The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Tuesday, 13 September 2016

GOATS HERDED FOR SACRIFICE

Mumbai's Bakra Bazars, or for any matter, of any other place, are a common feature during the festival of Eid al-Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice, a major Muslim Festival.

This year it fell on September 13, when the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities are also on. The ten day long Ganesh Chaturthi festival began on September 5 and will go on till September 15.

While visiting Mumbai's Mumbadevi temple, which is located in a densely populated area of lanes, houses and markets, one will come across such hoards of goats (the main animal for sacrifice) as this photograph says.

Mumbadevi area has over 50 percent Muslim population and the alleys all around the temple have a mix population of shops owned by Hindus and Muslims. If you will find goats herded up for sacrifice here, you will also find the Ganpati idols and Mandaps (make shift pavilions) in every other lane.



Though the ritual of sacrificing animals is increasingly being criticized, it is still the norm.

Here, in this image, we can see how many goats are rounded up and chained in a makeshift camp. A 'not for sale' marker is hanging prominently that shows the animals are specifically for September 13 sacrifice and not for routine sale.

©SantoshChaubey