On the first day of the Vikram Samvat 2083 (the Hindu new year), I got up a little early. In the red-hued sunrise, I remembered poet Kalidas. In Ṛtusaṃhāra, he beautifully narrates the spring season:

Drumah sapushpaah salilam sapadyam, streeyah sakama pavanah sugandhih/Sukhaah pradosha divsashch ramyaah, sarvam priye charutaram vasante

(The verse means: Oh beloved! everything has turned so beautiful during spring. Trees are laden with flowers, ponds are full of lotuses, air is scented, evenings pleasant and days are delightful.)

With a lot of enthusiasm, I entered my housing society’s park to meditate but was unsuccessful. Why? An unbearable decibel assault was on from the Noida-Greater Noida expressway that is close to the society. A group of devotees were moving with the “flame” of the goddess as the period of Navratra was on, expressing their religious fervour through boom boxes blaring music at 120 decibels.

I am a practising Hindu. My grandfather used to be a dandi swami (an ascetic of the Advait Vendant tradition). My father was a poet, and discourse on religion and literature within my household and outside shaped my early childhood. I thought of confronting these “decibel devotees”. I wanted to........

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