Puzzled gods and confident humans

 

Sohan Lal appeared for the post of constable in Delhi police. His father, a retired subedar major in the army, got a fresh dose of faith in gods and goddesses as his son moved from the physical fitness tests to written examination to finally reach the interview stage.

The ex-soldier always ends his day with a few pegs of whiskey. With the prospects of his son becoming a policeman, under the pious gaze of the pictures of gods and goddesses which his recently awakened faith had adorned on the walls, his tongue turned all reverential for kind gods. The soldier seemed full of humility and truthfulness.

Then this stream of faith and love stopped suddenly. His son failed to qualify the interview. The offended soldier got into the war mode against the heartless gods and goddesses. Altercation and verbal skirmishes to begin with.

Then the cask got lighter than normal. More alcohol in his system, the girth and certitude of faith went down the gutters.

A trigger of untruth and antagonism. The evil hoodwinked. The snake of suspicion sneaked in. A volley of unmentionables. The gods dethroned—the grand-paternal patronizing look gone.

The soldier bore a long-suffering look. He over-drank his rebellious self and yelled at the pictures of the deities smirking at him from the walls.

The war started. He tore down the recently purchased pictures when the sun of faith was bright. Now it was dark and gloomy. The gods dethroned and relegated to thorny ground.

Tarty tonalities gobbled up legends. Faith dismantled. He put the pictures in the street and beat them with chappals.

The next year his son got selected. Someone joked, ‘Even gods need threats and beatings these days to bring them to their senses.’

But it’s good that his faith was restored. The fallen deities reclaimed their lost positions on the walls in their house.

Well, these are testing times for both gods and humans—hard days of mechanical give and take.