the greed strikes you right
at the moment you disembark from the crowded bus that left a hero’s tale of
another epic heroism unfinished on the DVD.
like in any other tourism
sustained town, here too every stranger is a marked man.
men in faded dhothis and greasy
pants clamour for your attention, promising the cheap and best stay. choosing
the bus as your means to reach the place must have automatically discounted the
costlier options.
you are too overwhelmed by the
attention to think straight. and the noon’s heat and reluctance to get the kids
burnt must have persuaded you to succumb to the most friendly of faces.
the horse seems to bend with the burden of man’s
greed. yet the cart rattles along the dry dusty tarmac. you are promised a
deluxe suite at a price that’s half of what luxury quotes, complete with a
colour television and a ‘remote’. what you get is a crammed room with an aged
fan above a corner of the bed and a perpetually leaking flush tank with no lid
or cover.
strangely nobody seemed to complain.
the room had no view. the window opened to the
imposing yellow wall of the adjacent “deluxe” hotel. but there was a window at
the end of the hallway, opening to a wide vista of the vaiyapuri tank, complete
with slime coated swine cooling off the heat.
greed was again in the guides who knew where to
milk you. the possibility of penances in a plethora of offerings leave you
dumbfounded. and before you know it, you are fleeced of several sins in the
present life and the past.
climbing a thousand and one scorching steps take
you to the object of your journey.
the sanctum sanctorum, where you are either
escorted or pushed to face the Lord of austerity, depending on what money the
receipt in your hand shows. like in many places, money here can take you closer
to the idol, and farther from the Lord.
the all knowing, all seeing
Lord of the Golden Lance, stands enveloped in centuries of silent naked
radiance.
mission accomplished, the journey downhill is relaxed.
and as night descends, the hill comes alive in the sparkle of a million stars,
marking out one’s path to salvation.
