Shiva'a temple

My daily temple visits:

Let me confess at the outset that I am not a very religiously inclined person. Before I came to Kolkata I was this rush to college kid who barely managed breakfast and always cursed traffic jams in way to college. Praying was a distant affair. My mom would often crib, but to her dismay like any other collegiate I had developed the knack of ignoring her parental grudges.

I often would snigger at her advice of praying to Lord Shiva, so that I would get a nice groom. Arrey, who really cared for shaadi waadi anycase. The parking lot at my business school had a temple of Kali. I would do a quick salute to her and rush to my classes. That was what my religious encounters were about.

Yes, since I lived in Kathmandu, I would sometimes visit Lord Pashupatinath. I liked visiting the temple in the evening times, when it is much cooler and the campus of the temple is lit with small diyas. The bells chime and soon aarti begins. It always put me in a spiritual trance.

But again, as I said I was not very inclined to idol worship, it was to my friends' utmost surprise that I should keep a fast every Monday. The fasting started after my visit to my maternal grandmother. She cajoled me into keeping a fast. Having met her after almost 10 years, there was no way I could refuse her. And I thought keeping a fast once a week would do good to my body too.

With just that much of connection to God, and a little more : that when I wrote down things in my diary, I would often begin with, dear God....

And then one fine day I got married. There was no college to rush to, but I still got up early. After an 8 O clock breakfast, I thought it would be nice to accompany Linus downstairs, to see him off. This became a part of my morning. After seeing him off I would go to the nearby temple. This was the Shiva's temple.

I will try to describe this temple in the next post.

Till then,

:)

Vid