Thursday January 26 (Republic Day) - Madurai

No, it's not a statue.

It's been a while since we've had a whole day in one city. This morning we returned to the temple we went to last night but this time to actually have a chance to look at the carvings and experience the place and normal daily life.

Maheswari

Offerings for the gods.

Our delightful guide, Maheswari (pronounced Maheshvari), helped us to experience interaction with the temple as local devotees do. We bought a woven bowl containing a coconut, two bananas, two small bags - one with ash and the other with a crimson powder called kumkum - and a leaf. There may have been more. We also bought a long garland of red flowers with a tassel of fragrant jasmine at the bottom. I carried these items through much of the temple as we did our sightseeing and wondered what we were going to do with them. We watched people praying to monumental statues of Shiva and Ganesha. At last we came to an unassuming statue of the goddess Parvati.

Parvati

I was surprised by her attention to this particular one. She paused for a bit and then began to softly say a prayer. When she was finished she asked us to join us in placing the beautiful flower garland around Parvati's neck. She then opened the bag of red powder, said another prayer and gently, lovingly placed dots of red on Parvati's head, ears, neck, arms, several places along the legs, and feet. Occasionally during her honoring she sang a sweet song. She then asked each of us to dip our middle finger into the red powder and do the same. She peeled the two bananas and placed one on either side of the statue's feet. She then peeled the coconut and said "you may say a prayer if you'd like; you can ask Parvati for anything". She passed the coconut to each of us and as we held the coconut we said a silent prayer. She then cracked the coconut in half (by the way not easy to do). Again she placed the halves on either side of Parvati's feet and lastly the leaf in the middle. It was a beautiful prayer and we felt honored to be a part of it. As passed a ceremony of another sort. A group of women were seated in a circle and there was much activity going on. We stopped to watch. Each woman got up and went to the woman in center and placed bracelets on each wrists and kumkum dots on her wrists, face and feet. Maheswari explained that the woman in the middle is pregnant and this is a special ceremony to wish that she have a safe delivery. Several women got up and came to us, placed bracelets on our wrists and gave us candies.

As a side note, we have been amazed by the friendliness and openness of the people we've encountered in South India. As we walked around the temple learning more about Hindu religion and culture (Maheswari is a wonderful guide) we were surprised to learn that it was only in 2004 that women were allowed to be tour guides; not allowed for Hindu women - at least in a smaller city and certainly a village - to wear lipstick. After the temple we asked Maheswari if she could help us buy a wedding gift for Bala. She suggested a sari and led us to a shop. Thankfully she had done a little reconnaissance and found out what type and color of sari Bala's new wife wanted for her family wedding celebration in May. We selected a lovely purple/brown one with sequins that Maheswari said she was certain Madu would love.

Bala's mother, Mado and Bala

At the end of our sightseeing, Bala said he wanted us to meet his new wife. His house is located very near our hotel in what we could tell was a nice neighborhood. His mother and wife greeted us at the door. Inside the house the air was full of the smell of cooking and I suspected what he'd planned. We sat in a green living room on a two seater sofa. There were two chairs on the left side and opposite us was a kind of shrine to deceased relatives: his father, two grandfathers and one uncle. Below these photos were shelves containing mementos arranged symmetrically: various colorful plastic flower arrangements, ceramic kangaroos, assorted trophies and other symbols of their family history. On another wall a photo of his mother and father. Suddenly the lights came on and the fan to clear the smokey air. Madurai has periodic power cuts by neighborhood to conserve energy. He brought out a small round table apologizing for it and saying that he doesn't have a dining table. His wife and mother bought out a sumptuous meal: puri, chapatti, tandoori chicken, chicken in a white curry sauce, and spiced chicken (or was it fish?). We drank freshly made grape juice that his mother made. And specially purchased water and diet pepsi. Lastly we ate a heaping plate of rice. All the while Ferris and I ate but neither Bala, his wife or mother would touch a bit not matter how hard we insisted they join us. We were the guests. It was a wonderful experience and we were truly honored that Bala would invite us to his home and treat us to such an extravagant meal.