Monsoon Morning in Kollur

Visiting temples in India during the festive season is one of the favourite sport that everyone plays from late September to October end every year. Normally I would skip the temple run Month and keep my interactions with divine confined to his/her off-peak time. That worked well for both of us. However this season the demands were different that I ended up in a famous temple with a part of my family around me. I would love to appreciate the efforts put in by the town and city authorities to keep the place clean and tidy. Considering the footfall, it was really remarkable. If we minus abandoned Indies and stray cows from the place, the place would be completely under human control limiting the chances of stepping on something unknowingly when the monsoon rains get mixed with everything you don’t want it to and engages in creating mini pools and flash rivers at will.

As always trying out local delicacies and every other highly rated restaurants from google and hidden gems from vloggers had been my priority during the trip. But this time the top priority was meeting the Goddess herself when she wakes up and before she catches sleep. About the temple, it is one of the seven Mukthi Sthalas, believed to grant salvation to devotees. The temple represents creation, preservation, and destruction all together at one place. Interesting legends are available online if you want to explore. As you feel adventurous you would know what it means to be awake at 4am to be in a temple queue, with like minded lot around you. At least you think of the group as like minded when waiting. After waking up to my weekend alarm, there I was part of that twistiest of a queue mimicking the serpents found in Hindu temple stone works. Or maybe we were making one for the lack of it currently. 

Expert advice led me to take a ticket to be in a so called shorter queue after paying Rs.100 as a ticket to seek entry. While the queue was already long enough to guarantee an hour of morning workout when I entered, it did help in exerting more and working out some free cardio along with strength building. The entry doors were closed abruptly to my liking but in reality for Pooja which was business as usual. The time spent on the queue was a treat and made me observe life more than usual just by standing at one place unmoved. It actually took an hour of standstill to lit up all the lives around us and it was a spectacle to watch.

Every turn of the serpent queue showed new stories and made the wait to see the Goddess a collection of life lesson taught for free. Call it awakening the mind to lives around us or fun killing time, it did get me thinking and learning as always. It was a display of grandiose and colours which would have caught the attention of Devi herself. Nobody was any less in the use of colours be it on their body in the form of clothes or on the face in whichever form that I don’t recognise. For a moment it felt like, I was attending a grand wedding than in a temple. We should appreciate the efforts put to make the wait more worth for everyone around. I started thinking will Goddess think these people are already wealthy and got it all, let me pass this time by not blessing? That much gold and ornaments were in display as if they were competing with Goddess - The herself!

First up was a family of three with a 20 something girl with her parents. She was sleeping sitting on every stone she could find and her mom kept pestering her in her own ways. We could understand that there was nothing much common in them. This young lady looked forced to be in this queue seeking blessing from Goddess probably for wedding considering she had come prepared to be a bride right away if goddess was to show her finger towards a guy of her liking. This girl barely kept her eyes open and whenever she did, it was to argue with her mom while her dad minded his own business. Many around them were busy reciting Lalitha Sahasranama as if they were in their prayer hall and it did add up to the ambience. Rain was pouring as if to add orchestra to the prayers recited by the older women in the queue as if they were not loud enough. Sometimes I felt rain made everything around it a percussion instrument as it took turns as any skilled musician would do while tapping on every tin roof sheet, plastic waste bin, wooden panels, tiles and even humans with well build muscles alternating the tempo with poise.

My eyes continued to a family of four with two kids of age, 6 and 3. The 6yr old boy was demanding for dosa in every coil of the serpent queue and which later got so frequent that I offered him that I would get dosa for him and not to worry about his parents. I would love to believe he trusted me more than his parents who were not good at keeping promises as per what the little one revealed to public while in the queue. His sister was content on dad’s shoulders sleeping like it is still yesterday night. There was a guy in his early fifties who was standing right behind me who caught my eye as he was the talker in the group, always ready to start a conversation with anyone who made an eye contact. Few of the women folk around us regretted making that mistake as he was busy enquiring personal life of everyone. He did try to start his regular QnA with me but I managed to bring out my dead face which deterred his interest often answering unrelated bits and imaginary stories that he couldn’t stitch well and couldn’t help his curiosity any further. 

I have to admit that I was lucky to spot few upcoming yoga talents of India who could sit on heels and bent their body full circle, to keep the edge of their head on the last line of railings almost hitting the floor and all the while still managing to sleep for long time without one bit of movement. Their own parents captured these moments to take to their scrapbook of their kid’s childhood memories which is all they would be left with in couple of decades. As I was busy observing the few, there were many more getting added to the queue and numerous others getting to my line of vision with every twists covered as we millipede’d beating the slowest snail on next step.

There were few smart ones who placed there kids on the seating area which was at the end of the queue which allows us entry to the sanctum sanctorum. Unfortunately they didn’t know the little ones couldn’t understand it was for their good that they need not stand in the queue for long. These toddlers would make loud cries for help like they were caged after getting caught from a free jungle. Post their cries, people lifted and passed them along like a bundle of old clothes to their parents standing far away in the queue who often regretted placing them safe on first place considering the attention they got from public and of-course free advice on parenting from the elderly around. The reality is the overlooked the fact that when the serpent coils there are blindspots which prevents kids and parents seeing each other. I do admit their bravery and trust on the crowd to leave kids like that on such busy days. Daring, I must say!

Some people seemed to have either looted some other temple and had come with sacks of coins. There are also chances these coins might be of other neighbouring countries, I am sure India might not have minted these many considering we got independence in 1947 only. I am not sure who might have started this but whoever it is should have done it for the love for silver and gold coins and didn’t expect an independent India with steel coins. Now to what they started, it is nothing but squeezing in coins into every gap you find between the stone walls and idols around you in the temple. The bright side is they made the temple earthquake proof by giving this additional shock absorbing capability, I am sure these lot would had dug into the basements and pushed those coins with mettle.

This can’t be complete without special mention to all those newly weds in the queue who got some evil eyes in them for sure from the single men and elderly alike. Most men were busy telling their eventful alpha male stories to their womenfolk. Some women didn’t hold themselves back from showing the affection they hold. It was a sight for many who often took their eyes of creating a Colgate ring or privacy in this otherwise public queue. As you could imagine, these women would have been forced to wear all those jewellery which they have and many seemed to be less happy about it. One new husband tried to fold his dhoti like some others which was shyly prevented by his wife to stop other women seeing his chicken legs. We mind mistake it to be an action of respect but she did mention when he tried it third time in anger. Petty fights were in plenty among the couples and that was a spectacle by itself. Some were for the not so good looking flowers these men got for pooja and some others were for not carrying kids, few fights were started due to heavy rain. Yes, for some reason these ladies felt it was men who made it rain for some reason. 

As in any group, here too men were men. There was a large population of young boys, who seems to be in the queue not just to seek the blessings of the goddess inside the sanctum sanctorum but also witness the demonstrations of all the goddesses who are in the queue waiting for the doors to be open. These men did carry hope wherever they went, some were good at giving signals which definitely the goddesses missed to read while parents detected in their radars leading to eye wars in some cases. Some others were hoping for divine intervention to create a movie style love story while in the temple. Nothing seems to bother few daring ones who closed in on their targets by the time we were all pushed into the final part of the queue. 

The last of the queue had three queues merging for good, the free for all one, with Rs.100 one meeting Rs.500 for two. Everyone realised that even though we all paid different amounts the length of our queues were also proportional to it eventually demanding same effort and time from all. Once in the last leg it was all pushing and shoving. I thanked the goddess for the time I got on football pitches around the world, I did manage to keep my ground in spite of being thrown around like a boat going to sink. I could have utilised the often neglected shoulder push but the age and strength of the group made me refrain from it. I did manage to push away few bad intended people from taking advantage of the weaker ones but not sure whether they would thank me for it or be disappointed. The last few steps was really like walking in the sky, you could call in divine but I would say it was because of how police pushed us which made us miss out putting our foot on flower.

By the time I realised that I had passed the blessing zone, I had landed on someone’s foot from the push to move ahead faster. The wait taught me more than the darshan. Made me think and appreciate the life around. Interact and get blessed by many. Hear to prayers and recitations, sometimes even intimate prayers to God while not focusing on those, but it resonates within the Santorum to be heard and acted on. I could feel like a thousand people were crying aloud every second for the attention and blessing of Goddess. Wish their prayers come true and make the world a better place! 

We don’t need to create stories, it’s there all around us. We don’t need to part of all the stories, but observe and savour it. It makes us feel like we were part of it always and carry with us forever!