As the smoke punctured my eyes and seeped into the cavity of my skull, I was certain my head would soon be pounding in protest to the intrusion of my inner space.

But for the moment, I decided that I must focus. Just as my mind was made, two gentlemen squeezed into the space in front of me. Both were substantially taller and I was soon staring at the back of two heads. One shiny, brown and bald. The other sparse, black and white. In response, I quietly did what one might call the temple shuffle – the subtle search for a position and angle where one can see the object of our visit. It was just then that I found it. The best view.

I could see Lord Ganesha in startling clarity. He was framed by the profile of these gentlemen in front of me. Both were deep in thought and prayer and seemed to provide a frame of fervent belief to the idol in black stone with beady eyes and chandan and kumkum on his trunk. The golden arch over his head completed the picture as he seemed to chuckle and gaze at me as definitively as the mona lisa.

He said, " My dear girl, I’ve moved these men here just so that you can have the best view. You have the best view, not just because I am perfectly framed for your eyes… but because you can feel that I can see you, you can sense the others here, your friends and family who are truly touched by your presence and you by theirs. You have the best view because you’ve let the spirit of every person here permeate and rejuvenate you as you in turn pass on to them all that is good in you. You have the best view, because your view is not just what you see, but what you feel, think, smell, hear and imagine. You have the best view because you not only live the moment… you are the moment.