Day: Jan 1, 2010
Venue: Satyanarayana Temple, Connecticut, USA
My wife and I were asking the huge, impressive statue of Lord Ganesha, for the usual stuff - good health to all our loved ones, No mishaps during the year, good job market, were probably on both of our minds when we prayed. I was about to jostle past the hundreds of people around me, to worship the rest of the gods, when I heard this little boy, who was flanked by his parents (obviously South Indians settled down in the USA, don't ask me how I know, I just do) exclaim pointing an index finger directly at Ganesha's tummy..
'Mamma, Jesus'
Not surprisingly, it evoked more than a few curious glances by people around, not at the child, because children are still given the benefit of the doubt, but at the parents, who promptly turned red.
'Chee, shut your mouth up,' mama (American, for 'mother') pulled back the boy's arm and sharply rebuked him, more in embarrassment than anything else.
Daddy reacted more maturely by signalling to his wife to remain calm. He turned towards the boy and said
'Kanna ('Dear' in Tamil), this is not Jesus. Jesus is in the church, out in the temple, it is 'God'' (He said this in Tamil)
I had to control myself from laughing. There are many predicaments that Indians raising their kids abroad face, I am sure the Tusked God would have been amused to have been mistaken for his on-site counterpart, Jesus.
Maybe he has also gotten a green card??? Well, thats a thought!
2 comments:
I cannot believe that it was the first time the kid's parents have shown him the a figure of Lord Ganesha. I am sure they must have seen pics and most of us think that kids are stupid and too young to understand the concept of God. I think they know much better than us! and if the parents have not taught the kid basic religious concepts then they are keeping him in the dark and this is what leads to an identity crisis!
(and psst: Indians can rejoice when their children get the green card, green money but their Lord leaving this holy land with a green card, they would go green, blue and get a heart attack!! :))
Nice post!!
lol
it's like what we used to say computer means Windows ... later on we realized there are MAC and Linux as well ...!
maybe this is the same ... what kids see around, is what they learn from. if it is God, it has to be Jesus.
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