Song of Angels

A few years back an Indian co-worker pointed at a printout of a Bouguereau painting I had thumb-tacked to the corkboard at my desk.

"Your picture reminds me of the story of the birth of one of the Hindu deities," he said.

During the conversation that followed I asked him which Hindu deity he worshipped.

"Kali," he answered. "She is a goddess of light."

"Kali?" I asked. "As in Thugs and Gunga Din and Indiana Jones -- the Black Earth Mother who eats her own young?"

He'd never heard of her.

"No, my Kali is a goddess of light."

I let it go at that.