Beginning 2014 - Half Ashtavinayak Tour

I am an agnostic on the fringes of atheism, and yet devoted the first day of the New Year to a whistle-stop tour of 4 temples in the famous Ashtavinayak circuit of Maharashtra. Temples, Mosques and Churches are great places for people watching, next only to airports and railway stations. It is stirring to see the faith of people, as they stand patiently in the serpentine queue with a prayer on their lips and offerings in their hands. What divine powers have been mysteriously infused into these amorphous red stones? Faith can indeed transform inscrutable stones into Gods!

 

To me the journey matters as much as the destination and today it was even more important. There were 5 laps between Pune, Morgaon, Siddhitek, Ranjangaon and Theur. The roads were indifferent; some of them were less known. There was a major detour to circumvent a political rally. We were traversing sugarcane country and the cane crushing season has started. Tractor trailers and bullock cards overladen with cane made pitifully slow progress holding up traffic. The road is one of the most meaningful metaphors for me and I caught my mind repeatedly getting distracted at each new turn of the road and making an extended association with the year that lies ahead. Was a day’s journey becoming a teaser for an entire year?