India trip March 2023 - A walk to the temple

 Monday morning I went to "Sukhmeswar Temple", a stone's throw from our house. It is one of several dozens of temples in the Old Town area of Bhubaneswar, the heart and core of the city. The residents of Old Town are proud of being the original inhabitants of the city vis a vis the the rest beyond Ravi Talkies which they consider as Ghulam Nagari or the City of Slaves, ascribing to the Dalaals (brokers) and government servants who form the bulk of the population beyond Ravi Talkies.

Bhubaneswar is the abode of multiple Saivite temples where Lord Shiva is considered the Supreme God. Unlike the Avatars of Lord Vishnu, like Sri Ram, Sri Krishna or Lord Jagannath who are fastidious and require a lot of penance to be pleased, Lord Shiva, the most simple minded of the Trinity of Hindu Gods - Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswar is easily pleased by ardent call of a devotee. Same goes with Maa Durga, as like all mothers she can't resist the call of a child in peril and comes to her child, i.e. the ardent devotee's rescue. In a scene from the epic MAHABHARAT before the start of the battle of Kurukhetra Lord Krishna instructed Arjun to pray Maa Durga. Arjun asks - "Will She come" ? Sri Krishna replied - "If you simply call using your tongue she won't, but if you call her with your soul she will definitely respond".

That's probably why most of the Rakhyasa or Demons pray Lord Shiva to get his boon. Once they get the boon, they become rogue and it takes an Avatar of Vishnu or Maa Durga to kill them. Sri Krishna, Sri Ram or Lord Jagannath test their devotees well before granting them any kind of boon. If pleased the blessings of the Avatars of Vishnu is long and permanent. So being demonic in nature I took the short cut route for my boon from our local temple of Lord Shiva.

While Remembering all these I managed to reach the temple. Being a Monday morning the temple was busy with devotees making a beeline to enter into the narrow entrance of the temple, touching the feet of the Bull, the carrier of Lord Shiva lying near the entrance. While entering and coming out of the temple I rang the bell only to be reminded of this episode from one of my prior trips. Before walking to the temple I drank Tea, followed by Amul Lassi and couple of glasses of PAIDA (young coconut) water freshly plucked from one of the Coconut trees in our backyard. While on my way back from temple I realised my bladder was about to burst as I won't be able to hold on to it much longer. As there was still some distance to be covered (distance is a relative term and not just a number when you walk with controlling nature's call), I thought it would be prudent to open the valve midway.

Frantically looking for a spot with privacy, I found a suitable peeing spot by roadside. It was a dry spot near a wet wall, heavily stained by betel leaf saliva and more heavily stenched by rivulets of urine mixed with red saliva. Couple of guys joined me on both sides of me inspecting the site for a location. The guy on my right looked up into the sky while relieving himself. I turned my head to the left and smiled at the other. He reciprocated by smiling back at me, exposing his phalanx of 32 of his dark, betel stained teeth.

We all shook ourselves off the residual droplets, lifted and tightened our pants and bid each other an unspoken good bye. It is another feeling of the pleasure of relieving oneself under open, blue sky, something I rarely do these days. A la a doggie I managed to leave my scent behind, may be back one day to reuse the spot. It is the best way to recycle these wall urinals lurking around the smart city. No place to wash hands, I knew it will be a few minutes before I reach home to do so - sincerely wishing of not getting an opportunity to shake hands with someone. Feeling completely light and relieved, I started trudging my way back towards home.

Soon my wish was to be belied. On my way back, I saw a familiar face, a neighborhood Mausa (Uncle) rushing towards me - "HAIO KEBE FOREIGN RU ASILA. KETE DINA ACHHA" - "Hey when did you come from abroad (foreign in Odia is the term used here to denote a nation outside India, especially Western Countries). How long are you staying", extending his hands for a warm welcome handshake. I did a "Namaskar" to him, thinking there won't be a need for any handshake. But he insisted on shaking my hands. So, reluctantly I took my hand forward, squinting my nose, hesitantly extending my right towards him. The smiling person at the other side shook his hands enthusiastically for a few seconds. 

Post handshake, he rolled his hands over his lip and chins, making me squint and raise my nose further. Hope someone recorded this handshake moment, it could very well get million plus hits on YouTube a la the greatest handshakes in history - Chamberlain with Hitler, Nixon with Chairman Mao, Ronald Reagan vs Mikhail Gorbachev and so on. Glad I didn't meet any more Mr. Fortunates on my way to shake hands with. More later...