Oriya New Year
on Sustainable Dignity (India), 16/Apr/2010 11:46, 34 days ago
Corey writes:As Gina mentioned in her previous entry, we had the day off on Wednesday. It was the Oriya New Year and also Lord Hanuman's birthday. Here is what I know about Lord Hanuman:He's a Hindu godHe resembles a monkeyHe was a bachelor all his life, which makes him very popular with the twenty-something fellowsHe led a monkey army in the big war to save Lord Ram's wife from a demon kingWe took advantage of the day off by frying up 8.8 pounds of chicken and inviting the other VSOs over for lunch. (Yes, I have an estimation problem. Yes, that problem is compounded by having to order things in Kilograms. YOU try imagining how much chicken you will need for dinner and then converting that to KGs. Plus, once they started killing the second and third chickens, there's no turning back. They can't un-kill the chicken.)Anyway, the chicken was tasty as hell, and we'll be eating it all week.The day was topped off around 8:30pm when we heard some music and the sound of a crowd getting closer. We went outside and found the source: there was a group of people, some with instruments, some with flowers on their head, walking through the neighborhood. They stopped at the house right across from ours and continued the show. Our friend Binu came over and explained that this was a goddess (who's name escapes me) and she was traveling through the town just hanging out with her band. She even jumped over a kid to cure him. It was a real treat.