A Can of Worms

“No god says gather in large numbers to prove faith” declared the cabinet Minister of Faith, Spirituality in the mighty empire aspiring to become Viswaguru. The statement opened a can of worms. The famous liberal who has wormed her way to fame through fictitious ‘God of Small Prose' asked rhetorically “ Did God suggests the caste system?”

The worm who usually gobsmacked people with his verbosity proclaimed over his breakfast of idli sambhar that he follows a certain religion because it is so flexible as a worm itself. “It is a worm of life” he summed up.

The hirsute worm guru who globetrotted to meet his faithful worms declared piously “God is in the breath. Breathe in and breathe out to achieve nirvana.”

Some worms said “we belong to the earth and we live to make the earth better. Our religion is a way of life.” They accused the malicious tape worms who measure the depth of other’s faith and cause brain damage.

Majority of worms preferred a certain set of Gods and wanted to exile worms with other faith. They said every other faithful worm have their own holes and demanded they too needed to hole up somewhere.

The ones which wormed their way into the parliament passed a certain Act to make discrimination possible based on which God you followed. It is another matter to question “did Gods ask worms to follow Him or the other.”

Some worms felt pained with this sort of division and diversion. There is enough soil to worm our way around why divide ourselves with blind faith, they asked.

Some worms were ‘hooked’ to religion, like opium for the masses, as a wise one had declared. They even went to the extent of declaring what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten by other worms.

A small set of worms who like to judge other worms were unusually silent and didn’t pronounce any judgement at all.

‘Media’ sized worms had a merry time commenting on all these happenings. They had so much to gobble up and quickly grew in size and influence.

Those at the bottom of the pyramid find it difficult to ‘cop’e up with these worms when they ‘encounter’ them. To others they bend their backs and carry out their orders. They are parasitical in nature and thrive on the corridors of powers. They are usually let loose when worms start protesting.

These worms are most comfortable in the bureaus of government offices and usually make noise post-retirement by way of signed petition which the ‘media’ sized worms show case in front pages.

Then there are the bookworms who are most comfortable in innocuous charge sheets that run into thousands of pages. One of them said “it is better to be obsessed with books than with Gods.”

What can one say about the one who is forever trying to worm its way into the hearts of others by way of his monthly talk? A smart Alec commented “if only he could worm the talk.”

The big worm in the neighborhood assessed the condition to be right and wormed its way across the borderline. It knew that ‘a can of worms opened’ will keep the neighborhood busy.