What Haji Ali Means to Me

Whenever I have felt distraught and at war with myself I have gone to this shrine of a Sufi Saint on the shores of Mumbai.The road is lined with beggars and the refuse of a thousand rotting garlands and junk that the sea leaves on its shores makes the journey quaintly Indian but on reaching the wide gates and the white alabaster shrine I felt a peace that is beyond mere words.

Is it my superstition?Maybe.When I touched the Saint's grave for the first time in obeisance almost a decade ago the strange smell of ittar(incense) did not go from my hands for almost a week despite all the washing.

Maybe I was looking to believe.Maybe I was so down that I was clutching at whatever hope i could garner.Our Temples and Shrines in India are our psychiatrists and counsellers and we know that the whole world might rebuff us but not God.So a Hindu prays at the grave of a muslim Fakir and vice versa.That truly is the crux that makes India what it is and is the secret why despite centuries of religious,racial schisms we are still a Great Country.

Religion I read somewhere will cease to be an important fulcrum for humans in the next few decades.I do think then we truly shall be a mechanised race.