Wild parrots
July 31, 2007
Compared to Los Angeles where the birds we see are either seagulls or pigeons, seeing large wild parrots is a lot of fun. In Tamil, if I understood this correctly, the name is “killi killi” which is pretty much what they sound like.
Cell phones
July 30, 2007
The house that I stayed at has a new phone. It looks like a typical “house phone” but it is a cell phone and doesn’t connect to any of the phone cables (as seen above). Part of the problem is that people steal the phone wire because the copper is worth so much money and frankly the maintenance costs of a wired network are so much more than a cellular network. Everyone I met had a cell phone.
Old and new
July 29, 2007
It is a long standing tradition that the deities in the temples are taken out and paraded through the streets from time to time. It is always done using huge “chariots” that are elaborately decorated and are frequently, as seen above, three stories tall and beautifully decorated.
Bear in mind that half the fun is that they are usually pulled using huge long lengths of rope so everyone can participate and take part. Frequently they are stored in huge barn like structures but this one was, at least for the duration of our stay, parked along the side of the main street in Kanchipuram.
With the billboards and traffic it is a great representation of traditional India merged with the realities of modern life.
Animals
July 28, 2007
The amazing thing about Mahabalipuram is that these carving, which are so lifelike, were made not with metal chisels, but rather rock tools only. Supposedly, the entire temple complex was the project of a King who’s army had nothing to do, so they constructed this site. It was abandoned incomplete when war broke out, and never completed.
Butterball
July 27, 2007
After the Vedic Recitation yagyas we spent a day at Mahabalipuram about 35 miles south of Chennai. It is an international historic site because of the beautiful temples there which were carved from solid rock. One of the most amusing features is the “butterball” named after the story of Krishna’s love for butterballs and his theft of them from his mother.
It is impossible not to walk up behind it and give it a shove…just to see if you can move it. Of course it is as big as a house and the story is that ages ago a King took 10 elephants and tried to move it. Unsucessfully (of course).
Rain!
July 26, 2007
Living in Los Angeles, I don’t get to enjoy a great summer thunderstorm. So on the last day of the yagyas, when it rained I thought it was such a treat. This shot is from the rooftop where we perform the fire yagyas (homam). It is looking in the other direction compared to the photo that was posted yesterday. You can see the main gopuram of the Vishnu temple in the distance.
And when it rains….it really rains!
Gopuram
July 25, 2007
Our yagya facility is across the street from the Varadaraja Vishnu temple, the second largest Vishnu temple in India. It is a stunningly beautiful place. This past year, Seetharam enclosed the top floor and now the roof has a tremendous view of the gopuram (tower) across the street.
Last monkey post…
July 24, 2007
My previous monkey posts made them look rather cute. So I thought it might be appropriate to post one of the largest male who is about the size of a 4-5 year old child and scary strong. One look at him and you just know that he is not to be messed with, although I like the hair style.
Monkeys in LA?
July 23, 2007
It is always interesting to see what people who have never been to Los Angeles think what life is like here. The best question during the entire trip was when one of the priests asked me “Do you have monkeys in Los Angeles?”
I explained that while we don’t life would be a lot of fun if we did! They would certainly keep life interesting.
Monkeys!
July 22, 2007
There was a family of monkeys in the neighborhood and one day one of them came wandering into the house. I was a little shocked, but he just looked at me and went back outside. Needless to say he wasn’t particularly afraid of me.
So whenever we saw them, we’d wave bananas at them and then run back inside as they hopped roof to roof to be fed. They’d take the bananas, eat them and then leave. They were actually very nice, and certainly very strong.