PicTale 005 – God is a Don, I presume

This picture was clicked in Jhansi, known more for the Rani of Jhansi than for graffiti that might rock the world! But this one on the wall of some house near the SriRam Janaki Temple in Mehendi Bagh baffled me.

‘God is God,’ I told myself, ‘is a simple enough statement of a mind that wants tothink it is philosophising but isn’t capable of doing any real-time thinking, but why add ‘Don’ to a God?’

I must’ve said this aloud because Specky immediately spoke up, ‘God isn’t just God but is a Don seven times over!’

‘Now this makes a lot of sense,’ I replied, ‘you’ve at least said something that will make the believers hang you upside down.’

The discussion came to an abrupt end as we had entered the temple by that time. However, now as I write this post I am convinced that God is indeed a don… one who bulldozes you into doing things without even knowing about them because he has infected you with that word we call ‘faith’.

Another fact that strikes me now is the sheer incompatibility of what this picture communicates to the truth that exists for most in India. What I see all around me are people dripping with faith… any of the myriad faiths in our country. But then again, is what I see the real truth?

Arvind Passey
24 August 2013