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[Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri]

on 05/04/2002 1:02 PM, Zainab Bawa at coolzanny at hotmail.com wrote:

Dear Zainab,
And all,
A few disjointed comments:

> There are Ramayan readings in the dark corners of
> Western Suburbs at mid-nights. One wonders the motivation behind all of
> this. Isn't it too obvious, too sinister?!?!?!

Rings a bell, almost as if the bells are tolling- and loudly, an
earth-shattering jagaran. For some reason, in this horrible heat of Delhi,
people seem to find the need to put up idols of gods - matas - they say, the
Vaishno Devi mata - gaudy idols with some ear-splitting music through
cracked speakers. There is a coin box too, and one has promised that one
will put in Rs 11 (from the day's first earning) every day (or some such
money) and keep doing it till the end of time. The mata is supposed to be
very potent and will bless you always. This is my friend talking. He drives
a three-wheeler (Auto) in the city for a living. He is unbelievably polite,
caring, a family man, who comes back home well in time, and even after the
queues at the CNG counters.

We get to spend at least an hour everyday together. We chat a lot. About
everything on earth except Gujarat, except Muslims. The other day, I see the
strip of a sticker on his windscreen announcing another jagaran, a large one
in Govindpuri. He tells me that the pandal is as awesome as the ones made in
the Bengali ghetto, CR Park during Durga Puja. The mata is as awesome. He
does not talk to me very comfortably about it, never does, we are entering
the forbidden territory, Muslims and the latest pogrom may come up. He
believes, in the mata very deeply. There is a sense of contentment when he
speaks of the deity. Anyway, he has invited me to the jagaran, I might go, I
will probably not. 

And then, there is that friend who flies with an international airline,
earns a decent packet, lives a comfortable life and visits Vaishno Devi very
regularly. She fasts once (or is it twice a week), keeps all the bratas, (I
remember her Karva Chauting) and though she is avowedly secular, she
believes in the Hindu. I have had many other friends from other religious
denominations and most of them are Karva Chauting in their own way. Reading
Marx on one hand and praying five times a day. And yes, there was a woman
who told me that I should stop being crazy about her since I was not one of
the faithful. I did rather she told me that I was fat and boring.

So, it has been reels and reels of faith, so much belief and contentment and
matas all around that I feel left out. Not for long, though.

I have decided to become a Rimpoche.

Jyoti