DURGA-ASHTAMI

"Arey kuch toh dhyaan rakho, mandir mein kaise chali aa rhi ho!!", suddenly a man helping the pujari shouted at the woman standing before me in the queue-for-turn-to-pray. The lady flushed red, took her daughter, moved out of the queue and left the temple. She looked very embarrassed. The man who had shouted looked very angry. He looked as if he would have humiliated her much more if she would have stayed any longer. When she was leaving I saw 'the crime' which earned her this behaviour- her daughter , who seemed hardly 5-6 year old, had forgotten to open her shoes outside the temple.

Today is 'Durga-ashtami'- the day when Hindus worship Goddess Durga. On this day it is a custom to wash feet of nine girls as a mark of respect for the Goddess and then offer new clothes as gifts by the devotee. She is made to sit on special pedestal. She is worshipped by offering rice grains and burning incense sticks. She is worshipped because according to the philosophy of 'Striya Samastasva Devi Bhedah', women symbolize Mahamaya (The Goddess Durga). Even among these a girl child is considered the purest, because of her innocence.

Today morning when I was in the queue I had witnessed this scene. I was completely perplexed to see this man disrespect a woman with a girl, when he had been specially worshipping a Goddess, symbol of womanhood, from past eight to nine days let alone the fact that he worked in the same temple. He also must have done rituals to respect women that very morning.

I can also remember my mother's routine on Durga-ashtami. She used to fast for eight days in a row, this day being the last of them, having food only once a day. She used to get up in early dawn on this day. She used to clean the house and then prepare a feast for the nine girls. After the girls left she used to go to the temple, taking me and my brother along with her. She used to work from dawn to dusk without a sigh of relief.  Even today she would have done the same thing back home. The lady in the queue reminded me of her.

I am not a feminist, neither am I an orator who could give nice speeches on how-to-improve-position-of-women-in-society. I just have an idea that if in the slightest form you respect women or claim to love one, then show some kindness towards each lady or girl you happen to meet. Be it you mother, your sister, your wife, your daughter, your friend or any random woman you meet- RESPECT HER. Women have been object for gratitude since ages. THEY ARE THE REASON FOR THE WORLD TO EXIST.

HAPPY DURGA-ASHTAMI.