We arrived in the sacred site of Hampi the day before an enormous Hindi festival during which the god Shiva, in the form of a bull, marries Parvathi. (It is possible that I am confused about the names in this story, but I think this is right. I think Lakshmi marries Vishnu.) This means that the town is positively swarming with pilgrims from rural villages all over India. The town is decked out with food stalls, plastic bangles, and flowers and bananas to give as offerings. The people are everywhere, sleeping on every spare ledge available throughout the town's buildings, ruins and even rocks alongside the river. What I would not give for a port-o-john. Make that 100. The cows are not the only mammals that shit in the street in India.
We feel lucky to bear witness to the religous ceremony, even though we are limited by language in our ability to understand its full significance.
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I've awoken in the middle of the night here in Los Angeles (due either to some unfortunate side effect of a cold tablet I took before bedtime or to travel anticipation of my holiday flight to Chicago tomorrow) and am really enjoying catching up your blog. LOVE the picture of the bangle stall (?) with the woman & little kid!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elizabeth! It is nice to know someone is reading it :) I think you are the first comment since my first post from Mumbai. Have a great trip to Chicago and happy holidays. Feel better soon.
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