I have heard of the great California Gold Rush, it is said that actually many people did get some Gold back then,
a couple of years back, in the sleepy city of Pune, there was a similar Rush, a Gold and Fortune Rush, however true to 21st century futurism, rather than being an actual Gold Rush, this was a Future and Options Gold Rush !!
it was a cold winter morning, not sure what date it was, what month and what year, somewhere in the year 1969 (2010 actually), I got a call around noon, the caller was hyper excited and said to me, “Did you read today’s paper”
I said “yes ”
to which he in an annoying tone said to me, “Then why did you not tell me ”
A newspaper typically has around 16-18 pages, discount for adv which may take 5-6 pages of space, it is left with 10 pages of news articles, on an average 5 articles a page, would yield 50 articles, throw in a couple of editorials, and another couple opinion pieces, not to forget the comic strips, astro, TV and movie schedules, and a bunch of good looking models specially on the color pages… What exactly out of this, I did not tell him !!!!!
he said “In the paper it says today is a Grand Kuber Mahurat ”
Mahurats in India are like “days”in the west, Valentine, Father, Mother, Friendship, Woman etc.. they do have a cultural/ astrological significance, and some kind of history associated with them,, but like their western counterparts they are now mostly utilized for their commercial value to boost sales in the economy..
now truly my first thought was ..who..what..is Kuber ? but in India whenever a Mahurat is attached to some word, do not say anything lightly, people are really sensitive about it.
So composing myself I said “I did not read the paper properly ”
then the hyper excited voice explained to me, that it is in the papers (which one dont ask dont tell) ], that today is the Grant Kuber Mahurat, and those who manage to offer their prayers at a Kuber temple before 8:30pm tonight will be showered with immense Gold and Wealth in the Future.
apparently someone had texted him this, he had forwarded this text to many people and then I had the privilege of his informative call than receive an ordinary text… and then in a very calm demeanor he asked, “Do you know where a Kuber Temple is, near by”
WOW !! many things were channeled in my brain, waiting to come out through my mouth, but then they faced the Mahurat red signal, and I kind of paused, and in a controlled manner said “No”… to which he said “ask someone” … so I looked around and the first person I saw, got the quiz section “do you know where is a Kuber Temple around here ?”, however being who he was, instead of answering my question, he reverted back with his series of ‘Why Questions’, to which I provided a recant of my just conversation, while my friend was on the other side of phone, listening and at times even correcting my story..
well, after everything, he said “No I do not know of a Kuber Temple”.. again the Mahurat red signal prevented my mouth from expressing itself,, however I am pretty sure I started another text/call chain through him, as he was immediately off texting the whole thing..
within a couple of hours, I had around 5 texts of the Mahurat, 2 Telephonic conversations, and a dozen first person chats over the topic.. the idea was reinforcing itself…but like the Pirate Treasure Island, no one knew, where in the vast sea of temples in Pune, was the Fortune Island of Kuber Temple.
Now normally this kind of thing would have faded out, but it had some features which an excellent marketing campaign has..
a it appealed to innermost desire of a person of spiritual enhancement (gaining wealth without doing work)
and b, it was a classic limited period offer, Offer ended 8:30 pm the same day.
Finally the Temple Hunt yielded success at around 5pm, and what followed it was a Temple Run… people literally running to the temple
The temple was on the Top of the Mountain which a couple of centuries back defined the southern boundary of Pune,, which a century later is covered by concrete, and now rather looks more like a Sand Dune than a mountain, the Temple Top of Parvati, Pune.
Apparently on the rear side, the Temple Top had a small temple to the Lord Kuber hidden somewhere, along a row of a few small temples, and usually the hill top which is a sort of refuge for Love Devotees who are harassed everywhere else in the city, that evening it started to swarm with Wealth Devotees,,, and in another classic way of “For Love or For Money”, some of the Love Devotees, left the chance of exchanging Love promises, and instead pounced upon the chance of getting Fortune promises from Lord Kuber.
around 6pm I got a call, “my bike had an accident last week, so I do not have a bike “.. to which I replied “Yeah, so”, he said “In that accident my left arm also got dislocated “… I was about to offer my condolences, but then he said “so please take me to Kuber Temple”
now I am not sure, whether it was my inner greed, or whether it was the inner curiosity, which propelled me, but I did agree to his request.
By about 7pm we reached the destination, which was quite a familiar location for me, as after all it was the place where I used to play for a Football club, and part of a regular drill was to run from the ground to the hill top, to touch the temple wall and return to ground in groups..
It was quite a drill, I initially was the slower one, so huffing and panting, I used to reach touch the wall, and doubly exhausted I used do the run back, and apparently some of the others used to do it with great ease. Then a few months into it, I developed pace and managed to reach early, to find my faster mates, sitting calmly and catching their breath.
It was in that cave of a temple, the truth dawned upon me, apparently the faster ones used to reach early, sit, relax, catch their breath, and just when the slower ones were nearby, leave the cave, and reach ground via a slightly different route, and that is why they could do it with ease, with all that rest,,, and all this was based on a sound logic,,, “Today if we do the drill in 20 mins instead of 30,,, we will be expected to do it in 20 mins every time”.. why bring future misery for momentary pat on the back for being fast !!
but that day our objective was quite the opposite, we were going to indulge in momentary work, and bring future prosperity to us !!
however what we saw, we were not ready for that.. there was a line, a snake line, which had curled itself at least 5 time around the the dune of a mountain, thousands has suddenly woken to call of the worship that day.. we made way to the end of that snake and as usually started our eagle glances,,, in the crowd of hundreds trying to spot, a friend/ relative who is further ahead in the line from you, but at the same time, ignoring those friends/relatives who might be behind you.
with some luck, we jumped a couple of circles of the snake, but sadly all our friends were relatively lazy and we could not spot anyone ahead of us.. so we decided to wait patiently in the line, which I must say, was moving at quite a pace that day..
it was around 7:45ish, just like a good suspense movie, now there was suspense in the air,”will we be able to defuse the bomb in time…tik tik tik” ,,well in our case “will we able to shower the flowers in time..tik tik tik”
the excitement was in the air, all of the people were anxious, it was nerving, edge of the seat kind of stuff,, though it is kind of difficult to be on the edge of your seat, when you are standing in a line,,, though I suppose if you have an upset stomach,, you should be able to get that feeling…
anyways, we saw a few people with contacts!!, VIPs, police chiefs, cut the line and do their duty within time .. do they realize that if you cut line and enter with preference, you might be getting blessings from 1 God over there, but I am not sure whether the thousands of those in the line, do give you something, which actually can be called as a blessing..
at this point as the clock went past 8pm,, a deep philosophical question came into my mind.. “If offering prayers before 8:30pm will entitle great future fortune, then does it also mean that if you dont offer prayers before 8:30pm then automatically your fortune gets cancelled !!”
well the way things were going there were going to be quite a few, after 8:30pm who might have to resort to begging as their fortune was slipping away with each second on the clock. The Mahurat red light, prevented me from airing my philosophical insight to others, because like Socrates, chances were that after hearing my views, the mob, would have made me drink Hemlot,,or at least pushed me down from the hill top..
for us it was nail biting finish, we were in the last circle,, our target was in our sights, and with each passing minute, we were inching, towards it.. we had our weapons ready… turmeric, flowers, some oil, incense sticks, camphor… all were loaded properly on the bronze plate, neatly held by a dislocated arm..
It was like 13 bowls (minutes) remaining 22 runs to get (people in line to cross).. Slightly challenging yet it seemed achievable.. but then a stampede broke out, and there was moment of confusion, lots of noises coming, we were not moving, the ones in front of us was not moving,.. everything came to a stand still.. then after 12 mins of wreck..the picture became clear,,, but suddenly we realized, it was just 1 min left, and we had not moved anywhere, so it was still 22 to get..
long story short, we did not make it in time ….but what I saw after that, made up for everything…
at 8:31pm, someone loudly announced, Mahurat has ended !!..the announcement was followed by a corus in the same tune, and literally within the next couple of minutes, the entire thing got EMPTY !!..everyone left ..the place was empty..no one was there..
we also probably would have joined the retreat, but having a person with a dislocated arm, holding a bronze plate, really reduces mobility.. so pretty much at the same position that we were,, my original curiosity came back (who..what..is Kuber) so I decided to march on unfazed.
I reached the temple platform, and I realized that the temple in face had two worshiping caves, very close to each other, and, and, and , both of them were full of flowers.. well I am not a temple expert, but I do know this for a fact that, one deity does not dwell twice in the same temple complex… so one of the caves was of Lord Kuber, but the other was not (Ah Sherlock!)
so to get some clarity, I randomly entered one of them to have a look…could not understand a thing, temples usually are not explanatory, so… just then priest entered, and hurriedly moved to collect the bronze plate in the cave,,, so thinking him to be more knowledgeable than me, I inquired , “is this the Kuber Temple ”
he explained, that this was not the Kuber Cave, it was actually the next one, however when he offered the prayers there and came out, it coincided with the arrival of VIP, and in the commotion he got pushed into this cave.. and could not get out,, quite some time went,, but he could not come out, and his hand had begun to ache with the weight of bronze plate, so he kept it down, and forgot to collect it when he finally got the chance to get out… so now he had returned to claim what was his..rightfully his.. the bronze plate
the (Ah Sherlock) I realized, in the all crowd people had mistaken this to be the Kuber cave, and many had just offered their prayers over here itself..that explained the flowers,,, and also a Bronze plate, which by then had become full of Money offering from the devotees
As the priest left with his Bronze, I realized, Lord Kuber had begun doling out his promised fortune, and the priests prayers for a fortune had been instantaneously met !!
we then did see the actually cave,, it turned out to be same one, where we used to take our drill rest..so much for my GK…
we returned..and I was walking back.. I began to think of those actually made it to the temple platform before 8:30pm, but how can they be sure that they booked their future fortune at a valid agency !!
well it will be easy,,, just a few years down the line we will have to scan the Fortune 500 list.. and then we can safely conclude that those on the list made it on time and also went to right cave..
For the rest…well
wait for the NEXT MAHURAT