Bless you, child

Ranchi, 2006. I couldn’t help smiling cheek to cheek at the serendipitous capture of his “divine” expression! This little kid at a local temple of the popular Hindu deity – Hanuman, apparently showers his blessings on all the visitors, this being a rather routine pose! In Hindu mythology, Hanuman was known to be a very innocent, simple, faithful, if slightly mischievous character. This, to me, made his representation in the form of a child quite apt. I was, however also curious about the amount of time this kid spends at the temple, and if that was a full-time occupation!

We’ve all played a lot of silly games in our childhood — sometimes playing superheroes, and sometimes even transcending humanity to “play God”… but few of us would have ever considered possible that it could extend into being a day-long job! I don’t want to detract from the humour of the image… and I hope he has fun while he is at it, but I also do pray that his childhood be filled with sounds that comprise of more than the toll of the bells in this temple. Bless you, child.

© 2006 Nishant Vats