Short stories
                                                                    
                                                                     At the feet of the Divine

Following his routine for the last 8 years, Shankar stepped into the temple, performed his usual pooja (prayer) and walked out
wearing footwear that didn’t belong to him.  For years, this happened to be his daily practice, stealing others footwear kept
outside the Shivalaya temple at Vishnupada village.  An age-old ancient Indian temple, famous for its authenticity was a major
tourist spot.

Nine years back his father took ill, when Shankar was a lad of 13 years, the oldest amongst his two sisters and two brothers.  
He was clueless as to how would he handle the responsibility that now stood on his shoulders.  For about a year, he took up
odd jobs as and when it was available. But the money that came out of it would hardly be enough for a one-time meal.

Frustrated with his life, one day he entered Shivalaya temple to soothe his mind.  As he was climbing the stairs of the temple,
he was stuck by the classy and attractive footwear of the tourists, lined up outside the temple.  

He murmured to himself, “This does not even look like it’s made here”.

Once inside the temple his thoughts wandered over what he saw, a dozen ideas were flowing in and out of his mind.

Should I pick that footwear and sell it? Of course to whom it belongs are rich people, to bother over something like
footwear!  What if I am caught?  Maybe I will do it for a few days and when the word spreads about footwear getting stolen,
I will stop for some days.

An hour passed, Shankar now couldn’t see any other alternative easier than this to support his family.  He got up firmly and
after bowing to the idol of a meditating Lord Shiva, started to walk out of the temple.  Seeing no one around, he went and
put his trembling feet into nice leather made Chappals and sped fast to his house.

Instead of going inside his home he headed straight into the small and shabby out house and removed an empty box beneath
the heap of junks.  He placed the footwear in it and again put the box below the other junks.

A month was over like this, Shankar had now managed to fill the box with quite a lot of expensive footwear.  Next he had to
take them to town to sell, from his daily labour he managed to get some packing materials.  All done, Shankar informed at
home about a task he has got of delivering a consignment to town.  At the dawn of the next day, he had planned to carry
this box full of footwear to town and sell it for the best offered prices.  

On reaching his destination, he got a trader who agreed to buy the sandals.  Shankar’s excitement knew no boundaries; it
took him almost a year to earn that amount doing all kind of difficult jobs which he had now got in one month.  The dawn of
the morning also turned to be the dawn of Shankar’s stealing career.






























Now it had been 8 years Shankar had been coming to temple and walking out with some other devotee’s footwear.  Quite
often Shankar would ask himself how has nobody so far reported of any theft to the temple authorities and not even a word
has spread about missing footwear.  This question was constantly re-appearing in his mind.
    
One day Shankar decided to find out the reaction of people, whose footwear went missing.  He closely observed a young
tourist in his early 20’s coming in a pair of floater sandals.  Leaving it out, he walked into the temple.  Finding this to be the
right time, Shankar saving himself from others’ attention picked the sandals and dropped it into his carry bag and stood some
distance away.

Seeing the man walk out of the temple, Shankar acted busy in his work to avoid the young man from doubting him for his
missing sandals.  But what he saw next he was unable to accept it as true; he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the
tourist walk away in the same sandals he came in with.  Shankar at once glanced into his carry bag and found the floaters still
in the bag.  He was at a loss of his wits.  It was afternoon and with hardly anyone around, Shankar repeated his act a couple
of times more, however again all those people walked away with similar footwear they came with.

Shankar’s head was spinning he dropped his bag and ran inside the temple.  With his eyes closed he was trying to figure out
what was happening around him… he sobbed within and pleaded to god to tell him what was going on? Just as he opened
his eyes he saw a luminous figure calling out his name, dumbfounded he raised from the floor with join hands.

The luminous figure said, “Shankar, you have been my true devotee for so many years and looking at your love for me I could
have given you anything you had asked for; then replacing the sandals that you stole with new ones was a very small thing to
do.  Go my son, and remember whatever you will do I will always be with you so choose your path carefully”.  

“Shankar its time to close the temple”, came the voice of the temple Priest.

Shankar opened his eyes and saw the priest standing next to him.  That day his life changed forever. He decided to stop
stealing footwear and instead opened his shop of footwear from the money he had collected.  He had also decided to donate
some amount every month from his profits, to give back the money he got from stealing footwear.

Sachana U.
                                                                                                                                                                              
                                
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