The Local Celebrity
The stage is
set. Everyone is buzzing around. You can see the tense faces of the organisers.
It has taken weeks of meticulous planning and today is the day. An event of
this magnitude has not been held before in this part of the city and everything
has to be perfect. Banners and posters have been put up weeks ago and the
response has been unprecedented. Recognizing the magnanimity of the event even
district administration offered to help with the security and general
arrangements.
Loudspeakers
are bursting with music. People are lining up to witness what promises to be
the last step of the tour that has travelled across the whole of the nation.
Language might have been a problem at some places but with a personality as big
as this people tend to show up breaking the barriers of language.
The sponsors
have also been gracious enough to support the event. A certain entity has
offered to serve free beverages while several others have offered to contribute
collective to the eatables that might be supplied afterwards. With people
lining up for the left over seats the organizers are content with the effort.
Even the district collector is pleased with the effort his team has put.
Although public money and resources have been spent but how does it matter when
you have people lining up to see the glimpse of this event. On the other hand
any shortcoming today would have been talked about for months to come.
Finally with
music volumes rising the chief guests occupy the stage. The collector and local
politician make their speeches praising the arrangements and commending people
for showing in such large numbers.
Finally the
main attraction. Soft music is played while he speaks and is followed by nicely
timed songs to make the people immerse themselves totally. The crowd is mostly
composed of ladies and some of the men folk as well who listen with rapt
attention. Emotions are soaring high and occasionally you see tears trickling
down the faces of one or two women.
No this is
not some rock star performing with his fancy guitar and shining drums, this is
a religious leader holding an event/samaroh/jaagran/call-it-whatever-you-want.
Though he is not a musician but people adore him like a rock star and his fan
following may force some of the rock stars to rethink their status. The stage
is set according to his theme. Shining guitars and drums have been replaced by
lamps, fruits and other eatables that will be distributed as the prashad being
‘blessed by his presence’. Paintings of Gods he prefers to represent are all
over the place. He sits in the middle of the stage on a grand sofa delivering
his sermons.
This is
going to last for three days. For three days loudspeakers are gonna scream to
their fullest, children may not get to play as the playground has been occupied.
You may get disturbed by the noise but you can’t protest.
Why?
Well because
this is India and you don’t interfere with anyone’s faith. You only respect,
you don’t protest. It does not matter what the ‘Godman’ says. All he says is
‘religious’ and we are to interpret his words as the divine revelations as he
is explaining the scriptures to us. It doesn't matter if he has understood them
himself or not. All that matters is that every evening you see him on a
national television network with hundreds of followers.
“You don’t
get such a following with nothing. You surely have to be someone.” Said a woman
I asked if following was an indicator of his truth. I tried talking to few more
people, mostly ladies and all of them had similar views so I thought it was
better to walk away not that the organisers had noticed me asking ‘strange’
questions to the bhakts.
Well a few
weeks passed by and a television network broadcasted a sting operation
featuring this ‘Godman’. I talked to some aunties that I had met on that day,
they cursed the ‘cheat’ and said that they had moved on to a more genuine
baba whose program is broadcasted all day on a channel he owns. She listen to
him for the better part of the day, the only exception being when she has to
cook.
I asked her
if she tried reading scriptures herself and she replied, “Beta, time kahan
hai!”
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