A guru is born

There's a week long religious function going on in the house across the road. I know about it because the speaker on their roof points directly at my bedroom window. I've requested them to turn it around in the direction of the bazaar and bus stand where the idlers are obviously in greater need of instruction.


'Who've they got speaking?' I asked Shankar, my cook, as an off key hymn disturbed my lunch of aloo gobi. 'It's Raju' he said and I was surprised. Raju lives in the house across the road and is a 20 year old sometimes painter, sometimes magician, sometimes acrobat, seen below practising a balancing trick with a long pole.


'He's a guru?' I asked and Shankar replied 'Ban raha hai' which I shall translate as 'He's on the make'. Sure enough, I saw him in the street outside later with very fresh looking robes and a funky new hairdo and beard.

So there you go wannabe gurus. All you need to start is a set of speakers on your own roof and a captive audience of neighbours. I'm sure he's already claiming to have a foreign devotee.