Day 36, Udupi [Tuesday 8th January 2008]
Previous day: Day 35, Udupi [Monday 7th January 2008]
Next day: Day 37, Belur [Wednesday 9th January 2008]
We go to Sri Krishna Math, the Krishna Temple. I have to take my shirt off before we go in. I join a line of topless men - the women are all fully dressed - waiting for darshan, sight of the deity. We enter a long passageway into the temple, and as we round the corner we are deafened by banging drums and ringing bells. It's so loud that I momentarily lose my balance. My head swims and my vision shudders. The stone walls are black and the room is dark. There is incense burning everywhere, and a thin shaft of sunlight pierces through the roof and into the clouds of drifting smoke.
There are twenty or thirty people inside, standing together in a group, ringing bells attached to ropes hanging from the ceiling. As we walk into the temple they are all facing us, but their eyes are focussed beyond, at the deity sitting in the sanctum sanctorum. Krishna sits, decorated with clothes and flowers, lit by candles. We get a brief look at him through the grilled window, then a priest moves us along - there is a large queue behind us. The priest mouths something to me but I can't make out the words, all I can hear is thumping drums and clanging bells, I'm having trouble concentrating on anything.
People have brought gifts of coconuts, which a priest at a table slices and hands back to them as prasad. Some get given a ladle of milk which they drink, or run through their hair. We join the main group getting darshan. The ritual is entrancing, and just for a minute, or even just a few seconds, I understand the magic appeal of the smells, the sounds and the sights in this temple, and how they combine with the devotees faith to become an incredibly powerful experience. Powerful enough to take you somewhere outside of yourself.
Back outside in the bright sunlight, we look around the extensive temple complex, which contains further temples, shops, canteens, water wells and cowsheds.
In the afternoon we get the bus to Malpe beach, which is alive with people. We ask someone why it's so busy, and we think there may have been a festival to do with the sea today. We browse through some market stalls, which are mainly selling sweets and plastic toys. We walk down the long beach for a couple of hours, next to a furiously swelling sea full of yelping Indian boys. We have lunch at a hotel by the sea - methi muttar malai, pulau rice, stuffed kulcha, Rs. 200 - and get the bus back to Udupi.
There is another festival tonight, and this time the tiny metal idols are taken around the square in one of the huge wooden chariots, maybe 15 metres high. Almost the whole crowd is involved in pulling this chariot around with two long ropes. Sitting at the base of the chariot, next to a gigantic, wobbly wooden wheel, is a tin of gunk labeled "Axle grease".
The swamis encourage everyone with shouts of "Govinda!" or "Gopala!" Every so often one of the huge wooden wheels gets stuck in a rut in the mud, and a stocky swami with a big stick ambles over to lever it out.
For dinner we have rava dosa and some really pitiful ice cream.
Next day: Day 37, Belur [Wednesday 9th January 2008]
Previous day: Day 35, Udupi [Monday 7th January 2008]