God save!

Phew!been long since i posted...yeah like i've been posting everyday otherwise! but still ve been off the virtual world for quite a bit...real one was enough to handle.
jst back after a trip home...as always there's loads to rethink. most people go home to take a break n feel gud n pampered. well, i'm not any different. but then, life always gets the better of me.
for some reason, not yet disclosed, something always happens that will a)mess up my already messed up mind, b) get me brooding, c) all of the above.
this time around we(we being me, my ma, n cha(thats my dad)) went to this temple that apparently opens only once a year.talk bout timing, of the 365 days it had, they HAD to open it wen i was there!ok i've nothing against temples per se, apart from the fact that i dont believe in them, but that's another long story, another post!
so neways, not to get off the topic, ma, being the good zealous temple goer that she is, absolutely insisted that we go...obviously it was extremely fortunate that a temple that opens only once a year, is actually opne nw wen i'm at home for hols, thats some good turn of luck or divine blessing that cannot quite simply be ignored.so we went.
n guess what?it was the last day the place remained open (apparently wen i does open it remains so for some amt of days so that ALL the gud god fearing ppl can catch a darshan), n so there was a huge crowd waiting. ok i said earlier that i do not believe in temples. i believe even less in waiting for looong hours, n letting all n sundry, stamp,kick, push n pull u limb for limb, all for a glimpse of an idol that they believe (n i dont) is god. but then, that is not really the kinda point of view that my ma finds worth encouraging, so there!proceed we did.
n turns out, we didnt really ve to wait in the loong line. nope sir. here things work differently. now my dad happens to the head of office in the place. n his subordinate was with us. now the police guys at the gate recognise him. n those who didnt, his sub jst throws a bit of the IB card round, n we re ushered straight into the temple.n not jst into the temple, but right into the insides...the "nada" or the inner chamber, if u will, were the celebrated idols are piously kept. now there re 3 such doors that u need to pass b4 u get to the real thing. first we were sent to the outter circle...were before us, a gud number of the big wheels had gathered...the local mla or someone(he sure was not hard to miss in white n white, his face looking as though he expected a camera to be pulled out of somewhere any momment, so he was constantly striking a pose), some other sidekicks od his, so major dudes with their thick gold chains, n thinker bracelets gleaming...looks like the richy riches of the place, n of course the temple office bearers, old n withering, some ladies(probably the wifes n sisters of the above mentioned), some wailing kids, n so on. at regular intervels, some of them would walk in to the inside chambers, the others trying to edge in, then walk out, the others still try to edge in. made me quite sick...this power play. more sick to think that i was also among them. the sick greasy smiles, the fake put on show that it was, the display of so called "devotion". 2 miserabel hours later, we were ushered further in...to the next, n then anothe half an hour later, the inner chamber was opened...for the public so see the gods, goddesses rather. n who were the first in line...the chosen few of course, who had the clout. n the once who had none, stood in the lines, pushing n pulling, to wait impatiently for their turn.
made me think...watever happened to "all are equal in front of god" theory?apparently that divine rule is applicable only in the higher divine territory. down here on ug old earth, u still ve the classes set, places fixed. caste system's sure has been abolished, but nw we ve given rise to a whole new set of priviledged class. maybe yesterday's oppressed re today's empowered, but some still re stuck nowhere.
i wondered, if i felt so suffocated during the couple of hours i was in there, how will the gods feel, who ve to put up with this on a regular basis???the smoke, the sounds, the sickening smiles, the pleas of the devoted n the despairing. oh lord! maybe thats wat makes them divine . or maybe thats y they limited it to once a year rather than 24/7.
u know, once one of my best friends, in one of her more sober, i-need-to-think-about-the-higher-purposes-of-life moods wondered, if god was a man or a woman (she went ahead to write some few thousand words advocating both sides i believe). i think god's gender leanings are beyond the point. man or woman. he(or she) has got to ve a damn neat sense of humour! n he...or she, must be really really crazy when he/she made man/woman(i mean i cant really be sure who came first...bible i believed, wasnt exactly faxed from heaven!)