BHUTAN DIARY

राह पे रहते हैं यादों पे गुजर करते हैं
खुश रहो एहले वतन हम तो सफ़र करते हैं II

LESSON AT KALIGHAT

CALCUTTA ok Kolkota 31 Aug 07
I had taken a break after a long time and i was joined by my friends Rohit,Abhishek Kanti and Deepak.We were having a good time when Abhishek was ordered to pay his respect at Kalighat by his mother.A holy shrine dedicated to Goddess Kali in South kolkota.It is one of the 51 shakti peeth.The right toe of Dakshayani is said to have fallen here. The Shakti here is known as Kalika, while the Bhairava is Nakulesh. It is a very famous place and a pilgrimage for Shakta (Shiva and Durga/Kali/Shakti worshippers) followers within the Hindu religion.

Four of us as soon as we set afoot there were swarmed by panda community.Finally one of them was hired by our friend abhishek.We all posed as students so he agreed to charge just Rs 21.we thought thank God.Abhishek being a smart executive of a reputed mobile company thought he has struck agreat business deal.He opened up to the gentleman came to know his roots even.The gentleman was from Darbhanga in Bihar , was there for generations and he even came to know his ancestral village and all that in few paces to the shop where we had to take of our shoes and buy prashad.Being a smart MBA graduate that he was we bought prasad almost worth 300 rs and there went our cover of students.

The Gentleman from Darbhanga introduced us to another man as his nephew and from there onwards he was to be our mentor.We walked another few paces and were made to buy some flowers and bangles of lah for the deity . In the search for greater blessings or sanctimoniously or for fear of unknown we did as was told.The moment we landed inside the temple we were marked by another three pandas and made to pay the patronage to the deity separately.Later on we realised we had paid according to our purses.The way they were selling the blessings of The Goddess was a lesson for all sales person. We were made to visit the temple with a time lag or in phased manner so that we could not negotiate the blessings together a lesson for our Diplomats and businessmen.This time when they are negotiating further on 123 at NSG they must come here once.Fianlly when we came out we all were penny wise a lesson for our financial wizards.

And I was made wordly wise of the organised economy of Temples and holy shrines.How there is a symbiotic existence of priests,prashad shops,flower shops,souviner shops and beggars. Military wise i was tactically and strategically wiser and ofcourse we all were blessed by The Goddess Kali in one way or the other.