Divine Surprise

I was very excited about my first trip to Calcutta. I had heard so much about the city – varying opinions from people that I was waiting to get a first hand experience and judge the place for myself. Calcutta - which I had seen in Satyajit Ray movies and many other regional movies whose stories were based on this great city. What was so special about this City of Joy?

I was fascinated by the similarities that the state I grew up in – Kerala had with West Bengal. From Communism to Art movie makers, Fish curry, Matriarchal society, Worshipping the Goddess Kali and Black Magic - they seemed to have a mystical bond.

I was more excited because this was not just a weekend trip – I was going to be staying there for a full fortnight. I always believe that you need to “experience” great cities. I remember a friend of mine who was visiting New York City for the first time . The first day of the trip and she was wondering what all the fuss about New York was – she had taken a stop-over at Dubai and felt Dubai was a much more vibrant city. I just told her – you need to “live” here – you need to take the subway or the metro to work everyday. You need to work in the city and when the days gets tough and hard on you, you need to go out and grab that Starbucks coffee, you need to sit in Bryant Park and enjoy the band playing. You need to “experience” this city, girl. One or two days are not enough to experience the magic of this city.

Today, we were visiting the famous Kalighat temple. As we walked through the narrow, crowded streets, I remembered the scene in the movie Devdas where Paro and Chandramukhi meet in Kalighat. We grabbed a flower basket from one of the street vendors and went into the temple. A short wait in the queue and we got pushed in front of the idol. Some temples have such energy that as soon as you enter, you feel some unknown power influencing you. At least , I get this in a lot of temples in Kerala, especially the Chottanikkara Devi temple

I was standing in front of the “Swayambhu” idol now and something struck me. The face, the idol, the decoration, all of it seemed so familiar. But I knew for sure that it was not in another temple that I had seen this idol. I was fascinated by the deity – at the same time was trying to remember where I had seen this. This was my first trip to West Bengal ever – where could I have possibly seen this?

Then it struck me, and the co-incidence of it amazed me! Was this some kind of karmic bond? Was I destined to come here to Calcutta, which was so far away from my native place just to worship this Kali?

Two and a half years back when I moved to Connecticut , I was on the look out for some furniture for my apartment. Then I happened to see an advertisement placed by an Indian lady for a moving sale. I drove to her house in New York, looked at the stuff, and liked a TV that she was selling. We struck a deal – just before leaving, I asked her whether she had any shelf which I could use as a make-shift puja corner. She did have one! She was a Telugu lady and seemed very religious. She got a five- shelf stand from inside and gave it to me. I asked her how much I should be paying for it. She did not want to take any money since it had been used as a puja stand. But along with the puja stand, she gave me a bag with some photos of Gods and Goddesses. I just glanced across them once. Most of them I already had with me, but again being superstitious I did not want to say no. Moreover, I knew she was moving to India for good and she would not want to dump these photos and must already be running on extra baggage, what with a family of two kids.

I took it from her and went home. The next 2.5 years, I moved from Connecticut to New York and shifted 3 houses. In each of these movements, I carried the bundle with me. It always used to lie in a cup board for lack of space to keep it in the puja shelf.

Finally, I was moving back to India for good. I was in a similar predicament. I decided to dump the “divine bag” on one of my superstitious friends. I packed it along with some other stuff I had to give him.

Back in India, I was setting up my home. When I unpacked my stuff to set up my puja room, I found that one photo which was originally in the “divine bag” had tagged along .I was very surprised but I did not give it much thought. It was a small photo of a Devi – the face engraved on a stone. I had no idea which Deity this was.

Now standing in the presence of the Devi in Kalighat, I realized that She had landed into my hands from a Telugu lady who moved from India to the US, then traveled along with me from Connecticut to New York and then back to India and finally decided to emerge out of her hibernation and take an honorable place in my puja room in India!