The Holy Purpose

They are up before the streets come alive. They go from house to house.They do not scale the gate but stay around the wall. This is about the fraction of the population, active and functional from five a.m. to seven a.m. Some carry plastic bags, some use their pockets, some simply cup their hands. Every morning, I notice a handful of elderly women; even though they are advised to stay put during this pandemic and at times fairly youngish ladies stealing and ripping off flowers and leaves and what-not from private lawns in the name of the Lord!

I see beautiful buds and blossoming flowers being plucked. As I walk around the corner in the wee hours of the morning, I only see these silent and speechless figures lurking around people’s gardens. They tiptoe stealthily, waiting to pounce on that beautiful and flourishing blossom and then offer it to Gods family tree, as a form of appeasement….perhaps.

I am not amazed to see them go about their activity nonchalantly, some even humming a morning raga. Engaging in an unholy theft for a holy purpose. I often choose not to poke my nose, by maintaining mind-your-own-business disposition and march past. My morning walks are incomplete and irrelevant without these sightings. I am an early bird. My task is to catch the early worms.

I had believed, this pre-dawn activity was exclusively reserved for the female species. Until one day, I sighted a man on the job. This one comes riding a bicycle; more than riding, this one walks the bicycle around, plucking flowers with a long stick with a hook.

There are many flower plants along the wall. But there are no flowers at all. Whose flowers are they, anyway?

I have heard wise people say : the Gods are pleased with flowers grown in a neighbours garden.