Unity in Diversity - 2005 version!

Late last year, I went on this nice pilgrimage tour covering Allahabad, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Gaya et al. The tour was a great lesson on management - more about it later.

Not just in Ayodhya, in all those cities one went to, I was able to discern that historically, people from both the religions - Hindus and Muslims have been living together in close quarters with a reasonable degree of harmony.

But then where did we lose the plot? I am neither a politician nor a historian nor a philosopher to know the answer to that.

But one important vignette keeps coming back to me even today. Unfortunately, you have to take my word for it as I could not take the photograph since you are not allowed to take any cameras anywhere near the complex.

Not sure whether things have changed since last October in Ayodhya. When you reach the Ram temple / Babri Masjid complex, you have got to walk for more than a kilometre to reach the actual excavation site.
And it is not a stroll in the park.

There are at least five places where you are searched for anything from a comb to blade to scissors to whatever you can think of. A co-tourist from our group made the mistake of bringing in his cash and some other valuables along with himself in one of those yellow cloth bags ('Manjal Pai'). The security had a field day. They told him to leave the entire stuff with the security and then collect the same at the time of departure. Mind you, this was after ploughing through the crowds for about fifteen minutes. He did not have the heart to go back, lest he would invite the Lord's wrath. So our man took the bold step of leaving it all at the security post in a box which was kept in the open. Poor man! He did get it all back after an hour of agony during which time he had to brave the hot sun, metal cages, crowds and the disappointment of the actual sanctum sanctorum - Lord Rama amidst all those ASI excavated mounds looking lost and worried and probably thinking, "What is all this hulla-bullo about?"

After all this, when we you come out, you will be hit by those commercial enterprises aka shops, which sell all and sundry - of course relating to Lord Rama!

One such shop was selling the posters of the various Hindu Gods' images. Colourful Rama, Playful Ganesh, Naughty Krishna, Meditating Shiva, Serving Sania...

Wait a second! Did I say, "Serving Sania"? Rewind!!! Yes, indeed... There it was! Right next to a beautiful Krishna poster, Sania Mirza in her tennis outfit [no slogans on her tee-shirt :-)] was serving to that imaginary opponent in a multi-colour poster.

Sania? 100m from the Ram Janma Bhoomi Complex!

Probably they started selling her posters after the comments on her dress code were made ;-)

Probably that is India for you! Unity in Diversity!!!
Aaargghhhh... How much more corny can I get?