Final Days of Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi is an 11 day celebration, culminating when villages transport their Ganesh to a lake and immerse it, watching it dissolve. As Ganesh dissolves he takes away with him the misfortunes of his devotees.

I was lucky one morning to be out when this procession of three tractors, each with their own large Ganesh and many smaller ones passed me by. A group of men led the way, playing drums, singing and dancing. Children sat on the back of the tractor, laughing having a lot of fun.

I've learned a couple important terms during this celebration. The temporary tent temples that I described in the last post are called Pandals. Puja is a sacred ritual that Hindu people perform, to pray and adore their deities.

The stalls selling the Ganesh statues have disappeared and the Pandals stand empty, all signs that the celebration is coming to an end...until next year that is.

Ganesh Chaturthi

This is why we are in India - to experience the people and their culture! Ganesh Chaturthi is the ten day celebration of the birth of Lord Ganesh, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati. For a couple weeks now, we noticed stalls popping up filled with colorful statues of Ganesh, from palm-sized ones to almost life-size (elephant) ones, that had to be driven in the back of a pickup truck.

Saturday, the day before the start of the celebration was particularly festive. People were out to purchase their Ganesh statue, as we would a Christmas tree, checking them out from all angles, checking for color and looking for the perfect one to take home to the family.

We had gone out for lunch and had done a bunch of errands, driving here and there, watching everyone out on the streets. Finally I couldn't stand it, I asked the driver to pull over and made everyone get out so we could walk and mingle with the Indian people. Right away kids came up to us and people smiled and said hello. It was a busy street, lined with hundreds of statues, ladies selling flower garlands and handmade glittery decorations, and others selling giant banana leaves.

The next day was the start of the celebration and we decided to walk to a village just down the road from our house. We saw a temple with a giant Shiva statue sitting ontop, but before we got to it we came upon a small, temporary temple set up on the side of the road, made of blue tarps and banana leaves. It was like a tent and inside was a statue of Ganesh and offerings of food and flowers. It was decorated with garlands and Christmas lights.

A small group of people were there, both adults and children, and they waved us in. Michael and I took off our shoes and stood in one of two lines as they handed out handfuls of flower petals. We followed their lead and threw them on the statue. Next, a small flame, red powder and coconut water were brought around. Everyone waved the flame towards themselves, and painted a red dot on their own forehead. We drank (pretended) a bit of the coconut water and then threw the rest over our heads signifying God's blessing. Lastly, someone brought around some food which looked like puffed wheat which we politely declined.

Alanna and Craig looked a little uncomfortable and did not partake in the ritual, but they did allow the people to put the red dot on their forehead.

Across the street was the big temple and again Michael and I went in to see the people and their rituals. When we came out a lot of kids had gathered and they asked us to follow them to their Ganesh. So off we went down a dirt road and we came upon their little tent made of tarps and banana leaves. Inside was a small ganesh, the fire, food and all the decorations.

They were thrilled to have us there and they all wanted their picture taken. Then they would run up to see themselves on the digital screen. It was delightful and Alanna and Craig both went in the temple with the kids. Some of the parents came and laughed when they saw us and offered us some food, which we again declined. After we had taken all the pictures and had shaken everyones hands and said goodbye, we carried on with our walk. It was such a nice experience, it is what we will remember.

The OWC (Overseas Women's Club)

I joined the OWC last week - they are both a social and a charitable organization made up of over 900 (mostly) women. I'd checked out their website before I even got to Bangalore and knew that it would be a great place to meet people and get involved with charities - they fundraise and distribute money to 25 local charities.

When we decided to move to Bangalore one of my goals was to volunteer at a charity. I knew that I would have lots of time on my hands, and if I couldn't find a charity to get involved with in India, there must be something seriously wrong.

Every Thursday morning OWC members get together at Leela Palace Hotel for coffee. It's a good time for newcomers to join and meet other newbies and talk to others who have been in Bangalore for a year or two. With most people here for only two years, membership is ever changing.

So last week, with the kids finally in school, off I went to join and somehow, I am now not just volunteering for a charity, but have volunteered to be on the Charity Commitee. I will have three or four charities that I will be responsible for, determining their needs, allocating money and seeing that the money is put to proper use. I am really looking forward to meeting with the committee and visiting the charities.

Wow, I must say the OWC is very organized. On the social side, there seems to be a club for just about everything: book club, writing club, wine appreciation club, cooking club and on and on. They organize monthly speakers, road trips, lunches etc. I joined up for two things next month. One is a hands on cooking class at Caperberrys Restaurant (where we went for my birthday lunch) and the other is lunch at an Indian Restaurant. Both were only 600INR ($14 Can).

The OWC publishes a monthly magazine with info about upcoming events and interesting articles related to Bangalore and India. They have also published a book, a survival guide really, called In & Out of Bangalore. It is fabulous, and when I got my hands on it about a month ago it was such a relief to have so much information all in one place.

I have to say that the company Michael works for did very little to help us out when we arrived. I felt like we were aliens dropped onto another planet. We didn't know emergency phone numbers, what hospital to go to, where to shop for food, what is safe to eat, what water to use etc. Everything is in this book!

It was good to get out and talk to people and find out some new bits of information. Like one person who lives close to where I do - she told me about the Ham Shop, just a couple doors down from the mosque. The next day we went and bought bacon and it was delicious! Another person had such a bad dental experience he's opened his own dental clinic. And there were others who were newer than me and I was giving them advice.

It's a good group of interesting people from all around the world. A lot of people are still on summer holidays and so the social events and charity meetings are on hold until Sept. Looking forward to when things start up, but for this month I'll at least go to the Thurs. coffee mornings.
http://www.owcbangalore.org/index.php

Monsoon Floods House

The monsoon arrived last night. We woke up around 1:30am to a major thunder and lightning storm. The rain was coming down in torrents. We lied awake and listened to the storm and watched the lightning for at least 45 minutes. When it started to quiet down I went to get out of bed and that’s when I found my feet in three inches of water.

What a feeling! We got up and realized that the balcony off our bedroom wasn’t draining. Well, it was draining – through the door and into our bedroom. The whole floor was flooded and it was threatening to go into the hall and down the stairs. Michael went out to try to unclog the drain outside and I started mopping the floor.

We phoned the property manager who said he would send someone in the morning. Of course we said no, he had to send someone right away. In fact, the water had started to seep through the walls into the living room.

There was so much water on the balcony that Michael couldn’t find the drain and I wasn’t getting far with the mopping. Did I mention the electricity was out? Thank goodness we brought our headlamps – they’ve really come in handy.

No one came and so we phoned the property manager again – big surprise, his phone was turned off. Michael got ahold of someone else who said to try the maintenance people at our complex. Out he went in the rain and found someone who could come soon – after they unplugged a drain at another house.

We started moving furniture in the living room. The floor was getting really wet. And Michael started dumping water over the balcony with a pot. Finally a guy came and brought a big long pole and was able to unclog the drain.

The floor was still flooded but there wasn’t much else we could do. Went back to bed and then we heard the mosquitoes buzzing around. On came the flashlight, and Michael became “Mosquito Man,” swatting, missing, swatting, killing. The mosquitoes were winning. He finally had the brilliant idea to put on mosquito spray and we settled in for an hours sleep before the kids had to get up for school (yes, on Saturday but that's another story).

We got the kids on the bus and then went back to bed till 10:30. The property manager finally arrived just after that and we convinced him that he had to get someone in today to clean up the water. Took a couple hours but he and someone’s maid cleaned it up. We got the electricity back on and the internet has been intermittent.

As for the water damage, we’ll worry about that next week. Luckily nothing much of ours was damaged, just our new bedspread. And we will have pest control in on Monday to get rid of mosquitoes and anything else that may have gotten in.

They were the best of days, they were the worst of days...

Sea Wallapping at Cherai Beach, Kerala

$1Can=44INR,

As promised, ten year old Craig is my guest blogger. Here is his account of Cherai Beach:

"At Cherai Beach we went high wave jumping and built sand castles. It was sooooo much fun! Until the second day:( we were walking on the beach with big waves right at shore. First, I tripped then came a big wave which smashed me into the rocks. I got a big bruise on my thigh, good cut on my foot, bump on my head and blood on my knee which, after a few days is still hurting and sore but other than that great trip!!!"

Well that about sums it up in a nutshell from Craig.

I'll elaborate a little but I'm sure my account won't be half as exciting:

From the houseboat we took a 2 1/2 hour taxi ride to Cherai Beach (1000INR). The drive was ok except through the city of Ernakulum which is big, busy and full of grey highrises. Made me appreciate Bangalore with all the trees, parks and low buildings.

We stayed at Cherai Beach Resort. Our hut looked out over a peaceful lake. And just across the road from the resort is the Arabian Sea. It was so nice to swim in the ocean. Actually the waves were big, you couldn't really swim. In fact you couldn't let your guard down or you would get pounded by a huge wave. Hence, Alanna coined a new term, "sea walloping." We all had so much fun trying to jump higher than the wave, diving under or trying to body surf. And if we didn't time it right we got a good "sea walloping!"

The beach was long and sandy but they are in the process of building up a breakwater with boulders between the road and the sand. I guess when it gets stormy the water would easily swamp the road.

We booked the "Monsoon Package" - 2 nights, including all meals for 12,200INR (for four of us). The food was good for the most part. The Kerala fish in banana leaf was excellent, as was the mango milkshake and fresh grape juice.

The Monsoon Package also included an Ayurvedic Massage for both Michael and I. We decided to take advantage of it the first night. We didn't know where to go so we went to reception and they sent us off with a little old man to show us the way. We followed him to the lake and he motioned for us to get into the boat. Oh oh, we thought there must be some mistake and we tried to explain that we were going for a massage, not a boat ride. But he nodded vigorously, saying, "massage, massage." And so we got into the narrow canoe and he paddled us a short way to some huts. Off we got and sure enough this was the massage hut.

An older Indian woman and a man were waiting for us. We each went to a separate room, me with the woman, and Michael with the man. The room was bare bones, with a massage table with no linen on it at all. There was a two burner gas stove. One side was heating up oils, the other side was heating up water.

I lied down on the table and she plied me with so much oil that I was scared that I would slide right off the table. It was an odd but relaxing hour. After the massage I stood up and she had a tall drink ready and she said to drink it all at once. She spoke little English so I have no idea what it was but I drank it (I was a little bit scared of her). The drink didn't have much taste.

Then she put me into a steam shower, the kind that looks like a small capsule. You step into it and the door shuts around your body, with just your head sticking out. The hot water on the stove was heating up the steam shower. I sat there for about ten minutes by myself, sweating. She let me out and I had quite the time showering and trying to get the oil off of me and out of my hair.

Next she gave me another drink and a small pill which again I took but had no idea what it was. Then she had a small bowl of red, brown and white "paint" which she put on my forehead. That was the finishing touch and she walked me out to wait for Michael. Of course I was still sweating from the steam bath and immediately wiped my brow. Oops...she took me back in and redid my forehead.

Back to the beach. On the second day we decided to walk along the beach to where we had seen more people in the water the day before. The tide was right up to the rocks and down further there was a bit of a beach. When we got there no one else was there.

The kids jumped into the water but Michael and I noticed a group of fifteen guys coming down the beach towards us. Sure enough they stopped and sat on the rocks and stared at us. This is pretty common because there aren't many tourists on the beach and the Indian guys just stare at the westerners in their bathing suits.

We felt a little uncomfortable, being the only ones there so we decided to walk back to our beach by the resort. I took the road and Michael and the kids decided to walk along the shore. This is where Craig's story comes in.

Michael had a backpack on and was carrying four towels and the kids each had a towel around them. I lost sight of them as the rocks hid them from view. So after a bit I climbed the rocks to see where they were. That's when I saw Michael up to his waist in water and the backpack getting soaked. Waves were crashing into him and he was stumbling. Then I look behind him and I see the kids climbing up the rocks.

I start waving to Michael to come up the rocks but he wouldn't. So I went to help the kids. Just as I got to them about ten guys in matching blue shirts come running up, looking very concerned. I'm assuming they were lifeguards. Sure enough Craig had hit his head on the rocks and had some scrapes on his arms and legs. Alanna had some scrapes as well.

Luckily nothing more serious happened, the waves were really crashing in. The three of them had another good "sea walloping" and I think we all learned a good lesson that waves and rocks don't mix - at least don't put yourself between them.

So that was it for the morning, we walked back to the hut pretty dazed. Took it easy, had lunch and rested. But then we decided we didn't want to end the trip like that so off we went in the afternoon when the tide was out again. The kids jumped right in and didn't come out for 1 1/2 hours. We had a blast and watched the sun go down.