River was a boy who lived a life of comfort. A view of pleasure from the balcony, a warm room with a cup of green tea waiting at his desk to be sipped, a lawyer as a father with wealth as humongous as the ocean, who indeed carried the name ‘Ocean’ and a mother with selfless reservoir of love, only to submit it, to her only child, namely ‘Glacier’. Together they lived in a not so fancy house in the mountains, happy, free & satisfied from all worries & wonders this world had to offer.

The only thing that would have pleased me more is if the boy wouldn’t have asked me for a wish I could not grant. It was said that one should pray for 15 days in front of the Sun for the Sun God to come forth & grant the wish of the devotee. There shouldn’t be a lack of conviction, faith or purity of mind, if done correctly on the sixteenth sun rise, the Sun God would acknowledge the devotees effort by granting him a wish, but there was only one more condition to turn this mystic tale into reality, the devotee must not seek anything in the prayer, it has to be unconditional, a devotion which exceeds the parameters of general human conduct. Priests elucidated this devotion, as Gratitude, the ultimate coin to buy all there was in existence and of course, as expected, the most trusted & the most hopeful of the human race were the first to attempt this climb. This breed of human beings are commonly known as the ‘youth’.

They lack experience, have frivolous minds, and therefore are very easily influenced. So, seeking their most ambitious desires, a group of young men decided to sit on the roadside & pray to the sun god until their wish was granted. They also decided among themselves that praying in the afternoon would suffice, as the Sun is at its peak, therefore, the Sun God would most definitely observe their efforts and since the days are shorter in the winter, they would execute this meditation in the peak summers and the reasoning behind this was of course understood without any explanation. The winter passed, summer arrived, they waited for the heat to rise, the heat rose & the time came, now was the time to do the undoable. 15 young men sat on the roadside & started their journey to nowhere. Nothingness at the end of their goal did not surprise me as much as the people’s reaction to it.

River was only a spectator at this point. Every time he headed to school he saw young skinny men sitting on the road side facing the sun, their heads were shaved but still dirty from the excretion of the birds. Every few weeks their population increased, I tried to indicate their mistakes through heat but only their facial expressions changed, their hearts were still tough. River was curious about them, he wanted to know why a group of men who have their whole life ahead of them to achieve, would go through such suffering. What was their conviction? To whom were they praying? Common men speculated their best to understand these high minds but fortunately were unsuccessful. River was still a young adult. Not before long, the tales of Gratitude reached Rivers tender mind & as any child would react to such fake folk, he was impressed.

So one day, River went to his father and asked the obvious. To which his father replied; ‘they are just greedy men, my son. Pay no heed to them, just walk by.’ To this unsatisfying response his curiosity responded, he wanted to know them even more. So he went to his mother the next day who lived in the same house and asked the same question again, to which he got a similar unsatisfactory response. His curiosity was reaching its limit, poor boy. I regret not enlightening him at this point, it would have saved me a lot of trouble, but It was prohibited to appear before a devotee under the ‘GOD PENAL CODE’ , it was out of my power, the boy did not know and neither did the ‘Sun Devotees’ ,those soft minded youngsters on the roadside. The new name soon reached the nearby towns and influenced even more people ,even more people joined them. The devotion was all around the air, just one breath was enough to flatter me now. And like this, 2 years passed.

The small group of young hustlers called “Sun Devotees” had multiplied from 15 to 150. The few months of devotion plan in the peak summers was now extended to 7 year, of which 2 years had already passed. In the meantime, the group got the attention of newspapers, Photographers, Radio, Politicians & what not! As I said, the devotion was in the air and so, the humans could breathe as well. The only need which remained unfulfilled was the need of a leader, who will carry them to even greater heights. I could not help but laugh at such fools.

During the course of 2 years, River grew up to be a young man, he was burdened with his family and educational obligations earlier, but now, he had completed his education of 10 years and was ready to pursue his dreams. So in the motion of expressing his desires, he went to his father, who was busy turning the pages of All India Reporter. Observing his fathers concentration, River changed his mind and decided to flow away through the back door after greeting his mother. Glacier supported his conviction and wished him good luck. River left his mother with the burden of informing his father. After an hour, Glacier approached Ocean and informed him. At first, Ocean seemed disappointed but then effortlessly said; “Why do you worry? He is not a kid anymore, he will be fine.” At these words, Glacier smiled with a hint of shattered serum in her eyes.

On the other hand, River was one his way to his destiny, his way to my devotees. He walked up them straight and asked to be a disciple, the real question was of whom. All the fifteen founding members were in conflict with each other as to who shall be the Supreme Leader. The Supreme Saints was the name given to them by their disciples, the saints had a very clear thinking, finally they decided that the Saint with the most disciples will be the supreme leader. The competition was neck to neck, after the counting 4 Saints had the highest and equal number of disciples and the position of the saints started to get opaque at this point. River was shocked, from what he witnessed then. All the 4 Saints asked him to join at once.

River did not know any of them, nor by fame nor by name. So he joined the one who asked first. The foundation was complete, the Supreme Leader was decided and was welcomed as it was all fair. The Supreme Leader led the group to the east where the Sun was supposed to be. They travelled day and night on foot and finally reached the heart of the nation. Since now they were satisfied that they cannot reach the sun, they decided to build a sun temple to worship me. The hard work must be appreciated, River did all he could in this process of building. After 9 months, the temple was complete. Again the news of the masterpiece was published in all the places it shouldn’t have been. Their organization grew. In this process of growth a few people outgrew a few others, River was one of them. The passage of time made the Supreme Leader famous but fragile at the same time. Fortunately, he could not continue his leadership and passed at an early age of 100 years. The only thing he left behind was his ideals and beliefs of the Sun God. But one faithful disciple, in the darkness of my luck also found his ‘will’ in his room. Which said many things but also mentioned that the leadership of the Sun Devotees should be passed down to River. The fine day would have passed in silence if he wouldn’t have shared this with other priests but that too unfortunately, was shared, and resulted in River leading the group now.

In this passage of 102 years, they were still alive, except the supreme. The saints were not stupid, neither there devotion was a facade. It was I who was fake, in the centre of the conspiracy. I knew I could not grant there which but I still laughed and giggled at there devotion, thinking they would realize they are stupid, they are weak. The truth is, that they deserve their wish , I am the weak one here. Bound by my law, and I have no wit to break it.

At the age of 115 years, River passed away and I laughed at myself all day long. But I could only grief, the ‘GOD PENAL CODE’ does not allow Gods to cry. I tried, but could only laugh at myself, all day long.