Ok, so I kind of have an excuse for not posting yesterday, most notably it was due to the fact that we got up at 4am and didn’t get back till 1:30am (the next morning).
We rose early in order to get a head start on all the traffic as we had a 4-5 hour journey to our destination. We were going to the Sai Baba temple in Shirdi. At first our main aim was to get some sleep on the journey there but then I realised it was my opportunity to see more of India so I tried to stay awake.
We passed through various towns and villages. They were all pretty similar, with some well-maintained buildings, some which we less so and also temporary dwelling dotted around. It was however, in these less built-up areas that I started to realise how multi-coloured the buildings could be, there were pink, purple, green, blue…Repeatedly in many of the settlements were brightly coloured yellow buildings. In one town there was a three-road intersection, where in England there would have been a round about, here the was actually a dog happily sleeping and the cars were all driving around the snoozing animal.
They did not have conventional roadside cafes, but there were small structures, mostly made from corrugated iron, some brick, by the side of the road where you could get refreshments. I’m not sure whether or not they would have had toilets. I had my paper with me just in case it was needed, however Mrs C assured me should I need to use facilities we could stop in a hotel on the way. I spent a lot of the journey through the communities on the look out for these ‘hotels’; they were not easy to spot.
Spending so much time in the car I was able to make various observations about the traffic. For example I realised that the earlier comment I made about driving instructions are actually more varied than I belived. Some trucks say “Horn please”, others ask you to “honk” or to “blow [your] horn”. The last version I found to be the least polite. It was also rather interesting to experience a version of road racing. At one point we were overtaking a car. In India this is very, very common, although there are two sides to the road, it is more like both lanes are yours if there is no other traffic. We were in this position, overtaking a car, but they decided to speed up at that point, and as we followed the curve of the road we were neck and neck. In the end our driver gave up, eased off the gas and resumed driving on the left hand side of the road.
We passed paddy fields, stacks of red bricks (which at first I thought were houses – they were that big!).
Everything was so green and lush it really felt very tropical. On the way home, after the rains the fog was low in the sky, over the valleys that it reminded of me when we were doing the Gold Duke of Edinburgh walk up Ingleborough. Faintly through the mist I was able to see some wind turbines and I must say it was nice to see that sustainable energy is also picking up in India. Perhaps one day everywhere will be using it.
We arrived at in Shirdi at about ten/half past ten and it was already so hot, although we were very grateful that the rain had stopped. There were so many people – crowds and crowds. The poor driver had to manoeuvre his way around everyone. I did not envy him at all! So many people were ‘trying’ to help us find parking. Our guy also tried a bit of a con. It was risky and we took the risk. Fortunately due to connections we overcame the problem. The general public who came to the temple to pray, worship, find answers and remedies could sometimes queue for over 8 hours just to get inside. There was a V.I.P. queue, which we tried to enter but it closed before we got there, the parking guy said he could get us in anyway so we left the queue and followed him through the maze of people, stalls and various areas of the temple grounds to the one he was affiliated with. We put our shoes in a bag and bought offerings. Then followed him to what we thought would be the shorter queue. He had lied and left us at the normal queue. Mrs C was not pleased. Finally we ended up managing to get in via the back entrance, for a few minutes. I was so shocked by what I saw. I had never thought there would be railings inside the temple, I guess due to the crowds that visit the temples there has to be a way to stop crushing. This did however remind me of a cattle market, just for people instead of cows. From the back of the temple it was hard to see the front but we could just about make out the white face of Sai Babas statue and the Gold gistening all around him.
Sai baba is a special person as he was not religious but believed that good would feed good. If you are good, good will find its way to you. He had lived in the temple during his life and now his statue resided there permanently. Although we managed to get in the back we couldn’t see much, apart from the glinting gold from the very front of the temple. So we obtained the special pass and managed to get entry to the prayer session at midday.
We queued and were then guided onto the main floor of the temple. When all the VIPs had entered for the session we advanced into two queues for women and two, on the other side of the room for men. There we stood two-a-breast for the 30 minute session. The lady guard had taken a shine to us and gave us some yellow paste to put in the middle of our foreheads, in blessing.
The session was strange. Although it was in a different language I felt that the prayers were a bit like our singing worships session at Brickhill Baptist. There was clapping, raising hand as praise and a general atmosphere of solidarity and solitude. At the end of the session we advanced in our queues to pray and give our offerings. Some of which are returned to you after being blessed. It was an amazing experience to be able to have attended such a session and I truly felt privileged as I know I experienced what so many people can only dream of.
After some fruit shopping we went to a hotel for lunch where I tried yet more Indian food. There was an aubergine curry and dhal for main course. We were able to freshen up before the epic journey home. There were three traffic jams along the way. The first was in a town, where we were able to go back a short while and take another route. The second was due to something falling off a lorry and caused quite a delay. The final bout of traffic was caused by a motorcycle accident. This was rather sad, it involved two men and they both died. I know accidents like this must happen all the time, but it was particularly sad because it was then that I realised so many people, at the end of the day, could be waiting for loved ones to return home, to find that they would never be coming home again. I just hoped that their families did not have to wait too long, or worse yet spent time waiting for them to return, thinking they had been abandoned or something along those lines.
As soon as we got home we had to rush to get ready for the wedding we were to attend. Unfortunately rushing and Sari wearing do not go well together, so we ended up being a bit late in leaving. The wedding was stunning, so many fancy saris. V told me that the more diamonds were worn and the more fancy the
saris the closer to the bride the person was. This kind of tradition would make European weddings so much easier, and would really help to point out who was the important person to talk to. They had an amazing buffet, of Indian food and then also live chefs cooking any pasta or pizza dish you wished. There was an array of desserts, from chocolate brownie pudding to Indian sweets made from nuts and special flours. It was my first proper time wearing a sari and I felt so special, but it was hard to walk in and I was so worried about tripping up in it, especially when we went to go greet the bride and groom up on the stage. What a long but fantastic day!!
We rose early in order to get a head start on all the traffic as we had a 4-5 hour journey to our destination. We were going to the Sai Baba temple in Shirdi. At first our main aim was to get some sleep on the journey there but then I realised it was my opportunity to see more of India so I tried to stay awake.
We passed through various towns and villages. They were all pretty similar, with some well-maintained buildings, some which we less so and also temporary dwelling dotted around. It was however, in these less built-up areas that I started to realise how multi-coloured the buildings could be, there were pink, purple, green, blue…Repeatedly in many of the settlements were brightly coloured yellow buildings. In one town there was a three-road intersection, where in England there would have been a round about, here the was actually a dog happily sleeping and the cars were all driving around the snoozing animal.
They did not have conventional roadside cafes, but there were small structures, mostly made from corrugated iron, some brick, by the side of the road where you could get refreshments. I’m not sure whether or not they would have had toilets. I had my paper with me just in case it was needed, however Mrs C assured me should I need to use facilities we could stop in a hotel on the way. I spent a lot of the journey through the communities on the look out for these ‘hotels’; they were not easy to spot.
Spending so much time in the car I was able to make various observations about the traffic. For example I realised that the earlier comment I made about driving instructions are actually more varied than I belived. Some trucks say “Horn please”, others ask you to “honk” or to “blow [your] horn”. The last version I found to be the least polite. It was also rather interesting to experience a version of road racing. At one point we were overtaking a car. In India this is very, very common, although there are two sides to the road, it is more like both lanes are yours if there is no other traffic. We were in this position, overtaking a car, but they decided to speed up at that point, and as we followed the curve of the road we were neck and neck. In the end our driver gave up, eased off the gas and resumed driving on the left hand side of the road.
We passed paddy fields, stacks of red bricks (which at first I thought were houses – they were that big!).
We arrived at in Shirdi at about ten/half past ten and it was already so hot, although we were very grateful that the rain had stopped. There were so many people – crowds and crowds. The poor driver had to manoeuvre his way around everyone. I did not envy him at all! So many people were ‘trying’ to help us find parking. Our guy also tried a bit of a con. It was risky and we took the risk. Fortunately due to connections we overcame the problem. The general public who came to the temple to pray, worship, find answers and remedies could sometimes queue for over 8 hours just to get inside. There was a V.I.P. queue, which we tried to enter but it closed before we got there, the parking guy said he could get us in anyway so we left the queue and followed him through the maze of people, stalls and various areas of the temple grounds to the one he was affiliated with. We put our shoes in a bag and bought offerings. Then followed him to what we thought would be the shorter queue. He had lied and left us at the normal queue. Mrs C was not pleased. Finally we ended up managing to get in via the back entrance, for a few minutes. I was so shocked by what I saw. I had never thought there would be railings inside the temple, I guess due to the crowds that visit the temples there has to be a way to stop crushing. This did however remind me of a cattle market, just for people instead of cows. From the back of the temple it was hard to see the front but we could just about make out the white face of Sai Babas statue and the Gold gistening all around him.
Sai baba is a special person as he was not religious but believed that good would feed good. If you are good, good will find its way to you. He had lived in the temple during his life and now his statue resided there permanently. Although we managed to get in the back we couldn’t see much, apart from the glinting gold from the very front of the temple. So we obtained the special pass and managed to get entry to the prayer session at midday.
We queued and were then guided onto the main floor of the temple. When all the VIPs had entered for the session we advanced into two queues for women and two, on the other side of the room for men. There we stood two-a-breast for the 30 minute session. The lady guard had taken a shine to us and gave us some yellow paste to put in the middle of our foreheads, in blessing.
The session was strange. Although it was in a different language I felt that the prayers were a bit like our singing worships session at Brickhill Baptist. There was clapping, raising hand as praise and a general atmosphere of solidarity and solitude. At the end of the session we advanced in our queues to pray and give our offerings. Some of which are returned to you after being blessed. It was an amazing experience to be able to have attended such a session and I truly felt privileged as I know I experienced what so many people can only dream of.
After some fruit shopping we went to a hotel for lunch where I tried yet more Indian food. There was an aubergine curry and dhal for main course. We were able to freshen up before the epic journey home. There were three traffic jams along the way. The first was in a town, where we were able to go back a short while and take another route. The second was due to something falling off a lorry and caused quite a delay. The final bout of traffic was caused by a motorcycle accident. This was rather sad, it involved two men and they both died. I know accidents like this must happen all the time, but it was particularly sad because it was then that I realised so many people, at the end of the day, could be waiting for loved ones to return home, to find that they would never be coming home again. I just hoped that their families did not have to wait too long, or worse yet spent time waiting for them to return, thinking they had been abandoned or something along those lines.
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| Me in my sari for the evening. |
saris the closer to the bride the person was. This kind of tradition would make European weddings so much easier, and would really help to point out who was the important person to talk to. They had an amazing buffet, of Indian food and then also live chefs cooking any pasta or pizza dish you wished. There was an array of desserts, from chocolate brownie pudding to Indian sweets made from nuts and special flours. It was my first proper time wearing a sari and I felt so special, but it was hard to walk in and I was so worried about tripping up in it, especially when we went to go greet the bride and groom up on the stage. What a long but fantastic day!!
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