Of faith or something like it

I’ve moved every three yrs more or less till now. New places, new people and new things… Yet there are some things that aren’t so new. These are the things that I’ve carried with me from one place to another, at times across countries. And, each time I start doing up my room, the collection only looks bigger. Lets take a peak into what this magpie has refused to throw, come moving time

I am not an atheist. But, I never warmed up to the idea of praying rituals and idol worship. In my defense all I can say is that being born a Hindu, there’s a plethora of deities to choose from and I refuse to play favorites with gods. So I pick none. My friends however don't suffer from scruples like mine and they do have their particular gods for particular occasions. Take ganesh for example. The long trunked, modak eating, mouse riding elephant god (oh the irony of an elephant riding a mouse) is the god for auspicious beginnings.

So, in my collection I have three ganesha’s and an elephant that was probably picked because it was an elephant and ganesha statues weren’t available. Lets look at them in the order I acquired them.

This ganesha idol was chosen by yours truly in consultation with two more of my classmates to be presented to the out going class. Our reasons for doing so- they were available in bulk, looked really good and were in our budget. What am I doing with one almost 7 yrs hence? Simple, some seniors never bothered to get their parting gift and we got our own keepsake. I still have mine. Really wonder about the other two.

This little statuette fits into the palm of my hand. And that's exactly how it was given to me. A friend at the hostel, walked into our room, asked me to close my eyes and pressed this into my hand. It’s made of some kind of stone and feels cool to touch. Had it been otherwise, Id have thought it was some kind of life form and I would have shrieked and thrown it away. I really had to open my eyes to know that it was an idol and deserved some respect, if only to not hurt the said friends sentiment. She’d already given it to roomy. I have mine and yes I do sometimes wonder if the roomie has hers.

This little bauble is again something that fits into the palm of the hand. Given to me by a really old friend, on my birthday I’ve known her for the last 17 yrs. (Darn, that makes me feel so old)

And It makes me feel warm to have her friendship for this long a time. She is so different a person from me, that it's a very unlikely but a very successful relationship. The only similarity- she still has little things I’ve given her over the years.

This little elephant was a parting gift to our entire class from a leaving fellow classmate. A very quiet girl who only smiled in response to most things. I lost touch with her after she left. Exchanged a few emails and then that stopped too. I guess some interactions go that way .

This dreamcatcher was given to me by the polish technician in my lab in NYC. She did a mean imitation of the accent of an Indian from Delhi. Pity it never matched mine but then I'm known to be an accent chameleon anyways. It hung over my head while I slept in my studio in Bronx and it does so here in Nihon.

How can I forget these emperor and empress dolls. They are known as ohinasama and mom gave them to me as a welcome home gift, my first couple of days in Tokyo.

This red statuette here is called a Daruma. Given to me by a japanese guest at our place, it is a constant reminder for me to think about my priority list. What do I really want from my life. Once I know the answer, I can wish it and this little article of faith would grant it . Now I only need to know. Can life be any easier?