Where Dogs Piss on Gods

Dear Fellow Lucknowites,
I am sure that the title of this post will be found to be scandalous to most of you, to say the least. But then, I think that it is best to call a spade a spade. Believe it or not, this is exactly what is happening in our great city. DOGS ARE PISSING ON GODS! And it is not heresay or metaphor. This is exactly what I saw happeing on a road of Lucknow.
When you move from Alambagh to Amausi, you encounter a newly built chowraha, carved out in sandstone, en route. This crossing is also known as 'Avadh Chowraha.' (because of its proximity to avadh hospital.) Move right from this crossing, and you enter a road known as 'hardoi road bypass'. This road connects kanpur road to hardoi road and is currently being widened and beautified. It is on this road, in the morning, that I saw the fateful sight that prompted me to write this particular post with this particular title. I SAW A DOG PISSING ON AN IDOL OF GOD!! "How", you may ask. To get an ansewer to this query you will have to turn right from Awadh Chowraha and start moving towards hardoi road on the bypass. Scarcely would you have travelled 100 meters when you will be able to see a few Idols of Hindu Gods and Godesses kept on the sandstone footpath (on the left side of the road) in the shape of a crude altar. Well, needless to say, this altar has been kept there not because someone in that area is overtly relegious or because there is a shortage of temples in that area, but because someone is trying to grab premium land in that place in the guise of a temple. Again, needless to say, whoever has kept the idols at that particular spot is neither interested, nor has the wherewithall to protect the idols from the dogs that roam the streets. So it was well neigh inevitable that one day someone would see a dog releiving itself on the altar. And, It was sheer chance that I was the person who saw it. Now, I will not blame the dog. Dogs, you know, have a habit of urinating on pillars and sundry projections on the ground. I am pretty much certain that the dog who was urinating on the idols of Gods that day was not aware of his folly. He was simply doing what nature has programmed every dog to do-urinating on a raised pile kept on the ground.
Let me share a secret with you. I am not what you would call a "religious" person. In fact, I hardly ever go to temples or other such places of worship. But EVEN I was deeply distressed by that sight. I mean, someone is allowed to create conditions in our city where idols of our gods are desecrated in public by a dog!! But there is some solace at hand for those among us who are religious in spirit. Pretty soon a makeshift wall will be erected around that altar. Then an asbestos roof will be put on it. Then a 'devi jagran' will be held there for which public road will be blocked and dug up and local residents will be forced to suffer a sleepless night. And soon, what used to be a public footpath will be a private 'temple' in which some 'baba' will recline and smoke 'chillum' all day long at the expense of the devout who will continue to pour money into the 'dan patra' kept in the 'temple'.
This particular 'altar' (would-be 'temple') is just one example of how religious feelings are being exploited in our city in order to grab public lands. The entire city is dotted with such 'temples'. Once such a structure (I refuse to recognize any 'temple' which is built on stolen land) is erected, it becomes impossible for district authorities to demolish it. The poor hapless devotees do what they always do-Throng such structures beleiving that they are abodes of God. There are 'n' number of such structures in the city. One such structure has been built in Vikas Nagar, where I live. This 'temple' has been erected on public land grabbed next to a sulabh toilet complex. In fact, the toilet complex and the 'temple' have a common wall! Its a shame that instead of razing such a structure to the ground, local residents go and offer worship to the idols kept there. With the passage of time, this blasphamous structure is being beautified and expanded. On 'bada mangal' shamianas are erected at this spot and food is distributed to beggars and the like. Again, all this is not being done because of any devoutness on the part of the 'babas' who have erected this 'temple'. Rather, the motive behind such seemingly religious and altruistic acts is to buy legitimacy for an illegitimate structure!
The rate at which such 'temples' are coming up in our city, soon there will be no road for the average citizen. Each such structure, once erected, creates a permanent bottleneck and a permanent impediment to the development of the area where it is situated. Through this post I would like to appeal to fellow citizens to resist this emotional blackmail in the name of religion. My appeal to fellow citizens is that we should shun such structures and should desist from lending legitimacy to them. What we need are more hospitals, schools, colleges and public amenities. What we need are more and wider roads to walk/drive on. What we need are places of worship that have been built on land owned by the trust that builds and runs the place. And what we ultimately need is that our faith is not flouted and our idols are not desecrated in public just because some 'baba' of questionalble credentials wants to grab a piece of premium public land and smoke 'chillum' happily ever after.