Kadlekai Parishe - Groundnut Festival

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I thought Festival season was over but it just keeps on going...
This week was the Kadlekai Parishe, or the Groundnut Festival. This 3-day festival takes place only in Bangalore near the Bull Temple. Of course there is always a legend to go along with a festival. This one has to do with a bull in the 1500's - every full moon a bull would charge into the groundnut fields and damage the crop. The farmers started to offer prayers to Basava (Nandi) to stop the bull and pledged to offer their first crop.

Subsequently, an Idol of Basava was found close by. It has been said that the Idol was growing rapidly, and the farmers nailed an iron peg on the head of the idol to stop it from growing. Later in the year 1537, a temple to ‘Dodda Basava’ was built on a small hill and the idol was put inside. This temple is known as the Bull Temple here in Bangalore. The bull is black and decorated with garlands.

 
Every year, farmers from surrounding villages come to the Bull Temple and offer their annual harvest of groundnut as offering to Lord Basava. This is accompanied by the annual fair, which is known as the Kadlekai Parishe.

I went on the third and final day of the festival. There were lots of vendors selling their groundnuts on carts or on the sidewalk. There was a small fair with rides, astrologers reading palms, people selling inexpensive jewellery, bangles, toys and lots of snacks, rice, fruit and sugarcane.

 
One interesting thing that I tried from a street vendor was a twelve year old root - sliced thinly, dipped in sugar and lime - delicious! Wish I knew what it was.

 

There were balloons, and horns and bubbles. It was like a festive street party centered around the Bull Temple where I'm sure most people made their way to give an offering to Nandi (the bull) himself.

Everyday Stuff

Lots going on in the last week but nothing too exciting. The kids are into their midterm exams so I have been doing a lot of Grade 6 studying with Craig. Alanna can study pretty independently but Craig seems to need a lot of help - or maybe he just likes spending time with me? After an entire day of French and History (they had a study day at home today) I finally sent them to their rooms at 8:00pm, poured a glass of wine and broke open the chocolate.

Still writing articles for the Rangoli and going to yoga most mornings. The charity committee is gearing up for the season. Next week we will be delivering Christmas gifts to some of the charities. And letters get sent out to see what each charities needs will be for the year.

Michael and I attended a wine dinner at Fava last week - always interesting people/conversation and nice to have some Australian and New Zealand wine. The Kadalekai Parishe (Groundnut festival) is on for three days in Bangalore so I am going down tomorrow to take photos and see what it is all about.

Rags to Riches

The weekend certainly was eventful:  Habitat for Humanity, India Night and Harry Potter.

All four of us got up early Sat. morning and drove to North Bangalore for a Habitat Build. This time the kids got to come and see the village and help out too. The first thing we got to do was go for a house blessing for a house that had recently been finished.

This house has three rooms and two levels. It has an actual kitchen with a sink and running water!

We split up, the kids group went to one house and they got to paint - they were splattered from head to toe. They enjoyed it and had fun together. A great experience for them.

Michael and I went with another group to put a roof on a house. This family has six members and currently live in this one room home!

Habitat lends money to families but they also have to have saved some money. Unfortunately the husband ended up in the hospital and their savings were depleted - they couldn't afford the roof. So our OWC donations from the day went towards purchasing the roof for them and we helped the homeowner put it on.

We lifted the corrugated pieces up to the roof and then we had to carry 20 lb bricks from inside the house, up on top of the roof where they were strategically placed so the roof wouldn't fly off in a windstorm.  Now they will have a larger, two room home with a roof and eventually I think another room will be added on at the front for the kitchen.

Once we were finished with Habitat, Michael and I changed from our work clothes into our formal kurta and sari for an OWC Charity Fundraisor at the Taj West End.

 It was such a nice evening and setting. The first two hours were spent outdoors mingling with drinks and appetizers.

The rains held off and it was warm. The grounds were beautifully lit up with festive lights hanging from the trees. Everyone looked great and there were stilt wakers and henna artists. 

Later we went indoors for dinner and entertainment.

The fun continued for the kids and I on Sunday as we went to see Harry Potter in the Gold Class theater. Huge reclining leather seats, popcorn and drinks served to you at your seat - definitely the way to see a movie!

Darjeeling/Agra Day 7

Our last day of the trip. We left the hotel at 9:30am and stopped across the river to get some shots of the Taj from a different perspective. Unfortunately it was so foggy we couldn't even see it from there. We did come across an interesting scene though.

Down a dirt road we came to the riverside which was muddy and piled with garbage. All of a sudden we hear the sounds of a marching band - about 4 or 5 people all dressed up just like a marching band and playing instruments. A group of people were wheeling a statue of a God (I believe) through the mud to the river.

They made it to the river but didn't stop there - they kept going through the water til they were at least half way across and then they submerged the statue. They were in a very festive state, singing and splashing.

We had to drive back to Delhi to catch our flight to Bangalore. The drive is never boring, you never know what you will see:

Day 6 Darjeeling/Agra

Big day today - the Taj Mahal. Anytime you get a chance to see one of the big wonders of the world it's exciting. Even though Michael and I had been there before it was exciting to see it altogether - kind of like Mt. Everest. In fact, what a trip - Mt. Everest on Thursday and the Taj Mahal on Saturday!

We spent a few hours at the Taj, taking lots of photos of us and all the interesting Indian people. There are lots of "photographers" who will take a series of photos and then print them out within a couple hours. So we decided to go for it (see the first photo).

But then later we were taking photos of the gardeners in front of the Taj and next thing you know the gardener wants to take our photo (with our camera). So he starts positioning us in various poses, quite funny actually. Here's one of his:

There was a huge lineup to get into the Taj, where the tombs are. And initially we weren't even sure if we would bother. Craig said, "I feel sorry for all those people in line." But before he knew it we too were in line.

The line moved quickly despite people butting in and trying to get ahead. Can you believe this entire group kept trying to sneak ahead of us.

Especially this woman:

So I figured I could take their pictures as much as I wanted since they didn't stand in line like the rest of us - all in good fun, we didn't really mind (as long as they stayed behind us).

The building itself - the marble, the carvings and inscriptions - are lovely of course. It is easy to just spend the day wandering around the grounds taking it all in. Great for people watching too!