Just a Thin Line Separates the Holy from the Unholy...
A visit to Guwahati is said to be incomplete without logging your attendance at the kAmakhyA temple. Another popular shrine is the umAnanda temple on the Brahmaputra. After avoiding a visit for so long (B has been generous with his graphic descriptions of the temples, their ambience, the surroundings, the hoary history), i finally 'logged' the two places in February. (I say logged also because we gave the sanctum sanctorums at both the temples a miss). It truly is blissful to enter a temple without a bag, a phone and the ego. This time the bliss ended there. What is the footprint we left there? Some CO2, and several teardrops. What did we takeaway? No prasAd, no holy forehead markings, only too many unfortunate impressions - 1. Bleating kids and goats awaiting their turn to be sacrificed to appease the deity / please the purohit / satisfy an ego / satiate several tummies as 'prasAd'. Heart-wrenching. Blood could be se...