WHEN GOD WALKED THE EARTH CHAPTER 24
God is caught in a devastatingly heavy downpour

It was red hot day in summer, according to the weather bureau it was the hottest day of the decade ,not a leaf moved and the trees drooped before the onslaught of the sun’s unrelenting rays .God was feeling very hot and restless within the confines of His flat, there was no electricity in the area and no water God decided to venture out and find solace in the air conditioned confines of a restaurant in the vicinity ,but no restaurant in the area had any light and they were more hot then the sizzling tandoors in which they baked roties.Goddess Laxshmi could not bear to see God in such a miserable condition and therefore she summoned the wind God and commanded him to blow cool breeze over the area,Indera ,the God of rain who was also present there said,”mother can I say a few words”
“yes,go ahead”,replied the Goddess
“in his anxiety to please God,he will uproot trees and destroy every thing in sight ,instead I will send rain ,it will cool the earth and provide relief to God”.
“you are right ,go ahead and send the rains immediately ,I don’t want my lord to suffer for a moment more”, said Goddess Laxshmi
Indera then summoned the rain clouds and asked them to send rain and cool the atmosphere.Immediatly the clouds released the rain.The rain started falling first lightly and then it turned more and more heavy,it started gushing down in torrents,God was caught in the heavy rains,He had to take shelter in a temple which was built in the middle of the colony where He lived,other residents who also were caught unawares by the heavy downpour started converging in the temple for shelter.,but the rains did not abate,instead of decreasing it kept on increasing and the water in the colony went on rising and when it rose to fifteen feet in height ,God along with others climbed over the dome of the temple, ”my lord since you have come upon this earth ,troubles are following you like shadows ,first you were caught in the train blast and now this ”,said the Goddess
“but I am loving every moment of it, where do I find so much adventure in heaven ,here all the time I come across one adventure after another,in comparison to this,heaven is such a boring place”,said God
“you call this adventure?”.Goddess spluttered with anger”you are putting your body in danger,you will be sick with all this water around you besides you might also drown”.
“cant you take a joke devi,I was just lighting the atmosphere,I fully fathom the dangerous situation surrounding me and others,now leavev me alone for some time let me devise a way of getting out of here along with all these people”.Just then the residents who were residing on third floor of the building in the colony,tied dupattas,bed sheets and sarees together to form long and thick ropes and threw the ropes at the stranded victims on the dome. God tied the rope to the railings of the dome and then rescued the people by
asking them to move on the rope slowly to reach the third floor,that whole night God spent with His neighbors on the third floor,by morning the rain had abated and the water too had receeded,He then ventured to His flat on the ground floor which was in complete shambles,the water had completely ravaged His house and He had lost every thing.Every body in the colony had a tale to tell about drowning.His next door neighbor an airport officials wife had her son stranded in a nearby school;.She waded through the knee deep water and brought him back riding atop her shoulders,by the time she returned the water had risen upto her neck.On the way back she saw seven people perish and many people trapped in a submerged cars.There were hundreds of people who were stranded on roofs of buses,people were sobbing into their mobiles and pleading to be rescued as the water was rising steadily and threatening to submerge the buses at any moment. everyone was dying a slow and tortures death .Empty carcasses of shops gaped at you as you went around looking for your lost ones ,those who did not lose their lives lost their livelihood. An owner of a saree shop nearby lost sarees worth lakhs of rupees that were lying water soaked on the shelves completely useless,a poor tailor who worked on a footpath besides his shop,lost his only possession a sewing machine which floated with the floods Another gentleman in the area lost his printing machine which turned into a large metel skeleton stripped of all its functions ,a few packets of water soaked grocery was all that was left in a department store which had just opened its doors a few weeks ago, the same story was repeated in all the areas of Bombay

God stood looking forlornly around His house, His home was a river of mud, slush and dirt, the few possessions He had recently purchases which included His utensils ,clothes and other knick knacks were sticking out of mud. The plaster on the ceiling had completely peeled off and the walls had developed cracks.
God stood there gaping at all that surrounded Him ,He just did not know how He could clean up the mess ”my lord how will you clean up this mess? ”,Goddess Laxshmi wanted to know”
“please leave me alone, let me think of a way to clean up this mess, God was irritated
“you will not be able to do it, let me help you ”,and saying thus she cleaned the whole place up with one sweep of her delicate and bejeweled hand .God was delighted to see His house it looked much better then when He had purchased it. ”with out you devi I would have been lost, I would even lose my identity ,you make me complete” ,God said taking her hands in His and looking lovingly into her eyes
“God come back,I miss your company” ,said the Goddess
“I will return soon don’t worry my loving one, I too can not live with out you, but some times you have to do some things out of compulsion” ,said God
“seeing your love for me I am completely overwhelmed my lord ,I wish the same love existed on this earth then there would be so much happiness all around” ,said the Goddess,” on this earth both the husband and wife do not value each other ,they are changing partners as one changes clothes ,most of the husbands fail their wives ,they hurt them deeply by their infidelities, their lies, their callousness and the physical and mental torture they inflict on them. Marriages are often destroyed by over emphasis on sex and money ,the sweetness of the husband comes to the fore only before and after the physical intimacy which happens irrespective of the wife’s desire ,the other times his sweetness comes to the fore is when she dangles before him the green notes brought by her as dowry
”.the man who only cares for sex and money is indeed very unfortunate for he does not know what he is losing in his greed. A woman is the best thing I have created for the man, she is the only one who gives him company from his birth to his death. She is the second wheel of a two wheeler, if one wheel is destroyed ,the second wheel becomes useless, both the wheels have to run together to make the vehicle move smoothly,a wife and a husband should love each other unconditionally and truly ,their love should be as beautiful as Rukamini and Krishna ,Sita and Rama”,said God
“you speak the truth my lord,now I must leave.you must take some rest,you look very tired”,the Goddess was about to leave,when God stopped her”before you leave I want to know what was the cause of this sudden devastating downpour?never in this history of this city has any one heard of such destruction”,said God
Goddess knew that if she revealed the truth to Him,every one responsible would incur His wrath, therefore without giving an answer she made a quick exit. And confronted Indera”I told you to just cool the atmosphere and make God comfortable and you destroyed so much life and property” ,Goddess was terribly angry with him
“sorry mother we got carried away in our enthusiasm to make God comfortable”,was Imdera’s reply.
“rains refresh ,energizes and feeds the soil, cleanses the air,washes the trees and leaves and makes everyone dance and sing with joy,the atmosphere permeates with a heavenly aroma emanating from wet earth,the peacocks dance in gay abandon ,the koel sings joyfully ,everything is bright,shining and glowing,but instead of happiness you spread unhappiness”,Goddess Laxshmi said accusingly
“the blame does not lie with the rain mother ,it lies with the man who has completely polluted and choked the river which flows through the city’s belly ,the various drains and nullahas, are choked with waste material therefore when it was high tide,water from the sea gushed into the river and the choked drains could not diffuse the effect,due to this heavy flooding took place.In bygone days,the river was free from slit,debris and garbage,but with years of neglect and carelessness the river has been reduced to a nullaha,additionally large scale of construction on its bank has reduced the capacity of its soil to absorb water leading to the additional flow of water into the river with the result the river too over flowed leading to a massive flooding of the city which gave rise to a huge loss of life and property ”was Indera’s reply
“but even then you should have been careful”,replied the Goddess
“I am always careful mother”,said Indera”I wish the men on this earth would also be as careful then they wouldn’t have to face such devastation,they don’t even care for mother earth who provides for them,the rich variety of life forms God has created for mans enjoyment and recreation are under severe threat of extinction, nature has created a unique mixture of water ,soil and a variety of living organisms to interact and support each other, in the last many years the indiscriminate slaughtering of animals and a loss of habitat of these dumb creatures have made many species extinct many more species are going to face extinction because there natural habitats and homes are being destroyed ,there is a wide spread of deforestation ,over fishing and,over hunting .They have also polluted the air they breathe with a variety of poisons and therefore they are falling a prey to numerous dreadful diseases .The water they consume is also heavily polluted and some times its smell is so suffocating that it kills a number of marine life .The food they eat is also full of dangerous poisons .Man today is sitting on a volcano ,any time the volcano bursts the man too will become extinct. The humans whom you consider the only wise creatures on this planet ,instead of improving the environment to improve their lives on earth, they are destroying it and making a mess of their lives,and yet you blame me for causing them distress
“mother because of Indera’s irresponsible behaviour many souls have come up before their time”,said Yogmaya suddenely making an appearance,”now we have to find them new bodies and send them back once again
“whats the problem send them back at the easrliest,give them a new birth’
“mother it is not easy to give them a new birth,most of the couples are practicing family planning.
Every one is using various devices to stop babies from being born ,and if by chance the device fails and a woman becomes pregnant she goes in for sonography to find out the sex of the baby and if it is a girl she quickly has it aborted,no one wants a female child everyone wants a male child that’s very worrying”,said Yogmaya
“your problem is very big,we have to find a way out”,observed the Goddess
“there is no way out”,replied Yohmaya,”it is not like olden days when a woman gave birth after birth without a whimper”
“she did this because she had nothing better to do”,said Indera who was listening to their conversation,”the women in bygone days spent all their lives in producing babies and looking after the house.but these days most of the woman are getting educated and earning ,nobody wants to sit at home and become a baby producing factory .Every woman wants to look beautiful ,slim and trim and therefore most of them are not using their own wombs ,they are taking wombs on rent”
“how is it possible? ”,questioned the Goddess in amazement
“needy women sell their wombs at a price, these women are known as surrogate mothers, these women give their wombs on rent and carry the baby in their wombs and as soon as they give birth to the baby they hand it over to the woman who had hired their womb .every womb carries a different price ,ordinary women are paid much less then the women who are intelligent ,educated and beautiful and healthy .Graduates and those having high IQ’S are particularly in demand,many couples who are desperate to have designer babies are prepared to pay premium prices to get them”
“this is truly amazing,hiring wombs and begetting children what next?”,said the Goddess
“I have an idea”,said Indera “you can send all the souls back during Navratra-the nine day festival of mother Goddess and St.Velantina’s day,these are the days when love thrives,caution is thrown to winds and girls get impregnated”
“but these girls are innocent and are of tender age and impregnating them before marriage will spell disaster for both mother and child”,said Yogmaya
“why are you worrying about these girls who want to enjoy the forbidden fruit without thinking about the consequences, if they do a wrong they should suffer for it”,said Indera
“even suffering is meted out according to ones karmas,not many girls who indulge in sex before marriage have suffering written in their karmas,many indulge in innumerable vices and still enjoy a good life because of the good karmas in their past lives”,said Yogmaya
“if you can not find humans then you send them back in the bodies of animals,even otherwise humans today are no better then animals”,said Indera
“you can not give birth to a human being as animal,it is against the celestial laws,already every man has gone through eighty four lakh births of all the creatures on earth and after so many irrevelant births they are born as humans and you tell me to send then back as animals,this is doing injustice to them”,said Yogmaya
“most of the human beings would love to get birth as animals because most of their traits still resemble that of animals”,said Indera
“will you both stop arguing instead it will be much better if you will put your heads together and find out a way to get out of this troublesome situation”,said Goddess Laxshmi and she left them alone to find a solution to their problem