Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

 In Chennai, board of a furniture shop…

 It is Kamadhenu, the ‘Mother of cows’ or the ‘vache de tous les désires’ (some sort of Aladin genie), usually represented as a winged with cow with the head and breasts of a woman (Source).

 More about the sacred cow in India: here

Last night there was yet another party in the streets. Walking home, along Juhu Beach, it was like going against the tide of human waves. Tiring. When you live in India, there are days you get to realize that there are really really a lot of people in this country... Those are the days you wonder if they never get tired of their religious histrionics... It never stops!

People should feel free to express themselves I know, but I am less convinced when the noise under my windows prevents me from sleeping... At the same time I must say the dog that "watches" the open garbage pit at the foot of my building and barks at the donkeys every night at 3 also prevents me from sleeping!

Anyway, no one asks for my opinion regarding festivals, their frequency and their level of nuisance! Adapt or die (or leave!)…

So yesterday it was Chhath Puja. A festival in honor of the God Sun (Surya). In short (apparently the rules are not the same everywhere, and it is mainly a North Indian festival), the devotees must fast for two days and on the morning of the second day, they make their offerings to the rising Sun.

Last night when I left office, people had started settling in to camp on the beach like that:

And this morning the scene was something like this (while I was sleeping): 

“Under a canopy of sugar cane sticks, clay elephants containing earthen lamps, and containers full of the offerings are placed. There the fire god is worshipped. The offerings characteristically consist of deep-fried and sweet rolls of stone ground wheat flour, grapefruit, whole coconuts, bananas, and grains of lentils. During the puja, these items are contained in small, semicircular pans woven out of bamboo strips called soop.”

More info here: http://www.tourism-of-india.com/chhath-puja.html

During a visit to Madurai, in Tamil Nadu, while my colleague was tying up a jasmine garland in my hair, I asked him if the red mark on the forehead of his executive meant that he had made his prayer (see my note on the bindi here). He confirmed and added it was to make the day auspicious, and also that he himself used to do it but that he had stopped since he had become god. Become God ???  

Bah yeah, when he became a manager, and people started working for him and therefore he was providing them with a living, he is a bit like God for them. If we think further, I am also a goddess by the way. And our general manager too. That’s why, he explained, at every meeting, our guys carry him and dance with him in the air. They worship him as their God...  

That, and the rest of the year they break God’s balls!  

But still, we are far from the hatred of the boss encountered in other countries!