Namaste!

I am back, apologies for leaving you half way through the story of our experience at the shrine. I was exhausted last night and was asleep by 8pm, I had not slept particularly well for the past few nights and it had really caught up with me. K is fantastic, when I awoke this morning (7.30am!) all the laundry was clean and dry and she had updated the blog.

To finish where I had left off last time.....

After the face had been painted onto the linga, it looked as though the linga was covered with a piece of cloth, at this point I was told that I should cover my eyes and was not allowed to watch, as were all the women in the room (they thought that K was a gentlemen). We both joked after that maybe this was the underwear..... I have forgotten to mention that I had to cover my head too, I only had my buff on me and to a small childs horror I fitted the tube of tight cloth over my head over my head. When I opened my eyes, the linga had been adorned in an ornate silver headress as well as other "garments" although neither of us remember the exact details. There was a lot more chanting and clapping. The linga was then undressed and a Brahmin then cleaned off the image that he had painted. The lay people then made their way around the temple to the linga room whereby with some hustle and bustle they poured milk and curd onto the linga and spoke to the Brahmins. K and I were the last too go in. I gave the Brahmin the flowers and candies, he placed them onto the linga for me, then gestured that I should pick up some of the curd and scoop it up and place it on the top. He then asked me what my religous name was to which I replied Angelina (My baptism and confirmation name - well I did not know what else to say) and he muttered many words in Hindi. I asked for more information but his vocabularly was very limited. He then wiped something cold and wet all the way across my forehead. He then gave me a coconut and gestured namaste and I was then hustled out of the way. K was then pushed towards him and she had a similar procedure although no coconut. We then left and on our way out we met someone who explained that we should visit each of the smaller shrines on our way out of the complex. These were devoted to individual Gods such as Ganesh etc. We also rang the bells that hung at the front of each shrine. We collected our bags and walked back (accompanied by a group of students) to our hotel, we had declined the offer of breakfast because we wanted to get moving.

The Brahmin had painted a big huge red block across my forehead, K had a smaller splog, this signifies that we had been to the temple and I now notice people in the street with similar markings. We did not know what the cocnut was for however I found out later that we should have broken it and eaten the flesh for good luck or we could have just kept it. We had to wash the colour from our foreheads because we had to put the motorcycle helmets on, I was a little dismayed at this because even though I did not understand completely everythign that had happened, I felt as though we had participated in something special and that the markings were symbolic, akin to having been blessed.

My thoughts on the experience is that I had witnessed an ancient ceremony, I was particularly surprised at how tribal and ethnic it seemed. I was amazed by peoples belief, they had so much faith, you could see it and feel it in the room. Seeing the men dressed in their lungi, the silver statue of Shivas bull (Nandi) and the women whispring in its ear, the chanting and clapping, the Sadhus covered in ashes from head to toe, others wrapped in a nothing more than a blanket, the smell of incense, the pretty oranges, dark reds and white of the flowers and the feel of the marble floor underfoot are images that constantly come into my head when I think of the ceremony which lasted for 2 hours. I was amazed to see the reverance that the linga recieved, I remember seeing lingas across south east Asia in the ancient Cham ruins but never understood them. I would like to write more about the story of the linga and some of the Hindu methology when I understand it better at the moment I am learning to recognise the different Gods. I now keep noticing all of the shrines everywhere, they are at the side (or in the middle) of the road for example or in the most remote places, they are small or large, some will have a beautifully carved Ganesh, others will have no more than an orange blob that is an idol of the deity, either way they both receive offerings morning, noon and night.

I am trying to learn some Hindi, so far I have mastered thank you and no thank you (Used more than I would like it too). Saying no thank you in Hindi actually wards off the hawkers much quicker than in English :-) I can say no, goodbye (OK that is cheating it is also namaste) and I know the numbers one and two. We are also adept at understanding menus already and what the names mean to the dishes :-) I aim to learn the numbers one to ten by the end of the week and to also know how to say excuse me and keep the change :-) I have also been using a lot of hand gestures as much can be communicated this way, I find myself shaking my head a little more than I normally would too, this can mean different things depending on the movement, e.g a little wiggle of the head can mean ucha (OK).

We have had a great day today, buying the Sunday paper and catching up on the Indian news (We have to watch out for civil unrest as a whole state can be shut down and sensibly we do not want to be in the middle of it) and taking it easy all morning. I read that there is a lot of corruption in the government, some ministers are still serving even though they are under trial. People were injured and one fatality by stoning when a protest to save farmland got out of control. A woman has been arrested, she is on the sixth day of hunger srike to protest against Tata motors building a new factory on farmers land. There are kidnappings (particularly of young women) and the youth are turning to crime to fuel their consumeristic needs because they want to impress. The papers hold some interesting stories.......

We visited the Ellora caves too and took it in turns to ride together on my bike there and back - more to follow on this trip another time.

To finish up - I am loving this country, the more that I see of it the more I enjoy it. As amazing as the tourist sights are and the architecture, I am very much fascinated by the people and their lives. As our confidence grows in speaking to people we find oursleves discovering more, we are having interesting encounters all the time with some very genuine people who are happy to share information and stories with us.

Shurkriya (thank you) and namaste.