah sab chalta hain.

Incident 4 -  The ganpati pandal.

I have amazing memories of this festival
It included a ten day celebrations in the form of melas , food, orchestra etc. But now it's so commercialised. During one of these days I visited on pandal and my.. It was beautiful. But the issue with this was the music,while we were waiting in line the songs that we heard were munni badnaam hui and sheila ki jawani. People are visiting a holy place you can play this crap. Some men in the crowd start swaying to this in the line. I don't get it. Why do we have to commercialise God?

All these incidents are from my experience with God. From where you belong, any religious, caste, community, does not matter. Our rituals are all the same. God is not found only in temples or churches or in statues. If you cannot keep God in your heart then you will only complicate your life.! Keep God simple and you will be happy.

Thank You Wali Aunty

Well, my day started nothing different. Same silly train, same silly life. In all this madness, reaching home early was like an achievement. It just felt like winning a gold medal in the swimming competition or like climbing the mount Everest. I reached station before the sun could actually set. In all this I got a call from my mother asking about my wear abouts. This is one activity for my mom that is equivalent to going to church or cooking etc. Its her daily job and she does it religiously. 

I receive the call and mom started her routine question, where are you, had something, did you eat wada pav etc etc. I happened to realize that she is in the train just behind me. So we decide to meet on the station and go home together. She finally arrives and we start walking together. The first halt of our epic journey was the pani puri wala. Later, as we start walking home, my mom get a call from my sister stating that my niece wants to eat chicken curry made by mom. With a big smile she leads me the the best chicken shop in the vicinity. I dont know whats best about it as all the shops sell  chicken. Nevertheless, I just walk the long journey with her. 

On our way, we make various pit stops like the pudinawala, the mirchi wala, the lasoon wala etc etc. while collecting the samaan from everyshop my mom ensured that she said "Thank You" in return. This small gesture always brought a smile to every small vendor, who now felt as important as the others. This was infectious as the next customer that they greeted was a happy one.

This entire episode brought back my memories of my childhood. Being brought up in a small city, you know the importance of smaller things in life. When i was a child i used to visit mom to various vegetable vendors in the city. Because she was a regular there all the vendors used to call her "Thank you wali Aunty". Being villager, they never knew the meaning of this word, so mom used to say thank you and translate that in Hindi saying "Dhaniywaad". The smile on their faces was unimaginably. Mom has not changed from then to now. The thank you still remains.

My mom may not have the best of resources, the world of money, but the one thing she taught us is to be humble and grounded. Where ever you go in life never forget your roots. She had her moments, her days, her anger, her reasons, her computer illiteracy, her love but she stood by us like rock solid and never left us. She is still connected with the invisible umbilical cord. I guess that what mothers do. 

Not sure if I can ever become the second "Thank you wali Aunty", but I can ensure to pass this on to my next generation. Love you mom!!!!