Ananya's plan was to keep a low profile and complete her high school. Falling in love was not her plan. Falling for devilishly handsome nerd was definitely not too. Neither "pulling his pants down" was in her to do list nor was getting into trouble...
Indians worship more than a thousand Gods. Similar to the Roman Gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, there are three main Gods - Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. Same trident, eagle and thunderbolt weapon, demigods like Percy Jackson all apply. And there are the other Gods like the Sun, Moon, Planetary system, God of health, wealth, education, God for thieves, not just that, God for gay, lesbian. You name it you got it.
The problem here is every Indian street is dotted with temples for every God. And my paati was hell-bent on taking me to every single temple in Madurai.
Here is a screenshot from Google Maps for the temples in Madurai. It goes up to 16 pages with 20 results in each. Each temple hosts a minimum of 20 gods, each having separate or joined sanctum sanctorum. And if that's not enough, people worship sculptures in pillars too.
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There, a temple has a 4.7-star rating! Maybe the gods here are good at granting your wishes. Or maybe the 'prasad' is tasty!
'Prasad' is a snack given to devotees. Like restaurants, each temple has a different prasad and some are quite famously delicious.
Sai was suspiciously very cooperative; he even suggested a few temples to visit. He was very quiet about the biting incident too, it didn't bode well at all. I left my suspicions aside. What could he do anyway?
The day started well, despite my misgivings I really enjoyed the temple visit. We first went to the Meenakshi Amman temple which was built in the 4th century. The architecture was grand with intricate sculptures. This was home for more than 50 Gods. After offering our prayers to the important Gods we sat near the pool while munching the temple snacks.
Sai was smirking at me as though he was preparing the goat for slaughter.
"I feel touched by the divine, don't you?" Sai asked my paati innocently.
I narrowed my eyes. He radiated a stark resemblance to the devil himself. 'Touched by divine', my foot!
"Yes, this is a divine place," said my paati.
"We should do our religious vows today. Friday is an auspicious day."
"You are right, Sai."
"You have taken a religious vow?" I interrupted, unable to keep my surprise. Sai offering something to God in return for a favor!
"Yes, for you."
"For me?"
"For your good health. I have prayed that I will walk around the temple nine times."
Well, it is common practice here to come around temples in multiples of 3 or 9, as a way to bribe God to process our request in priority queue while thousands of others' wishes were still on the waiting list.
But this intrigued me the most! This is Sai, we are talking about. If he is willing to walk around 14 acres of temples 9 times that would be nearly 10 km.
Knowing Sai, my heart sank. The smirk, the divine touch all made sense. The bloody bugger is going to make me walk with him. My blood came to a boil processing everything.
"You also mentioned about the other vow," he asked pointedly to my paati.
"I took the same vow, but I am too old to walk. So I prayed that you will walk 9 times around the temple for your recovery from the accident," said my paati apologetically to me.
"It's ok paati, I will do it." Well at least if I lost an eye, Sai too had lost one. So I didn't feel very bad about walking 10 km.
"Oh! I forgot to mention. I prayed for your studies too, since you scored zero in Tamil. I prayed that you will walk 9 times to pass it in your final exams," said Sai.
I knew it! The bloody bugger wants to take both my eyes. 20km!
Before I could protest, "You are such a wonderful boy, you care for her so much," my paati crooned.
Sai put on a simpering face which made me gag. "We should pray for her to get admitted to medical college too. It's the will of my mother's prayer that I got admitted."
"It was not your perfect NEET score, but the will of prayer. Silly me, instead of studying on weekends I should pray."
"His hard work combined with divine blessing is what made things possible," my paati retorted before Sai could open his mouth.
Oh, my naive paati! He is playing both of us!
"We should pray," Sai said and closed his eyes. My paati followed suit. Both opened their eyes and announced that each had prayed that I would come around the temple 9 times. 40 km! Great!
Seeing my dejected face Shivani mumbled quietly, "You got off easily, he made me shave my head the last time he was touched by the divine."
That bloody son of a bitch made me walk 40 km, while he sat in the shade eating ice cream. I couldn't move my legs to get out of the car when we reached home. I can't believe that I am thinking this, but I wish he just bit me back.
