LUCKNOW:-The setting
could not have been more incongruous. On the birth anniversary of former
prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who constantly spoke of leaping into
the 21st century piggybacking on science and technology, religious faith
took a turn for the curious with people in Bareilley insisting that
idols of gods and goddesses were “drinking” milk offered by devotees.
News first
trickled in at about 10 am on Sunday morning that the female deity at
a temple in Sanjay Nagar was “drinking” milk. Reportedly a woman
who had gone to pray to the goddess offered her a bowl of milk
before closing her eyes in prayers. When she opened her eyes, the milk
was gone and she ran out of the temple shouting that a miracle
had taken place.
The trickle
of the curious turned into a deluge with people coming with milk
in packets, glasses, bottles, even buckets. Later similar reports
came in from Anandnagar, Mall town and Chokla localities where
idols of Shiva, shivlings and Ganesha were reported to be gulping
down milk. Interestingly, the miracle has been reported from thickly
populated, largely illiterate localities of labourers. SSP Anand Swaroop
said that the police was on the alert to prevent any untoward incident.
“Milk is flowing through the drains outside the temple and it seems
to be a case of mass hysteria. But we are alert to prevent any mishap”,
Mr Swaroop said over the phone. The police is busy trying to maintain
order in the temples where people have taken to shouting slogans.
The images
brought back memories of a similar incident in the late 1990’s when
idols of Ganesha were offered milk throughout the country. Some distance
away in Agra, there were reports of an adolescent girl Manju having
been deified. The 16-year-old reportedly was visited by a goddess in
her dream and told to fast to bring rains to the area. On Sunday she
started her fast, refusing food and water, sitting under a sun dressed
in white while the faithful filed past her with folded hands. Manju’s
deification is a repeat of an earlier incident in Agra when 15-year-old Parveen was similarly deified and made to sit on a fast to bring rains.
The district administration had then tackled the situation sensitively
with SDM Shatrughan Singh gently talking the girl out of her nine-day
fast and prompting her to return home.
N O S T A L G I C A
‘Rajiv
liked black tea’
NEW DELHI, PTI: Bahadur
Singh, late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s peon, recalls a time when
he used to churn out cups of black tea for late prime minister Rajiv
Gandhi.
Singh recalled that
he had to prepare black tea every day as it was Rajiv’s favourite
drink. The country observed the 62nd birth anniversary of the late Gandhi
on Sunday. “He drank both milk tea and black tea. But his favourite
was black tea,” Singh said, tears clouding his eyes. |
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