Durga | ✓

03. Nightmare

Durga woke up holding her head. She groaned in pain and looked around recollecting.

I slept on Appa's study table reading that book... wow... I actually slept... peacefully... without any fear from him... after five years...

Durga got up and went to her room. She looked at the calender.

Today is Friday... I think I should visit Chamundeshwari Temple today

After finishing her daily chores, she quickly draped a red cotton saree with yellow border. She took a bowl and placed the items required for the puja. She went in front of the mirror and looked for some seconds.

Yesterday's peaceful sleep took away my zombie look... maybe Devi Chamundeshwari wants me to move ahead in my life...

She locked the door and went to catch a rickshaw. She, again, bargained with the driver. She won, this time too. Comfortably seated, Durga smiled.

Whatever one may say, in these six years, my bargaining skills are quite same... I just need to polish them.

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Durga stepped out of the rickshaw and paid to the driver. She started climbing the stairs. The weather was hot as the mercury liked hitting higher temperatures in the month of May. She was longing for the summer showers, which was popularly called mango showers in Karnataka, helping in early ripening of the mangoes.

On the eight hundredth step there is a huge granite idol of Nandi. It was fifteen feet high, 24 feet long and around its neck are exquisite bells. This idol was in front of the small Shiva temple. After climing another two hundred steps, she reached the top of the hill.

She looked around, scanning the place for any changes. The temple had images of Shiva, Nandi and Shakti. It was a small temple with idol of Goddess Shakti in her fiercest form - Durga or Chamundeshwari. It is believed that when Goddess Sati's body was cut into 51 parts, Her hair fell in this spot.

A queue of devotees was there, waiting impatiently for their turn. Most of them were women. Durga patiently waited for her turn. She saw an old man, looking like an astrologer, constantly watching her with hawk eyes, trying to find prospective customer.

These astrologers... they predict whatever comes in their mind...

" Baba ji will you predict my daughter's future?" asked Akshad.

The astrologer took Durga's hand and said, " I see your future my child. You will have a happy married life."

Durga looked at her father, shyly.

" Excuse me Ma'am, will please move. This temple doesn't belong to you." said a woman, dressed in the uniform provided by the temple. Durga absent mindedly walked till they reached the sanctum sanctorum. She felt she was feeling a lot calmer.

She somehow managed to offer her prayers, pushing and jostling in the crowd. She went to the prasad counter and took the prasad. Near the steps of the sanctum sanctorum, she settled down, eating the prasad. She completed eating her prasad, contended. After all it was her favourite. She got up and slowly started walking. It is difficult to walk fast in a saree. Getting down the stairs was even more difficult.

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" Did you find her?" asked a demanding male voice.

" No sir." said a man in soft tone.

" When are you going to find her?"

" Sir we could just find out that her mother died when she was five years old."