I am sorta of the pious kind…not the ultra-devout version, but a certain someone, who believes in a God, and thinks that He’s kinda cool. I am a big ‘fan’ of Hanuman, dunno, there’s something very distinct about him, that amazingly captivates me. To me, he epitomizes supreme Godliness. The whole ‘mischievious-yet-so-powerful’ aura about him is max positive and invokes a deep sense of respect from me.

Life…as such, is full of… a) questions b) answers c) answerable questions and d) questionable answers . God sort of fits into human psyche, as the choice-picks for solutions to anything that falls under categories a) and d)!!! The natural tendency is to ‘thank’ God for all that he has given…and then continue to ask for more! I know so…’cause I do so…. Oh yeah…and one more thing…Faith is directly proportional to the depth of shit, one is in, and gratitude for a granted wish, is reciprocated at the speed of light, before moving on, onto the next item in the wish-list! That’s how it’s been…and that’s how it will be. I pray every night before I go to sleep…a little prayer, and a little thank you, for the day. My dad’s research suggests that with our age…the speed with which we pray, seems to be touching F1 speeds and time taken for prayer, were getting shorter and shorter…Infact, he refers to them as, SMSs to God!

Ok, now the real reason for this sudden divine introspection…Saturdays, I usually take out time to visit a nearby Hanuman temple. Not a ritual in particular…but it has been happening for sometime now, since hostel days. It’s at the temple, that I pray for the week ahead for my family and friends, selfishly present my ‘please please please grant me these’ list, beg for forgiveness, put forth my offerings and…yeah spend a few quality minutes with myself, contemplating over stuff! This Saturday was different…very interestingly different. I had had a looooong ‘working’ Saturday, and was rather gloomy, about certain somethings going on in the complex mind-o-mine. With all this random mix of despair, anger and tiredness, I had just made my way into to the temple, when my eyes fell on this young lad of about 4 or 5 years. He had a little bowl of oil in one hand, and a garland in the other, which he had gotten to offer to the Gods. He had managed to get the whole garland tangled up…and his little face was a picture of extreme concentration, as he kept the bowl down…and set out to perform the incredulous tasking of re-aligning the garland. Once that was done….he nicely put the garland on the idol…and he started mouthing a prayer. The prayer was one of the strangest I had ever heard…it went….

Ho Khaike Paan Banaras Waaala…Khuli Jaaye Band Akal Ka Taala…………

I dunno whether it as Big B or the King Khan, who inspired him….nevertheless…even the busiest of Gods, would have been sure to take notice of this teeny-bopper’s offerings : a garland+ a bowl of oil + a Bollywood Hit!!! I am sure, there were many a smiles up there, as they heard something so totally from the heart, far from the usual boring mundane requests and laments…

Yes, They must have smiled….:)

I learnt a great thing at that moment - Prayers are just man made words…it’s the feel that matters!!! You might as well be singing Old MacDonald…for all you care…but a well sung version of that has more piety in it…than a random string of speech from a holy book, uttered with one’s mind on one’s shattered love life!

Faith is afterall … just a feel! I know…’cause a 4 year old taught me that!