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Published: September 6th 2005
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Footsteps
On Lord Krishna's birthday footprints were made out of kolum(like rice flour) and water. The prints went from the door all the up to the statue of Krishna in the house. Tomorrow is Ganesha's birthday. Ganesha is a very popular god here, the first one that people pray to. So if there's a big temple, there will usually be a shrine for Ganesha before the other shrines.
Religion here is inseparable from everyday life and, like everything else in India, is full of colour and life. It's amazing to see how stereotypes of the old collide with ideas of the new here. People walking down the street, doing shoppping or going to work will stop to bow and pray before a shrine on the side of their street before picking up their belongings and heading on their way again. Men with the string slung across their body (a sign of a brahmin) and a dhoti (white cloth wrapped around like a skirt) will leave a temple and pick up their mobile phones. Young fellows in jeans and rock t-shirts will show up with shaved heads because they just went to a temple and gave their hair to the gods.
It occurred to me today that the subtleties of India and the subtleties of the West seem completely different. Whereas in the west we live in a world of hints and nuances and pregnant pauses, here people will often tell you what they think, even if it is not kind (for example, my "little sister" Shruthi in Madurai does not mind saying to my friend Arielle, "that outfit is not at all nice for you, you should reduce some weight"). Perhaps it is this lack of western subtlety that first attracted me to Indian culture when I was a small girl. In a world of muted colours, Vasanthi looked like she dropped from a tube of oil paint and would constantly emerge as a different, brilliant colour. Here I find that the colours Ama (Vasanthi) wears are not just intended for clothing. Gopuram (like towers) of temples are elaborately decorated with intricate images of gods and men and beasts and coloured brightly. Such colours and designs would be considered gauche in the western culture of white churches and somber halls of prayer.
Far from being somber, prayer here is just as bright as the gopurams themselves involving fire, incense, flowers, bells (sometimes too many bells lead to bad headaches), drums and other instruments. For example, last week was Lord Krishna's birthday (all the gods have birthdays, by the way and each is celebrated a little differently I suspect). For Lord Krishna's I went with my new friends from the SITA program (ie: a group of American college kids studying abroad in Madurai) to the Hare Krishna temple. There was a huge line to get into the main hall, so we got in at the end (which no one else seemed to do, they instead came into the middle of the line) where we quickly proved to be quite the attraction, with Indian kids coming by to try out there English. This means they came up, touched us, said "hi" or "how are you" (or sometimes both), then ran away giggling like school girls. The line itself was very Disneyland-esque as it took us a long time to get up to the main hall where we were informed it was "500 Rupees to sit." Being poor college kids...or more like stingy Americans, we didn't pay and instead walked right back down, as did (quite honestly) most of the other people there. It seemed to be enough for them to have glimpsed the main hall. When we came down we were given a plate of Prasadam (which means leftovers, so leftovers of the gods) each which we ate standing outside. Then, somehow we were allowed into the main hall. I think someone from SITA pulled some strings. The main hall (in typical Indian form) was separated: men to the left, women to the right. Once you sat down on your respective side it became a Tetris-like situation. Everyone sat on the floor and whenever people stood up, everyone else scooted forward to fill in the gap. Sometimes whole rows would leave and then it ROCKED. The music was awesome and I found myself, along with Arielle bouncing, clapping and singing along with the ever so catchy "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare" song (the rest of the song is Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare and then it starts all over again...keep in mind this is just from what I can tell...it may not be accurate). The colours and sounds and music were so overwhelming and absorbing, it was hard NOT to get excited by it (don't worry mom, I haven't converted).
Tonight I went out with the members of the East West Center Association (the East West Center being a program for international students to come to Hawai'i. Mom and Daddy have been host family for many students and Mom was president of the Friends of the East West Center) and found them to be very nice. They all offered to do whatever they could for me and one offered me a position working at an international school in the Himalayas! I'm thinking of taking her up on it, for a little while at least as it would be a great chance. This weekend I'm heading out to Nagapattinam, the area of India worst hit by the tsunami. There I'll be looking at villages and seeing what this program does so that (hopefully) I can come back and work there in January. We'll see how it turns out.
Anyway that's all from me...
With love for the Hares and the Ramas,
Shaaroni
PS. I've been giving a Tamil name: Azhahineela (pronounced something like Ah-reh-he-nee-lah, with a rolled r for reh) which means beautiful moon. I may just go by Neela as it's easier to pronounce.
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Foot Prints
Did that Tom Sawyer trick you into white-washing his fence again?