This is the reason people like Annie shouldn’t be allowed inside temples. And lest anybody jump at me for making “communal” references, I hereby state unequivocally, that the above statement applies to everybody, irrespective of their religion.

So, Annie goes to Benares to

…investigate hunger, after all. It was only fitting that I look up the goddess that fills bellies, for someone told me that nobody sleeps hungry in Benaras. Its holiness was built, he said, upon the hunger of those who flocked here, knowing that here, the virtous, the freshly-rid-of-sins were anxious to give. [...]

What follows is doubly disgusting:

I wanted to look up this mother-goddess. Perhaps, because it is so hard to understand what has gone wrong - has she stopped providing, she who provides?

I went prepared for security stress. It has been just over a year since the blast at the Sankat Mochan temple and anyway, you get frisked and your bags get searched almost everywhere you go, these days. So, I took nothing but some money and my phone. However, after a half-hour rickshaw ride, a ten rupee bribe to a cop (paid by the rickshaw-puller, without my knowing), and a fifteen minute walk down the narrow Vishwanath lane and reaching the entrance, the police said - ‘Phones not allowed’.

And suddenly, the desire to see her was gone. Annapoorna, I’m sure, would understand.

Dear Annie, temples are not tourist places. Nor places where you go investigating whatever catches your latest fancy. If the following reaches the inner recesses of your brain, please have a go at it:

The sanctity of Goddess Annapoorna is summed up poignantly, touchingly by Adi Shankaracharya in this soulful verse:

Annapoorne sadaa poorne Shankarah Praanavallabhe|
Gnana Vairagya Siddhyartham Bhikshaan Dehi ca Parvati||

Mother Annapoorna, you who are Eternally Complete, you, the very life of Lord Shiva, give me food (literally, alms) so I can sustain my body to achieve the Supreme Knowledge.

This verse is the spirit of Annapoorna, of Benares, of Sanatana Dharma. It is seeking this spirit that millions come to Varanasi. Investigating hunger will only tire you, Annie.

The remark you made about people not sleeping hungry is not just at the physical level. People pray to Goddess Annapoorna to satisfy their spiritual hunger. Several philosophies hold that a total surrender to the Spirit will ensure that the Spirit will provide everything: food, shelter, protection…everything.

I’m loath to give personal anecdotes but the occasion demands it. For every Annie, there’s my grandmother–and thousands of such grandmothers–an 81-year old lady who’d never been outside Karnataka. She visited Benares last year and paid obeisance to all shrines. By foot. Twice in three days. And told us later that her life was now fulfilled.

Why is it so hard for people like Annie to see and feel what my semi-literate grandmother saw in the same city? What makes them take such cheap potshots at something that’s beyond their understanding? Why do they only see bribes while millions find something that brings them peace and solace?

And then they rake up a huge fuss about women being barred from entering Sabarimala. For the last time, Sabarimala is not a ground where you fight the feminist battle. Here’s a solid explanation on that.