Back to the real world!
Ok, so I'm back from holidays, where I visited the mother country of India ... and as always it was an experience, with many stories to tell!
Firstly, Quote for the day:
"There's no place like home. There's no place like home." - Judy Garland (Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz) 1939
Ok, where do I begin ... Well went over to India for a friends wedding, so let's start with that ... Now I'm told the wedding was quite a typically South Indian Hindu wedding, personally I wouldn't know, but I did find it quite stranger for the Bride & Groom to get rushed on and off a small stage (which was outside the actual temple) for a ceremony lasting just under 10 minutes, with dialogue that could barely be heard, let alone understood, while standing in a packed crowd that resembled a mosh pit more than a wedding gathering. Nonetheless I did enjoy the wedding and the more drawn out reception that immediately followed :)
Now if you think that was bad, visiting the actual temple was a far greater shock to my system. Firstly, I had to wear particular clothing to even enter the temple, which found me wearing a "mundu" (aka. "lunghi"), which is kinda like wrapping a bedsheet around your waist so it looks like a long skirt, and since wearing a shirt of any kind was not allowed I donned the matching garment which I can only describe as a shawl ... tucking the mundu into a pair of shorts (I discreetly wore underneath) so as to not have it embarrassingly fall down, I left my sandals behind at the hotel and headed off bare foot for the temple which was a 5 minute walk away ...
Now that's not the strange part! ... With the shear number of people wanting to attend this particular temple (apparently on any day) there was an amzingly long line to get into the inner sactum ... thankfully, I had vip connections and we skipped through to where the line was just about 20-30 people in front of us ... but the experience was unbelievable ...
Why? - not for some greatly spiritual feeling or enlightenment, not for any wonder or awe, but from the unbelievable lack of respect shown by the ever surging crowd pushing one another forward like people desperate to get out of a burning building ... I found myself being pushed by two middle-aged women behind me, eventually into some men in front of me, as there really was nowhere to go, but we were basically pushed and shoved all the way, finally getting the briefest of glimses of the idol that all had come to worship and stand before ... or rather be pushed past! ...
Personally, I found the experience an invasion of my personal space, not to mention rude and completely unreligious ... maybe I misunderstand their intentions, but surely at a place supposedly so religious and spiritual, people would show some respect ... but apparently that's not the way things are in India.
Firstly, Quote for the day:
"There's no place like home. There's no place like home." - Judy Garland (Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz) 1939
Ok, where do I begin ... Well went over to India for a friends wedding, so let's start with that ... Now I'm told the wedding was quite a typically South Indian Hindu wedding, personally I wouldn't know, but I did find it quite stranger for the Bride & Groom to get rushed on and off a small stage (which was outside the actual temple) for a ceremony lasting just under 10 minutes, with dialogue that could barely be heard, let alone understood, while standing in a packed crowd that resembled a mosh pit more than a wedding gathering. Nonetheless I did enjoy the wedding and the more drawn out reception that immediately followed :)
Now if you think that was bad, visiting the actual temple was a far greater shock to my system. Firstly, I had to wear particular clothing to even enter the temple, which found me wearing a "mundu" (aka. "lunghi"), which is kinda like wrapping a bedsheet around your waist so it looks like a long skirt, and since wearing a shirt of any kind was not allowed I donned the matching garment which I can only describe as a shawl ... tucking the mundu into a pair of shorts (I discreetly wore underneath) so as to not have it embarrassingly fall down, I left my sandals behind at the hotel and headed off bare foot for the temple which was a 5 minute walk away ...
Now that's not the strange part! ... With the shear number of people wanting to attend this particular temple (apparently on any day) there was an amzingly long line to get into the inner sactum ... thankfully, I had vip connections and we skipped through to where the line was just about 20-30 people in front of us ... but the experience was unbelievable ...
Why? - not for some greatly spiritual feeling or enlightenment, not for any wonder or awe, but from the unbelievable lack of respect shown by the ever surging crowd pushing one another forward like people desperate to get out of a burning building ... I found myself being pushed by two middle-aged women behind me, eventually into some men in front of me, as there really was nowhere to go, but we were basically pushed and shoved all the way, finally getting the briefest of glimses of the idol that all had come to worship and stand before ... or rather be pushed past! ...
Personally, I found the experience an invasion of my personal space, not to mention rude and completely unreligious ... maybe I misunderstand their intentions, but surely at a place supposedly so religious and spiritual, people would show some respect ... but apparently that's not the way things are in India.
posted by Wise Words @ 11:44 AM
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