My Friend Ganesha

“When will Ganesha come to our house” the four year old Shreya asked her mother innocently.

“Ganesha lives in the sky, he cannot come to our house” her mother replied. “He is my friend, I want to play with him” she persisted.

Her mother looked at her and tried her best to make her understand that Ganesha is not seen by the humans and that’s why we worshipped him in the form of idols and pictures. “I want to play with Ganesha” Shreya kept repeating.

The father who was sitting on the sofa nearby, lost behind the newspaper was roped in by the mother to explain the absence of Ganesha.

“He is my friend and I want to play with him” she retorted as her father made his attempt. “How can he be your friend, have you met him or seen him?” questioned her father. “No” Shreya replied with her head down. “How will he come to your house now if you have not met him or invited over?” The question was met with a silence. She went back to playing with her doll lying on the floor.

The cell phone rang which the father picked up and hung up after a few minutes. “Who called up?” Shreya asked from a distance. “That was my friend Ganesh” he replied.

“Ganesha a friend of yours?” she asked her father who on realization gave a puzzled look and the mother broke into a laughter.