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Published: February 23rd 2007
Banana Seller
They did a roaring tradeWe're still baffled as to why people queued to hurl bananas at the gigantic chariots but nevertheless we dutifully joined in the religiuous fervour. Surely there was some deeply symbolic significance to the bananas but the real reason eluded us and the process appeared to resemble a cross between target practice and a food fight.
The great wooden chariot (see pic from our last blog) had now been adorned in red and white flags, covering every inch of the wooden framing. Men stood in front of the massive chariot armed with banana missiles and aimed at the heart of the chariot in an attempt to land a banana through the door, or in some cases blatantly targetting the children inside. The kids responded by turfing the bananas back into the crowd - the ensuing result was a continuous stream of bananas being catapulted overhead and a thick layer of banana sludge covered the street.
We did later learn that the festival was
Shivaratri and the banana were for good luck. Rach and Rich (our OM buddies from Day 1) and ourselves joined in, taking turns at aiming in an attempt to improve our luck with Shiva's blessing.
The
atmosphere on the street was electric and despite the stifling heat the fervour was contagious. Monks prepared the chariots by laying flower wreaths, chanting prayers and inciting blessings. Women turned out in their Sunday best wearing intricately designed and colourful sari replete with fresh flowers to adorn their hair. The young men specially chosen to pull the chariot distinguished themselves by donning orange t-shirts and took turns at reverently marking their comrades foreheads with tikkas (a dash of red to symbolise shiva's blessing).
We secured a prime vantage point on the roof of friendly local man's roof. We climbed up three flights of stairs, shook hands and made introductions and then perched ourselves on the edge of the roof where we had an awesome birds eye view up the entire main street. From here we were able to fully appreciate the sheer scale of the festival and the thousands of attendees.
Police led the procession waving sticks to clear rogue stragglers out of the way, followed closely by a ramshackle band comprised of drummers, trumpeters and flutes. The chariots inched forward pulled by hundreds of men and the odd western traveller. Men scrambled to grab hold of the
Dave armed with bananas
Note the rugged unshaven hippie look that he is cultivating! ropes even with just one finger, as if their salvation depended upon them pulling the chariot. Slowly it rumbled up the street as people prayed, clapped and danced on the fringes.
After our host
thanked us for joining him on his roof (!) we made our way back down to soak in the atmosphere at ground level. The crowd had thinned a little but we still felt the crush of people as the chariot was rolled back home.
We were glad that we had made the decision to stay the extra few days for the festival and were joined by hundreds of pilgrims from across the state and India for the festival.
The previous day Dave and I were wandering around the Gokarna bathing tank and we met a lovely Indian family who had come for the festival. The girls made great photgraphic subjects and as we always do, we showed them the digital pictures we had taken. They were fascinated and excitedly dragged us over to their mother and aunties washing at the tank to show them the photos and then they were all clambering to be in the next shot. It was pretty cute as
they don't really smile but rather look forward in a very controlled and serious pose! Before we knew it we'd had requests to "make copy" and found oursleves ordering prints from the local lab!! The family expressed their gratitude by inviting us to stay at their family home in a small village about 4 hours away, but regretfully we didn't have the time to spare given that we'd spent ten days at Om/Gokarna instead of our anticipated 2!!
Our time there was a truly magical experience, one that will be etched in our minds forever and we were lucky to enjoy the company of fabulous people whilst there.
Note: Our blog is way behind (we've since been to Hampi and are heading on to Mumbai tonight). We've been having major technical difficulties (as in the internet is either non existent or painfully slow) so will update at the next chance we get!
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Paul
non-member comment
Great photos
I love your pics!