The last week was eventful enough in more ways than one. For not only the sea water at Mahim creek turned sweet but the Gods also started drinking milk the second time round. After the despicable rains, the traffic woes, and not to forget the bomb blasts, Mumbai wants to attribute a couple of things to some magic from the heaven’s above.

I was quite intrigued to see the media flooded with the news that the Mahim creek has suddenly turned sweet. On one side, the doctors were cautioning the general public not to drink that water as it might lead to several water-borne diseases, and on the other side, there were hundreds of people flocking the filthy creek and drinking the yellow water which they said has turned holy. Even the business of empty bottle sellers boomed!

This divine phenomenon was initially beyond explanation. A channel was showing a doctor with a rather amusing explanation that water can turn sweet only when we add saccharine to it. Does that mean that someone must have added loads of it in the sea water…Brainy doctor, I must say. Another channel was coming up with a rather believable explanation that the water was not actually sea water but was rain water which has collected due to heavy rains. Another explanation doing the rounds was that the water had turned holy as it was near a dargah and it was a Friday too! Some said that such a phenomenon had also happened twenty-two years ago. All this superstition was prevalent amongst people who seemed to be well educated. What made them drink the pale yellow water is what requires a little thought.

I feel that maybe sometimes we really don’t want the scientific explanations of certain things. We just want to completely and blindly trust those things because if everything had a logic then life would be plain dull and boring. Come to think of it, this is why people read horoscope, believe in feng shui, or take reiki. We do certain things completely by faith, be it praying to god, crossing our fingers, turning veggie on certain days. The list goes on and on.

These cryptic messages may just be God’s way to shield us from the daily routine of life and provide some inexpensive entertainment. They also might mean that there is so much to look forward to in life.