A pagoda across the creek

Somewhere on an island across Gorai creek, is the Global Pagoda. This imposing spire invites you from miles away. Be disappointed that hardly any real pictures of it exist on the internet. It is `complete' in construction, but has a long way to become the real finished structure. In the years to come it is sure to become a must-stop tourist spot of Mumbai.

Promoters of the Vipassana form of Buddhist meditation have built the structure up. After all, if we have a Lotus temple at Delhi for the Bahai faith, or the Auroville meditation centre, brand names like the Pagoda are so essential! The yet-to-be finished structure is a 20-minute ferry ride away from Marve and Gorai beaches, through the fishing territories on the backwaters of Gorai Creek.

Any Esselworld ferry will take you to the spot. We took the ferry from Marve's coast at Malad. The centre's compound is adjacent to Esselworld entrance. What a contrast - one is about worldly abandon, another about being less worldly. A walk into the inside of the grand pagoda will leave you disappointed if you plan to meditate there, just as its giant dome cools your senses (and your skin) thoroughly after a hot afternoon walk from your ferry alighting point. Your sweat will not go in vain.

Only those who complete the 10-day Vipassana course are eligible to spend time inside the hall.

My gnawing doubt: is any other method of meditation under the giant structure detrimental to its cause? Or is it just a way of promoting their own method of meditation? If so, why call it a global pagoda of world peace? I mean, you need to be more inclusive on that front!

After all, every method to meditation is aimed at a singular purpose - seeking the Supreme.

On a personal front, my friends, hubby and brother accompanied me after me coaxing them into it. I took heart from the lovely ferry views and clean air leading to the giant spire. And of course the berry fruit cart we bought stuff from after the journey.

We had those `will-we make it to the coast?' moments too. On our return trip, the boat was manned by an amateur motorman. Negotiating through those gaps between stationary fishing nets was not easy. And the ferry halted right in the middle.

Instant talk by those in the ferry went back to the recent ferry tragedy at Kerala's Thekkady. My people came on my coaxing them. What if something happened? Its alright if I hit the creek bed, but what about them? God, let me not survive with guilt! Prayer is that ultimate weapon that a human mind resorts to in such no-win-in-sight situations. A prayer went up: save every soul in this ferry, with no damage whatsoever, take us all across safely!

Was I really being unselfish in this situation? I mean, it could have brought out the survivor in me! I marvelled secretly in that brief moment of selflessness. Did a trip to that `monument in the making' do it?

As if by divine design, the motorman's more experienced senior took the steer over after giving him some hard-hitting words I got no clarity of. The ferry moved. And in the direction we had to move in. When we touched shore, it was only natural that sighs of relief went up in our hearts. No wonder that a couple of us dashed for a berry-cart the first thing we saw after getting off, not even bothered about carcasses of fish buried in sand, we may be stamping on our way there.

Of course those berries worked away in our tummies later that day. My friend suffered more. As for me, elation worked its wonders. A trip of this nature could charge one up a great deal, even if the results are not gratifying. On our return home, I had all the energy to make a few cups of green tea nimbu cha for the bunch of us.

That night was about learning from my husband how to make stuffed idlis. Needless to say, our friends enjoyed his idlis!

The next morning, I stared out of my window into the horizon and looked lovingly at the pagoda silhouette on its distant horizon. The first time I noticed it many months back, I thought it was a church.