“LIVING GODDESS” or “LIVING DEAD”?

She was made Kumari a year back when she was only 7 years old. This innocent child was just right infront of us, sitting on an ornamented chair with nicely done eye makeup. The very first glance at her entrenched a wave of sadness into my soul at the very moment. She was shivering and had strange fear in her eyes that were wandering like a lonely cloud and searching for some place to escape. 

Kumari or Kumari Devi is the tradition of worshipping young pro-pubescent girls as manifestations of divine female energy or Devi in Hindu religious traditions (Ref: Wikipedia). Under the custom, after every 4-5 years, the head of all the temples selects 3 out of 50-60 female children of 7 years of age and finally selects one of them who is entitled as “Kumari”. This child remains in a certain room inside the temple till she achieves puberty. It is also part of the ritual that this girl cannot get married throughout her life. Spending 4-5 years in one room when the age demands playful activities, hanging out, learning new things, going school and dreaming of becoming something great in life made my heart heavy. Above all, forcing a human being to stay unmarried (virgin) throughout her life is the complete negation of nature.

The frightened gaze of that girl and uncertainty in the voice of her brother who was staying there with her reminded me of a bird whom I once found in our backyard who was trying to fly but its right wing was badly hurt and that made it feeble and helpless.

If goddess comes to know that she has been reincarnated by her followers in the form of living Kumari, she would stop creating female human kind the very next second!