The Temple Tour - Sankranthi

Shiva
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Sankranthi is the Hindu havest festival here in Karnataka (or the Hindu New Year festival if you live in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu) and to celebrate this, all the Hindus have poojas (honestly...that is a word...& will be explained later!) in various temples around the city. They are spoilt for choice as to where to go, as there are on average, 3 or 4 temples in every street ! The day is also celebrated by making a special dish called pongal (don't you just LOVE the names !?) which is like a rice pudding but with added fried cashew nuts, coconut pieces & raisins...Mmmmm delicious ! I had this at lunch then later on whilst visiting some of the staff that live behind the wards, I was also offered it at Shakers' house (he is the rickshaw driver for Karunashraya).... another great name too!

the streets of Marthahalli
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As I finished duty at 4pm, Vinu (Shakers' daughter) said she would take me to visit a few Temples. So, off we went, first stop....Murgeshpalya and the Shiva Temple. Well............talk about commercial !! Ha ! I had to laugh as we were herded througha market place first, where we were "encouraged" to purchase a bag of offerings, which included, a coconut, some flowers, a banana and Kum Kum (no sniggering please...it's the red powder they put on their foreheads!). We then has to remove our shoes & pay for someone to look after them, then again we were herded througha chicane to the first monument of Ganesh  (the God of Learning), where the first pooja was carried out. Ok....you can laugh at that name cos I did (hee!) .....it is actually the ceremony performed in order to pray or show respect to (worship) the Gods.

Marthahalli
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After this Pooja, we paid again to enter this grotto-type building which was actually amusing & worth every rupee, as there were mechanical models and statues, such as a snake spitting and someone being decapitated with a pitch fork !! The show cases all depicted Shiva in his different forms or "Lingas". Apparently there are over 3 million Hindu Gods - they even worship flora & fauna & cows have thier own special Pooja, the day after Sankranthi.

After the grotto, Vinu & I then lined up to touch the main statue of Shiva where we wafted camphor smoke over our faces and sprinkled water on our heads (I overdid it a little & could have bought my shampoo..oops!). This is all part of the ritual of the Pooja, as is putting a flower head in your hair & marking your forehead with the Kum Kum. A few moments were then spent sitting cross-legged in front of Shiva, before going into a small dark cave which had a rock with 9 different statues of Gods, in its' center. We then proceeded to walk around it 9 times (along with loads of other people so we were kind of "shuffling") whilst praying. I just about managed not to tread on anyones feet & felt dizzy by the time I had finished !!!!

A small Temple
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Once I had stopped reeling, we joined the queue to retrieve our shoes and then popped into a brand new Shopping mall next door to the Temple to do a bit of window shopping ! I say that, as the prices were really high, some of the items being more expensive than in the UK !! Vinu explained that only those that worked in the IT industry could afford to shop here (they earn on average 70,000 Rps/month, which is about 1,000 pounds). It just seemed so unreal to me that you had this very modern and "tumba costly" (expensive) shopping mall, yet outside there were people begging & living on the streets. Surely there is something not right with this ??

A go poojar (cow worship)
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Anyway....Vinu & I then continued with our "Temple Tour" and caught a local bus up the road to Marthahalli where we visited a few small Temples in a very poor area (a stark contrast to the mall!). There were throngs of people, small shacks selling a variety of items, cows wandering in the dusty streets and the smell of camphor & incense on the air. The Temples were very beautiful (a contrast to the very commercial Shiva Temple) and were decorated with garlands of flowers draped over the carved statues of various Hindu Gods. There was also a hindu priest in each Temple, carrying out the Poojas and dishing out the very 'antiseptic-tasting' water! In one Temple we even got given some pongal...yum !

Putting Kum Kum on the cows feet - part of the poojar
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In one street I was able to watch a go pooja (cow pooja) where even the cow dung and urine is considered holy !! The cows were tethered and kum kum applied to their hooves & foreheads whilst being engulfed in a cloud of camphor and incense !! Normally this pooja is done the day after Sankranthi in the countryside...but these were town cows, so obviously a bit different !

It truly was a great evening, which we ended by going to Kundilahalligate (round the corner from the hospice) & eating bhel puri (very much like eating dry rice crispies with chillies!) and masala puri (a delicious pea & vege dahl) from a local food stall. Later on I reflected on just how many peple were celebrating Sankranthi and how much faith they have, even though their lives are so wrought with hardship, poverty and often sadness. I was also thinking that here in India it is such a multi-faith soceity, yet the people are able to live together in harmony, respecting each others' beliefs (at least they do here in Bangalore). Why doesn't this happen elsewhere in the world?

The Snake Temple
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