Hindu moving-in ceremony

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We woke at 5am, the earliest so far. We had to get to Ramki's new flat to set up before the Hindu priests arrived. I dressed in my Sari and put some lovely jasmine in my hair. Ramki wore a special sheet outfit.

The 4 priests arrived late but went straight to work setting up all the offerings and flowers in the middle of the room, think the picture is better than my description. They chanted, sang and prayed for about 1 hour. A relative of Ramki told me they were praying to the 9 different planets. Then the priests built a fire in the middle of the front room!! They obviously don't have fire alarms or health and safely in these flats. They continued chanting and praying for another hour. The smoke from the fire, which was cleansing the room, was so much for me I had to leave the room and stand on balcony.

At about noon the ceremony was over and lunch commenced in the car park below the flat. There was a area cordoned off with curtains and seats/tables inside. The served my favorite dish, Thali ( google it or see previous posts ) , it was by far one of the best Thali's I had ever eaten and went back for 2nd round.

We had to stay at the flat until sunset, to light a candle for the Hindu prayers, which meant we hit rush hour and about a 2 hour taxi ride back. Really struggling with the pollution my runny nose was getting worse and worse.

It was a really lovely day and amazing experience, I was really really lucky to have been invited, I really enjoyed it.


Friday was spent washing clothes and updating my blog. Ramki came back from work and we went to the nice bar which serves the lovely large jugs of kingfisher. We also had tikka paneer from the grill/bbq which was really yummy.

I finally got my wish to see a real Bollywood film in the cinema. I loved it...not sure Ramki enjoyed it much..but thanks for taking me all the same.... I really enjoyed it.

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Comments

[steff]

Smoke
Good job they don't have smoke detectors in the rooms, cough, cough xxx