The 108 Feet Tall Hanuman

      I get a funny feeling whenever I see this place. The huge Hanuman statue, also known as 108 feet Sankat Mochan Dham, is situated right in the middle of Delhi. It is weird to see such a enormous, unmoving, orange statue amongst all those tall, concrete buildings with shining glasses on them. Amongst all those honking cars, those flashing lights, all the crowd, all the ad-boards. It points out distinctively amongst them. But it looks kind of beautiful. The only thing that disturbs its beauty is the snobby, immortal metro line laid in front of it. India has developed. And so its people. But its amazing to see that people here are still religious and that's a good thing as per me. People buy a new laptop, but before turning it on, they burst a coconut and put up a swastika on it. Funny!

     It looks to me like as if proud Hanuman is watching the city, its people, their deeds, its progress, its filth. If you see closely, he is protecting Lord Ram and Sita, behind his palms, in his chest. It is derived from that part of Ramayan where Hanuman is asked to open up his chest and when he does, they find Ram and Sita resting there. The statue also poses as he crushes the head of a devil with his foot. It implies the victory of good over bad and such similar religious stuff.

     There's more. The open mouth of the lying devil is entrance to the temple having idols of lord Ram and Sita. The core looked just like any other temple. That might be because I am not such a religious. Irrelevant! If you are driving around the Carol Baugh area, Take your heads out of car windows and look up. He shouldn't be too hard to spot.

Entrance to the temple

Identifying a Pure Heart

We were three. Wandering on the streets of Delhi. The city flooded with filth. While some are living the dream, others live like rats. But I never thought about it at that time.

Scrolling up the staircase towards the metro station, we were lost in the conversation. It was me, Dodo and Adi. I paid hardly any attention to passing faces. Just then an elderly man, carrying two big, heavy bags, fumbled, just a couple of steps ahead of us. He regained balance. Tired and soaked by the sun, he put down the bags. He was too ordinary to gasp our attention otherwise. Mine or Dodo's especially.

I was so engrossed in talking that I didn't even give him any look. But only Adi saw exactly what all should have seen. He swiftly went up to the old man and offered him help. The old man denied him out of dignity. Adi joined us back in our talk. It happened so quickly that I didn't even take a pause in my verbal shit. Avoiding eye contact, giving indifferent looks, Adi pretended as if nothing happened. He kept walking. And so did we, as me and Dodo exchanged glances.

Do we need a reason to be good? That day, it differentiated us. The pure and the corrupt. I envied him. Though it was a very usual incident, I still remember it. I could just wish, I had such a heart.