A garland of hope

These garlands

White in colour

Longing to wrap around a sacred neck

These fruits fresh from the fields’ of poor farmers

Waiting for a devotee

The man garlanding lotus together ,

Fixing a price for a faith of an innocent, 

“Why think of offering no pooja

Asking anything from the ‘givers’”

A devotee purchased a basket full of ‘hopes’

Inquired not the maker of garlands

But himself

Another devotee

Counted the coins in his wallet

Thinking of filling the till, sacred that shows no rooms for any other coins

Asking nothing for him

But a job for the son in need of peace of mind,

praying  for no insults from relatives,  

For the daughter ‘praying for a child’, sleeplessly

The facilitator of good wills,

The negotiator,

The Mediator, The dependent of sorrows, hopes of poor,

asked the devotee, looking at the garland, brought with shivering hands

‘ Brother what shall I ask for you, from the giver’

The Facilitator,keeping the pooja before the altar of the promiser of luxury

Peeping into the eyes of the ‘needy’, said

‘for what you are asking my brother ‘a red garland is good’

Hiding the coins in hand, the devotee

Smiled at the ‘altar of pooja’, lined with fresh flowers

Stayed ‘mute' for a moment

‘will my son not get a job’

Will my beloved daughter ‘get no son’

God, I promise

Next time ‘I buy no white garland, but a red’

Pardon me for ‘purchasing a wrong colour’

The devotee

Venerated the feet of the sacred giver

Stepped out of the shrine with a hope

'The lady with a face with wrinkled sorrows', with a small pooja

removing the slightly tone shoes , keeping it a side

entered the shrine 

muttered something 'stilling' before the statue, sacred

no one heard,

not even the 'facilitator

a little boy who came running from no where, 

touched the sari sewn with obstacles of thread 

'amma mei kawda' ( Mother who is this')

asked pointing his little finger at the statue, sacred

'putha me thamai deviyo'

(Son this  is the god')

aie eya kisi deyak kiyanne neththe

amma monawada eyata kiwwe

(why is he not telling anything , what did you tell him)

"deviwaru katha karanneneha

ahan innawa witharai"

("the gods do not speak they only listen")

'ah! ehemada"

("is that so")

The Child sat beside his mother, muttered something'

closing his eyes,

heard no one 

a drop of tears fell like a pearl

from the eyes of the little one,

touching the cheek , soft

noticed no one

not even his mother

but the God?