Memoires Of Another Day - Arun Roy Mukherjee - III

I will never forget the experience I had at the Jagannath Temple at Puri. That day, in the morning, we all had our bath and dressed in new clothes went to the temple. Our Panda told us beforehand that he would be inside the sanctum sanctorum and would do all arrangements for puja once we go inside. In the entrance to the temple my mother and myself were at the end of the line and others in our group went ahead. My mother caught me by one hand and she took a one rupee coin in her other hand which she thought of offering to the deity direct. Another Panda followed us and offered my mother help. My mother told him that we have our own panda but the man persisted and followed us. There was a rush once we climbed the stairs and entered the temple. It was much darker inside. Suddenly that man tried to snatch the coin from my mother’s hand. Mother squeezed her fist. My mother was shouting but there was a big crowd inside and so much noise that nobody could do anything in that darkness. That man suddenly scratched my mother’s hand with his hard nails. With her right hand clutching me, she could no more fight that man with her left hand when he started squeezing my mother’s hand. My mother was already bleeding and had to relent at last. The man snatched the coin and immediately left. I saw everything but could do nothing more than weeping silently.