Curious case of devotion

Twelve months had passed by and it was that time of year again. I tried to squeeze myself out of it but the there was no way out. The yearly ritual of visiting a temple on my birthday along with my mother had to be done. 

While I always favour a place of worship that takes least amount of effort to reach. She is an expert at finding a new temple that will take the whole day. But I was lucky today, it was a closeby Murugan temple which was in long-time-no-see list 

As with my usual temples visit I grudgingly get ready and get going. The parking is a painful affair. And while I park at the end of road and walk back – my mother goes could have found a closer parking. I say to myself “Somethings never change”

I ask her if she wants to buy a garland as I can park my slippers with the flowerwala. She starts examining the freshness of the roses – she bargains and decides to just go with the jasmines she already had. While I try to tip the good man for his patience and for his hopeful security to my shoes – she pokes me whyyy. Somethings never change. 

Once inside I lose her attention and I follow her as she makes me way to the sannidanam. She looks at the long queue and looks at the paid darshan queue and looks back at me. Whether it was 500 or even 1000 there was no bargaining here. It was for our devotion. While I make strong points for equality in dharshan as usual – she makes points about us being blessed to afford and it was our duty and moral right to use it. And  this ticket is nothing but repayment for his deeds. Somethings never change. 

The priest is whipping out Vibuthi in distance as we make way through the line. As we get closer she gets into her Pooja bag emptying its contents- as I empty the content of my shirt pocket where I have neatly rupee note in all denominations. She pulls away the 10 swiftly for the Iyer while he enthusiastically attends to the patron before me who offered 50 bucks. While am done with praying – she meditates for a minute while I look around hoping no one asks us to leave the space. And cut to the Hundi on the way out – I again empty my pocket. This time she picks up the 500 rupee note justifying this goes directly to gods pocket. Somethings never change. 

You cannot expect rationality in a religion, otherwise there wouldn’t be a religion in the first place. Let’s agree to disagree with the devotees!