The Christian Imp

When they stand together in a neat row, they look like penguins. It’s hard to miss the resemblance. Short, tall, chubby, thin – penguins of all dimensions and contours. The senior ones mostly wear white robes and to break the routine an occasional blue-grey. The junior ones who are yet to glimpse the face of the Lord always wear brown. Very symbolic, if one spares a thought to it. Brown – because the very choice to wear the robe cleanses half your sins, so black pales to brown. Then you climb the rungs to wear snow-white robes that reflect the highly purified state your existence.

Their black habits flutter in the breeze. They have held us all, from childhood, fearfully watched us grow, ruefully shaking their heads as some of us grew horns and an arrow-tipped tail. Early morning catechism classes to help us see and take The True Path to Salvation. Exhortation of lofty ideals, derision of those who dare let their thoughts take the inroads, blatantly ignoring the huge markers sporting The Right Direction, complete abhorrence and scorn for idol-worshippers – children of Satan. Stamping black and white areas demarcating the Pure and the Evil, in impressionable young minds. But I love them. My memories are scattered profusely with penguins of all kinds.

And there was one who taught us English. She later went on to become the Headmistress. Parsimonious with praises, she nonetheless threw a few acknowledgements of a well-written essay or an exam paper our way. Her reticence could also have stemmed from the fact that her star pupils were almost always the most seditious. How else can the restrained hum of rebellion in the Catechism classes be explained?

World Evangelisation is one of the basic tenets of Christianity and most follow it with a zeal that borders on mania. While not one to oppose and scorn this very basic way of life for most Christians and especially all the nuns, one particular Christian Imp dared to raise this question.

“I truly appreciate the Evangelisation of the world or attempts to that end. It is a very lofty ideal to uphold, showing The Right Path to our fellow human beings. However, if a Christian wants to take the True Path that is shown by another religion, say, suppose I want to convert to Hinduism, is there any particular Christian principle that would allow me to do that?”

The question was raised in the earnest. Not a hint of contempt or derision. As genuine as can be. However what followed was something close to Apocalypse at least in the Imp’s world. She was adopted as a challenge – to be shown The True Path – to be worn with righteous disdain on snow-white attires, like a sullied badge.

The first step was a compulsory weekend of ‘Holy Retreat’. Imps might fly! Huh!