Young and dumb was I when I was little several little things bugged me, several questions, several much needed explanations of mind numbing toils. Every thing was so funny to me. As a child I was taught some lessons which I assumed were meaningless but then came a reality check at the age of 10! It was late summers when this incident took place to me. Being an Indian I was always trained to be a devotee of the almighty of the eternal GOD, certain kind of faith and trust resides inside me for creator of universe. It was quiet dark when I, my father and my uncle visited a temple of SHANI DEV. Very obviously I removed my slippers outside and started moving in whereas my father and uncle were busy in buying the offerings for the temple. I looked around quiet oily was the floor still I knew this is because people pour oil with seeds on the idol. We Indians and the mythology believes that when we do so the god will be happy and will shower blessings. Also some women sat outside the temple rotating the rosemary beads and chanting some inaudible prayers. I moved inside the temple totally forgetting about my father and my uncle who might be outside at that time.
Inside the temple there were many sub-divisions each had an idol of some god almost each was filled with devotees. I started glaring the beauty and the peace on the faces of idols. It seemed they had live incarnation in them..! I tucked my hand in the tight pocket of my jeans i knew I had some pennies inside. I dropped some in each of the donation boxes. Finally i came to Shani Mandir and did the same I joined my hands and tried to read a mantra that was written on the board above but it was in Sanskrit it was hard for me to read that at that age so I started murmuring and pleading god for well being of my family.
As soon as I did my prayer I went ahead to touch the feet of idol of Shani Dev, When a harsh voice interrupted me "What are you doing girl? Don't touch the idol! Don't you even know this! You are a girl and girls are not supposed to touch Shani Dev! You better mind my words and never repeat it!!" . I was shocked surprise and scared at the same time. My heart was hurt and just had one question and that was... "WHY?". I wanted to know why did the priest talked so rudely, Why couldn't I touch the idol, Why being a girl is related to all this...! WHY! WHY! WHY!
Well, i realized my FIRST LESSON that time. Being a girl is a struggle I have to deal with it ! I had to overcome and even mend the oddities in the society to my greatest capacity. As of now as I am all grown up I believe in myself and i know that being a girl and achieving something is an achievement as well so 'Whatever I do, I need to prove to the society...Yeah! I am a girl and I DID it.....!!' What ever the situation might be today those WHYs from my FIRST LESSON are still lingering expecting some logical and candid answers to them.
Radhika Saran.