The Temple

The temple has been a most integral part of my childhood. The temple is till to date,the first thing i remember about my beautiful estate. It stood majestically at the entrance gate to the workers dwellings,commanding an invisible fear and faith,both in the old and the young.

My mom's first warning to me of the Goddess Mariamman,the presiding deity in that temple, was, 'never tell a lie,lest your eyes will be poked by the Goddess'....this much too often uttered warning ,first created enormous fear in me,as it did among my friends ,but i always had this guilty feeling whenever i was about to tell a lie,the lie which at times almost was hanging at my tongue's tip, but never been told for this fear of having my eyes being 'poked' by the Goddess!

Sometimes ,i used to stand at the temple's gated entrance and tried to figure out how the Goddess would 'poke' the eyes of liars since she had been herself 'imprisoned' within those concrete walls. but my mom insisted that 'she had her own way of doing it,so don't u ever dare tell a lie' . It took me some some years to realize how the elders had tried to discipline their offsprings by instilling such fears.I doubt the same tactic could work for the present day kids !