Sometimes a seemingly insignificant incident illuminates a larger truth. The devout Ganesh bhakt that I am, I make it a point to visit the Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Mumbai’s Prabhadevi, every Tuesday. I stoically brave the heat, suffocating rush, the noise and the unending queues in order to get the Elephant God’s blessings. To me standing in the queue until my legs ache is a form of tapasya, teaching me patience and tolerance.One day, as I waited in a serpentine queue, a well-dressed, affluent looking man in an expensive safari suit forced his way into the queue and planted himself in front of me. Anger rose in me. After waiting for three long hours, I was not going to let anyone usurp my legitimate place in the queue.My tolerance and patience evaporated in an instant. I ask him to go back. He refused and was rude to me. I speak in Hindi he flashes his English. The tide turns when I give it back to him ferociously in English. He guesses that I am not the uneducated “chulla chowki” he had imagined me to be.While this drama was being enacted, the indifferent crowd just watched. No one protested. A beggar caught my eye. He was grinning at the tamasha. For him it was just free entertainment.When the queue breaker realised that I will not budge, he moved away. Ah! Victory at last! Let the queue breaker sweat it out at the back. He should know what it is to stand in a queue for so long. But wait. There was Mr Affluent right in front of the gate of the temple and I was still behind. How did that happen?I turned round angrily at the crowd and shouted, “You see that man there. He was at the back of the queue. He broke the queue. Ask him to go back.” The crowd was passive. They were a resigned lot. I was embarrassed. The beggar now laughed heartily at my confusion. He points at the usurper who is now seen entering the temple while I am still outside.The beggar than observed gravely: “That man reached where he is now because these people around did not protest. They did not care, when he barged into the queue. It’s the same with elections. Because people are lazy and don’t vote, bad people reach the top and rule the country. During election time politicians become beggars. I beg for food and money. They beg for votes”.Some beggar this! His smart barb was so incisive. I dropped a two-rupee coin into his bowl in appreciation of his wisdom.
