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Viktor PINCHUK


 * In ancient Greece, there were about two dozen gods. The great Zeus was at the head. But such a variety of small and large gods of all stripes, as in India, has not been and will not be in any country of the world.

Living prototypes of the deity
In the beginning was the word. It was pronounced by the auto rickshaw in response to my request about “big monkey.” The rickshaw took me to a forest-park area where, enjoying life, wild boars and pigs were lying in the mud, and wild monkeys were jumping around the trees and under them, having fun. Moreover, this did not happen anywhere, but in the center of the Indian capital! After taking a couple of photographs, I thanked the driver and said that I wanted to see not monkeys, but a huge god, whose name I forgot.

The rickshaw's brow furrowed for a second, imitating brain work… “Hanuman?” He exclaimed with a questioning intonation. “Yes!” — I answered joyfully, remembering the forgotten word. We hit the road again. According to the data, obtained in the consulate, I only knew that in Delhi there is a monument to the great monkey, which, as a deity, is worshiped by the locals. But I had no information about size of the statue and its location.

Three-story gorilla
Soon we arrived at the site. "Monkey" turned out to be a building several stories high, painted from the outside in the manner of a Russian nesting doll or a clown, that stands usually at the entrance to McDonald's restaurants.

The rickshaw remained on the street, while I took out my camera and went in. Several statues rose majestically on the ground floor: familiar to me Sai Baba — an Indian saint, the same Hanuman, the size of a human being, and two small Hanumanchiks, one meter each. "Mannequins" looked different: apparently, each author put his vision into the own work. On the second and third floors, I found many colorful figurines. But only Radha and Krishna — divine couple, were remembered to me from all the diversity.

Basement horrors
However, the most interesting thing was hidden in the basement of a building, the existence of which was not initially known to me. Descending into certain analogue "Room of fear" from Czechoslovak Luna Park, revered by me as a child, I was dumbfounded… Before me — a statue of a woman, standing on a man's corpse. "Perhaps he was hiding from alimony…" — thought with a shiver. Nearby — three more "Most Highs", judging by the forms, also female. Each held a sickle in her right hand. But these creatures were not prepared for the harvest: in their left hand, each has a severed human head. Blood dripped onto the floor. Also, scenes from hell and many kinds of evil spirits were presented here.

How many Hanumans are there in Delhi?
After to photograph the nightmares, I returned to the beginning of the inspection and there, in prayer silence, asked one of those sitting on the floor in the lotus position: "How many statues of the 'giant monkey' are in your city?" The reason for the doubts was the memory that flashed through my head about the words of the assistant consul that Hanuman is a stone statue, something like a monument. Assumption were confirmed: there are two Hanumans in Delhi. The second one, located on the outskirts of the city, is really stone. “It’s two hours away from here,” the Indian said. Apparently, the cunning auto rickshaw, deciding to save petrol, brought me to the nearest facility. "Caught in the act" pretended to be embarrassed. Time passed in the evening: too late for photography. We agreed for tomorrow.

Monkey God # 2
We drove for a long time. From time to time I asked to stop and, grabbing the camera, jumped out of the “tarantass” like an arrow: a lot of interesting objects came across on the way. A giant statue of Hanuman towered in the center of the temple complex, which consisted of several buildings of different architectural forms. Consulate staff spoke that in such places possible see aborigines in national clothes. And I saw them. Around, on the side of the road, eating food waste, several cows grazed. There are many of them in India, always very thin and similar in habits to stray dogs. This cattles is considered sacred here, but my opinion is different. There is nothing sacred in the fact that the unfortunate animals is abandoned to the mercy of fate. Wandering from garbage dump to garbage dump, they, in the end, die of exhaustion. It would be more correct to call this animal not sacred, but inviolable. However, I got distracted. Hanuman turned out to be truly "great": he was as high as a ten-story building, his head resting against at the sky. In the beginning there was a word, and there was a word at the end: “Mister, look into your bag. I am an honest man, didn’t steal anything… ” — the auto rickshaw said with a sly smile.



Afterword
Human needs to believe in something, otherwise life will lose meaning. Since time immemorial, asking this question, people have invented a god for themselves — a being of the highest order, some kind of superman, who invisible for mere mortals. And all why? For some reason, impossible to believe his own kind: no matter how infallible a two-legged, who tries to pretend to be like a god, he always "misfired", getting confused in words and promises. Sometimes a human does not even believe in himself. And here God comes to the rescue…

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