During my recent trip to India, it was work, work, work all the way. Well, almost.

It’s up to us to ensure that life is balanced after all, so I deliberately carved time out for other activities. Therefore, all that work didn’t keep me from a wee, little bit of fun. Or some serious shopping. Or a couple of loud and impassioned political diatribes with friends and family (they’ll never invite those again!). Or  the payment of some weighty debts.

Those debts are interesting, to say the least.

I have told you before, there’s this temple in Khar, Mumbai I feel like it’s come through for me more than once.

And it hasn’t really stopped coming through. At the end of the day, it’s really what you believe, isn’t it?

For being such a frequented destination for some in Bombay – there’s always a line of people waiting to enter – the temple itself is a very modest, peaceful dwelling adjoining a neighborhood park and an ode to Hanuman. It has no doors, just thousands of bells of all sizes hanging all over its ceiling and pillars, bells that have been contributed by (I assume) gratified devotees over the years.

The Hindu god, Hanuman is known for, among many other things, being the repository of incomparable strength and the one capable of liberating (mere mortals too) from dangers.

Well, my debts to this Hanuman had been piling up over several months, from earlier visits that I had paid to the temple, mostly from when I was a temporary resident and expat in Mumbai.

So much so that on the one free Saturday that I had in Mumbai recently, I set off to “my” temple again.

But before I got there, I had to make a crucial stop – to purchase the bells that I would deliver there, with much gratitude. Yes, that’s “bells“. In plural. Not one or two, but six of them in all. That’s right, six.  One for each fulfilled wish made on behalf of important people in my life (uh, that includes one for moi).

And, here’s the most curious thing of all…I am not (by any means) a religious person. I’m really not. But I do like to pay my debts, real or imagined. Who doesn’t?

And in that moment, with the liberating feeling of having satisfied these past obligations of mine, I completely missed invoking any new wishes or desires at the temple.

Now, I’m rather glad that I restrained myself. No sense in getting too greedy so soon. There’s time enough for new aspirations to be gathered up for another visit. Isn’t there?

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