Twelve years back, somewhere near Jodhpur in a village called Chotila, I came across Om Banna Temple along a highway. It was dedicated to a motorcycle. Truck drivers stopped to pray before it. Bottles of alcohol were left as offerings for its dead owner, Om Banna.
At the time, I enjoyed the weirdness of finding something like this on the road. Rural India is full of these strange discoveries intersecting faith, folklore and superstition.
Then this week, I watched Dug Dug, a small indie film, inspired by that very legend. A dead man’s bike keeps returning to the site of his accident until it slowly turns into a roadside deity. Nobody questions it enough, everyone believes it's miraculous.
I went back to my Rajasthan album to see the photos and imagined the stories — the mysterious motorcycle (in the film, it's a Luna), the drunk rider who became a local god, how alcohol became an offering for him, how the shrine has a full time priest, how commerce grew surrounding it, and just how one roadside incident in 1988 spiralled into blind faith and a full blown temple.
3 weeks ago
way to goooo…keep it up 🙂
thanks ritu