Spice of life | A prayer for harmony, respect for all religions

Going back six decades, I got ready to reply to the query from New York. Argowal village, just 2km from our ancestral village of Dhollowal in Hoshiarpur district, had a Thakur Dwara

Our family WhatsApp group icon was changed yet again. The administrator, my niece, replaced a picture of her three-year-old, attired as Krishna, to wish all of us on Janmashtami last week. Little Zorawar Singh looked cute in a yellow satin ‘angrakha’ and white ‘dhoti’ with a golden ‘mukut (crown)’ on his head, a flute in his tiny hands, and a mischievous smile on his lips. He looked every inch a Krishna for whose charm the ‘gopis’ fell so easily.

Another cousin from New York posted a video wherein little Krishna with butter smeared all over his face was seen crawling towards another ‘matki’ full of butter, trying to grab yet some more. (HT PHOTO )

The group was abuzz with ‘Happy Janmashtami’ messages. My Bikaner-based brother posted a melodious ‘shabad’ from Gurbani: “Har ji aaye, shadd singhasan ...(Leaving his throne, the Lord came forward).” The caption read: “A rendition of the meeting of Sudama with Lord Krishna composed by Bhai Gurdas ji.” In the accompanying picture, Krishna was seen sitting on the ground, washing the feet of his childhood friend Sudama.

Another cousin from New York posted a video wherein little Krishna with butter smeared all over his face was seen crawling towards another ‘matki’ full of butter, trying to grab yet some more. In response to my smiley liking the post, the cousin asked if I had any memories of Thakur Dwara at Argowal.

It took me some time and lots of effort to recollect and reorganise the events from our far-off past. This is not the first time that I have gone back by decades to refresh my memory and add to the knowledge of our dear family. Being the eldest in the group, I am a dadi (paternal grandmother), a nani (maternal grandmother), a bua (paternal aunt), a mother, a maasi (maternal aunt) and a sister to the ‘dadkas’, who fall in the age range of 20 to 70 years old.

I take my responsibility of being the custodian of the family history rather seriously. I try not to disappoint any of the younger relatives and provide answers to all their queries. I feel flattered when my loved ones compliment me on my sharp memory that enables me to help them reconstruct past events of which they have only a faint idea. This gives me a fresh impetus to dig into my most precious treasures of old family albums and letters to arm myself with more knowledge.

Going back some six decades, I got ready to reply to the query from New York. Argowal village, which is just 2km from our ancestral village of Dhollowal in Hoshiarpur district, had a Thakur Dwara. The villagers of the surrounding areas, irrespective of their religions, visited the temple to get medicines for their ailments from the priest who was called Mahant ji. He treated the village folk for free and was held in high esteem by all. Every Janmashtami, he arranged langar (community kitchen) to celebrate the birth of Shri Krishna.

“Yes, of course I remember our visits to Thakur Dwara,” I replied to my cousin. Tugging at my grandmother’s hand, I would walk all the way to the temple.

Having finished writing, I heard myself praying aloud: “Dear God, let no one create divisions in the name of religion, caste and creed among the people of Punjab. May each of us live in harmony and respect all religions.” aswantkaur@yahoo.com

The writer is a freelance contributor