A hotline to god

It is Ramlila time. Or rather, it was. It was in the air and all hues of Ramlilas were scattered all over the city.

For those who had no time and religious inclination, there was the sophisticated Bhartiya Kala Kendra Ramlila, choreographed in dance "" a mixture of various classical Indian dances. It is an institution by itself, having completed more than 50 years and still drawing packed houses for the 20 days that it is staged.

I have seen it since I was a child and have seen it become faster and faster, literally, as though that is the connection it is making with the fast life we lead today.

While I say that it has no religiosity around it , I remember two very personal anecdotes related to it. One was when, after a performance of this Ramlila, my young niece who was brought up in the US sauntered backstage to see the cast, still all dressed up as the gods and goddesses they represented.

There was a crowd around them that looked at them with awe and respect. My niece saw them and very simply but very enthusiastically greeted them with a very accented "Hi! How are you?" and casually extended her hands for a handshake.

Ram certainly was unsettled at this unusual response, and even I, who never looked at these impersonations as religious characters, caught myself feeling startled at finding this greeting slightly disrespectful "" for gods!

The other was when this Ramlila travelled to Agra, and was seen by my grandmother, whose faith in god or gods was legendary. After the performance I took the two artists playing Ram and Sita to make some phone calls to our house.

As they finished and left home, I noticed my grandmother standing in the verandah, almost in a trance. Seeing me, she said with supreme satisfaction "" "Aaj to bhagwan Ram aur Sita mere ghar mein phone karne padhare. Meri tapasya sarthak hui ("Today Ram and Sita themselves came to my house to make a phone call. My prayers have been answered)."

What was this? How did she reconcile her belief in those two actors as gods, with them engaged in a very modern, human activity like making a phone call?

Coming back to the Ramlila, I do not know how many of you have heard of the Ramlila of Ram Nagar, which is hosted by the king of Kashi to this day. The audience participation in this is phenomenal.

This Ramlila has different locations in the city named Lanka, Ayodhya, Chitrakoot et cetera, where the different scenes of the Ramayana are enacted. So the spectators have to move to different locations to see the action. Even though the whole thing is a total spectacle, the belief in it seems total and the locations become sacred too.

The large-scale Ramlilas are professional affairs where artistes of different hues are hired for the various roles that are enacted over a period of 10-15 days. They compete with each other in spectacular stage effects, expensive stage decor and costumes. So these events are as much a mela and spectacle as a ground for playing out faith and belief.

Then there are the familiar neighborhood Ramlilas which are simple and seek participation at the very local level. These have some pretensions to artistry but are actually the ones about which one has heard innumerable jokes "" of settling personal scores on stage, of petty jealousies, of stage disasters. And yet, if you have been to any of them you will notice the deep religious bond that binds the audience to the performance.

In the Indian psyche, gods are very human, they can make mistakes, they can fight with each other and they can make phone calls. This does not take away from their godliness. This duality only lends another layer to their faith. One hopes that recent attempts at wiping out the duality do not succeed as it will take away a very colourful dimension of our relationship with our deities.