Almost home

We are now in the city of Mysore after having visiting bird sanctuaries at Kumarakom and Thatekkad and national parks at Wayanad and Nagarhole.  Along the way we saw lots of nature, mammals, and birds.  We also ate a lot of great food. Monday we leave Mysore to begin our trip home.  Today (Saturday) I made my 'big' special purchase: an idli steamer for home.



Waterfalls in Kerala



Wild elephant in Wayanad National Park

NITK and Dr. David bid farewell

Today was my last day at NITK and we said our goodbyes.  My stay here has been fabulous.  Tomorrow Kathy and I begin a 2-week vacation before returning home.  So this will be my last post for at least a few days if not the rest of the trip. 

Professors Madhyastha and Reddy and present a farewell gift to 'Dr. David'.

A different set of problems

India has some pretty severe water and wastewater problems.   India already has four times the population of the US, is growing rapidly, and will be the most populous country in a couple of decades.  As a developing country, infrastructure does not exist to deliver subsistence quantities of drinking water to everyone and to safely dispose of their waste.  

Water supply: 11% of the population (almost half the population of the United States) lack access to any clean drinking water.  The total basic water supply objective is 40 liters per person per day in rural areas and 140 in urban areas.  In addition to the 11% of the population with no clean water, many poorer urban areas do not meet this target.  For comparison, the average household in Carmichael where I live uses 3000 liters per day.  Agriculture consumes most of the water supply and about 75% of the population farms.  India needs the food: despite a rapidly growing economy 44% of children under 5 are malnourished, double the rate in sub-Saharan Africa.  To support farming, electricity to pump groundwater is often subsidized or free.  This subsidy is defended by farmers and politicians but leads to inefficiency and unsustainable overdraft of groundwater.  Groundwater often has naturally high concentrations of fluoride, arsenic, or lead and is unhealthy to consume. 

Sanitation: 70% of the population lack adequate sanitation.  If I lengthen my morning beach walk beyond the boundaries of NITK the problem is readily apparent.  The untouchable caste used to collect and dispose of waste.  This practice has been curtailed but discrimination of the caste has not stopped.  While socially problematic, some believe this was a more sanitary disposal system than now exists.  Waste is now disposed by open defecation or sewer systems for which treatment plants are often nonexistent, poor, or not operated at night.  More Indians have access to a mobile phone than a toilet.  The polluted waters make delivery of potable water more difficult. 

Indian water priorities are subsistence and survival.   I participated in a Northern California climate change study that focused on what resource managers are concerned with: sea level, available water, snowmelt, and habitat indicators for fish.  A similar Indian study focused on available water, agriculture, fisheries (as opposed to fish), forests, and human health (heat, flooding, malaria). 

In California, the often-used line to convey the importance of water diversions from the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta is ‘provides drinking water for 25 million people’.   That does not resonate here.  An Indian colleague emphasizes that the concern here is to supply food and minimal subsistence levels of safe drinking water to its population, which we in the United States are fortunate to be able to take for granted.   

Road trip

We rented a taxi for a day and 3 scholars (PhD students) took us on a road trip to Udupi. 



We drove an hour to Shrilaxmi's home where we enjoyed delicious upma from breakfast.  Here Shrilaxmi is with her father-in-law.  Her husband was teaching computer science at a nearby university which we visited. 

 



We visited one Christian church and Jain and Hindu temples. The diversity of language and religion here is remarkable.   

 

We drove to the coast and took a small boat to St. Mary's Island which is small and uninhabited.  Here our gracious hosts are on one of the odd vertical rock formations at a nice cove. 




We left the Island at sunset then ate a good dinner at an outdoor restaurant on the coast.  Kathy and I had seafood while our hosts had veg dishes.  Then we were driven back to NITK, the end of a good long day. 





Kathy arrives 2 days before her luggage

Kathy arrived 8 February.  Her luggage arrived 10 February.  She is very happy.  We did not expect Lufthansa to lose a bag on their hometurf in Frankfurt. 

A courier carried the bag from Bangalore to Mangalore on an 8 hour overnight bus trip.  While we were picking up the bag in Mangalore, she found Cafe Coffee Day, the Starbuck's of India.

NITK campus

The National Institute of Technology Karnataka is one of the top engineering schools in India.  6,000 students attend. 

My friend Yaneesh outside the Civil Engineering Building.

All students live on campus and so do most of the faculty and staff.  Most male students live in these megahostels, what in the US are called dormatories.  Each one houses a different class (first year, second year, ...).  They are not air conditioned. 

 

My faculty colleagues enjoy tea and coffee at the equivalent of Starbucks on campus.  The cost, however, is only Rs10-15 (20-30 cents) for a cup. 



I have been here one month and there has been no rain.  It has been warm and moderately humid. The monsoon begins in 3 months or so.  All around campus there are these huge open storm drains.  Everyone says they are not big enough to handle the monsoon rain. In Sacramento we get about 18 inches of rain a year, here there is 137 in/year almost all during the approximately 3 month long monsoon season.

Female students are about 15% of the student body and live in their own compound.  They hang out together and sit in class together.  Here is a Ladies common room.  There are few signs of courting.  I am told that young people prefer arranged marriages. I expect that less than 15% of the faculty are female.  The rabbit is made of ceramic and is holding a trash can.  They are scattered around campus. 



Shops and labs. 



Mangalore

Mangalore is a small city for India with only half a million people or so, but it is the big city here and a 30-45 minute bus ride away.



Express buses that make only a few stops go from NITK to Mangalore.  The buses are privately owned and all charge the same and have the same route.  There is no schedule, purely supply and demand.  During the day there is a bus every 1-5 minutes.  During rush hour there is a bus every minute that is completely packed. I got bruised standing in the aisle of a packed bus.  Everyone is nice and lets me know when my exit is approaching.  These guys are in a hurry and don't like to stop so you have to get on and off fast, sometimes while the bus is still moving.  Often a Bollywood movie is playing on a TV screen.  No AC.   





A traffic circle.  Pedestrians do not have the right of way.  Drivers are on the left, which adds more confusion for American tourists.  I often follow close on the heels of a local to cross the street. I have seen only 2 maybe 3 traffic signals in Mangalore. 





To get around town there are many autorickshaws which have 3 wheels and room for 2 passengers in the back seat.  Yes, that car in the windshield is heading for us.  I am not sure whether walking or taking an autorickshaw is more dangerous.  It is an efficient transit system because these are everywhere.  The meter is on the left, Rs17 for the first km, Rs12 thereafter.  Rs1=$0.02. 





The street outside the central market. Motorcycles are popular.

 

One of many produce stalls.

 

Fish market.

 

The Hotel Narayana is a highly regarded and authentic restaurant that features the local specialty - Mangalorean fish fry.  You sit at a table with whomever and get a plate of rice, pickle, fish curry, and a veggy (delicious beets).  A server comes with a big platter of small whole fish perfectly fried in a spicy red chili paste for you to chose from.  Eating with your hand makes dealing with bones easy. 

Balli's Podi shop



Podi are delicious fried snacks.  Here are some different varieties that include lentil (7-9 o'clock), Mangalore buns (9-12), biscuit roti (1-2), spiced mashed potato (4-6), veg samosas (12 & 3), and cabbage (under potato).   The shop churns these out all day by the vat and is supposedly the best in Mangalore.  Read this article for many photos and details. 



Breakfast

Sada dosa

For breakfast coconut chutney is an ubiquitous usually lightly spiced coconut paste/sauce.  Sometimes sambar, the tomato based soup with veggies that is eaten with rice for lunch and dinner, is also served.  There are many ways to consume coconut chutney and sambar.  The guesthouse serves two forms of dosas, which are Indian crepes.  The sada dosa (left) is a plain dosa made of pancake-like batter of rice and lentils.  The other is the lighter and more elastic neer dosa made with rice only (below).  South India has many other varieties of dosas. 

Neer dosa

Idli (below) are little cakes made by steaming a batter of rice and lentils.   The guesthouse rotates serving neer dosa, sada dosa, and idli for breakfast. Thus, breakfast is the most varied meal.  Note that rice is the primary ingredient for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Idli

The Food Court has other breakfast options.  Masala dosa is a large crisp dosa with potato and onion stuffing that is commonly eaten for breakfast or a snack but not served at the guesthouse.  A photo is on the lunch post.   Poori Bhaji (below) is fried puffed wheat dough used to eat masala that I often have for lunch.  Mangalore buns are a local fried doughy batter that includes mashed bananas.  Upma is spiced seminola with onion, nuts, and raisens. Vada is a fried, donut-shaped, and made from dahl (lentils, peas, or beans), chickpeas, or potato.  All these items are served with coconut curry and sometimes sambar. I think the Guesthouse coconut chutney above usually includes some green chilis and is greener and spicier than than the Food Court's chutney below.

Poori Bhaji

I have now completed my daily epic trilogy: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Divya weds Debmalya

The daughter of the chair of the Civil Engineering Department married this week.  The wedding was held at the Shri Gopalakrishna Temple in Mangalore, a city 30 minutes south of the Institute.  A lower floor has a dining room where breakfast was served to arriving guests and later lunch.  The floor above was for the ceremony.  The top floor was the temple. 

The ceremony is a lengthy (hours) process with many rituals that are directed by a Hindu priest.  There is a stage that is beautifully decorated with flowers at the front of the room.  Chairs in front of the stage seat whoever is not on the stage.   Unlike western weddings, the guests do not sit and watch all the ceremony to the exclusion of all else.  Guests socialize, visit the temple, eat downstairs, and come and go.  Family and friends go on the stage to take photos.  A band plays music simultaneous to and usually seemingly not synchronized with the ceremony.  Some of the rituals are familiar: rice is handed to everyone to throw to the couple on stage for good luck. 

The bride and groom are elaborately dressed.  So are family, some of whom stayed at the guesthouse.  I am relieved that the engineering professors who are not part of the ceremony are dressed as I am, like engineers (not shown).  There may be many cultural differences, but engineer attire is not one of them. 



Divya, Professor Shivashankar, Debmalya, priest



That evening there was music and a buffet dinner at a big reception room in one of the guesthouse buildings.  The next day the wedding party moved to Kolkata where his family resides.   

Lunch at the Food Court

The Food Court is the alternative dining spot to the guesthouse dining room.  I usually have lunch there because it is close to my office and it has some variety of vegetarian choices.  Here is the menu posted on the entry wall.  One US dollar is about 50 rupees. There are additional items on a piece of paper at the cashier.  Different items are available at different times and some items may be unavailable.   ‘Food Court’ is actually a single restaurant, not an American food court with several restaurants.  There are ample facilities to wash your hands.

You order and pay at the cashier, who gives you a slip you give to the guy at the counter.  From 12-1 there are no classes and the place is packed with students who chose not to eat at the hostel (dormitory) mega dining room that seats 2000.  I eat after 1PM.  All 6000 students live on campus.  The men are  mostly in several high rise hostels.  Women are 15-20% of the student body and have a separate living compound.

One of my favorite items is a masala dosa, a thin crunchy crepe with a spiced yummy potato and vegetable filling.  A good spicier variant is the Mysore masala dosa that has red chutney spread on the inside.  They are usually eaten for breakfast or a snack and are not available during the afternoon until after 3PM much to my disappointment.  The filling is in the center, so crease the ends with the side of your right hand, fold toward the center, start breaking off pieces, dip in the coconut curry.  It is served with sambar which can be used as a dip or eaten with a spoon. 

The Food Court also serves the basic South Indian lunch (see dinner post), a North Indian dinner (see menu above), uttappa (a flat thicker smaller diameter pour of the dosa batter topped with sauted onions, masala, tomato, or coconut), poori bahji (poori and masala), upma (breakfast or snack similar to thick grits in consistency but made with seminola, onion, nuts, raisens, and delicious spicing), and vegetarian Chinese food.  Lassi (delicious yogurt drink) and fresh squeezed fruit juices are served which I am told are very popular when it gets hot. 

Dinner at the guesthouse

Chapattis and bean curry

Dinner is traditional Southern Indian food from southern Karnataka.  It is simple vegetarian staples – rice and beans.  Dishes are well-spiced but not what I consider hot.  Lunch at the guesthouse is the same as dinner.  Pickle is a condiment that is a spicy hot red sauce that I find too salty.

The first course is chapattis and curry.  Chapattis is a round flat thin wheat bread similar to a thin flour tortilla.  The curry is a thick spiced stew that is a varying combination of lentils, a variety of beans, or potato.  It greatly differs from the curry at Thai restaurants that Americans are  familiar with.  The curry is the only dinner item that is new most evenings.  I have been told that the curry is usually fresh for lunch and reheated for dinner.  The curry is served in a pot with a serving spoon; spoon it on your plate.  The host serves you chapattis fresh from the kitchen by placing one or two on your plate.  With the right hand only, tear the chapattis by holding it down with 2 or 3 fingers and using the other 2 or 3 fingers to grab and pull off a piece. It requires some dexterity. Scoop up some curry and eat.  The curries are delicious and I think this is the best part of dinner.  I usually eat a relatively large first course and follow with smaller courses, the opposite of most guests.

Sambar on rice before mixing

The second course begins with boiled white rice.  A large pot of rice is on the table, spoon some on your plate.  Sambar, a spicy soup with some well-cooked vegetables at the bottom of the pot is spooned over the rice.  Mix with your right hand and eat, using finger tips, not the palm of your hand.  Sambar is also sometimes served with breakfast.  

The third course starts with more rice.  Rasam, a thinner differently spiced soup without vegetables served in a pot is spooned over the rice.  Mix with your right hand and eat similar to the second course.  Sambar has more body.  Rasam has a sharper spicing and does not have vegetables. I am not familiar with the spices so I cannot come up with better words to describe the difference.  I looked online and there does not seem to be a consensus on the difference or exact recipes. 

Clockwise: rice, sambar, and rasam

I have a high tolerance for good food monotony (30+ years of PBJ for weekday lunch), but each day I only eat lunch or dinner (usually dinner) at the guesthouse and I alternate either sambar or rasam on consecutive days.  They are good, but even I suffer from rice and soup fatigue.  Rice, I assume leftover from the previous night, is often cooked in an alternate form for breakfast. 

The fourth and final course is curd (yogurt), served in small cups.  The curd is strongly flavored and runny, so I pour it on rice, mix, and eat.  Alternatives are to drink it straight from the cup or eat it with a spoon. 

The Institute provides my meals at the guesthouse.  Other guests pay 30 Rupees for a meal, which is 60 US cents.

The food court where I usually have lunch has a similar meal for lunch and dinner.  They serve poori, a fried puffed bread, instead of chapattis. They add a vegetable side dish and onion cracker but do not serve sambar.  The cost is only Rs 20 but it is not all you can eat.  



Clockwise from 12 noon are rice, one onion cracker,

two poori, rasam, curd, veg palya,

curry (lentil, potato, and pea), and pickle. 

The guesthouse dining room

I love to eat, and overall the food has been wonderful and adventuresome.  It has not been too spicy for me. I am told that South Karnataka food is relatively mild Indian food because the weather is hot year-round.  Or perhaps living in Louisiana in the 1980s prepared me well. 

Each region of India is distinct and it shows in the dining room where visitors from all over India eat.  While eating in the guesthouse for two and a half weeks I have seen two Indians ask what was just put on their plate because they were completely unfamiliar with the traditional food served here.  And, except for the right hand rule, there are variations in how to eat food that depend on region and upbringing.  One older gentleman uses a spoon as much as possible at breakfast.  Curd (yogurt) is drunk from the individual serving cup, eaten with a spoon, or poured over rice (my favorite).  One younger man passes on the local first course of chapatis (flat wheat bread) and curry and proceeds to the second and third courses of soups on a mound of rice.  During breakfast some put the coconut curry in a shallow cup; most of us put it on our plate. 

I usually eat breakfast and dinner at the guesthouse and lunch at the campus food court.  I will have future posts on breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Mr. and Mrs. Vitlapur run the dining room.  Here they are in the lobby, where tea is served after breakfast and, if early, guests wait for the meal.  Kannada and English newspapers are provided. She is the cook and usually keeps to the kitchen and does not interact with guests.  He runs the guesthouses and serves.  They do not speak much English but are very nice.  Normally they do not serve on Sunday but I arrived Saturday night and they cooked breakfast and lunch for me my first blurry day.  If I show up during the day to fill my water bottle I am offered a cup of tea.  He showed me the Kannada article about my talk in Mangalore. 

This is the dining room.  Sometimes it is full, other times it is just me.  It is usually quiet -- when served it is time to eat.  Metal cups, purified water, spoons soaking in purified water, sugar, and pickle (hot and salty condiment) are on the table.

This is the room behind the glass in the dining room photo.  To the left is the sink to wash your hands if not washed prior to coming for a meal.  After the meal the right hand is washed off here.  Every eating place has a facility for hand washing.  Serving spoons and pots are handled with the left hand by guests.  Mr. Vitlapur serves with his right hand.  The tap water is not potable, but purification machines like the one to the right are in most campus buildings and provide safe drinking water. 

Yakshanaga

Some of the Department staff invited me to a Yakshagana performance at the staff quarters on campus Saturday night.  Yakshagana is a South Indian drama most similar to opera in the west that tells the story of good, represented by a Hindu God, conquering evil.  There are many troupes that travel around Southern India staging performances during the dry season. My friends Ivan and Yanesh joined me.  Before Yakshagana there was the pooja which is an offering of food to the God by the devotees (not Ivan, who is Swiss, or I).  The grounds outside feature about a 50 m circle delineated with lighted arches.  Inside there is a stage and at least a couple of hundred chairs.  Outside the circle are a large tent for pooja and a food serving area.  Once the pooja is done, everyone is served annaprasadam (dinner) beginning about 9PM and the troupe begins the initial show which I am told is primarily to entertain while everyone eats.  There are 1-4 percussionists, a narrator/singer, and 0-5 characters on stage at any time.  There is a mix of dialogue, dance, and music and the characters are elaborately dressed.  Men play the roles of women.  It is amplified and very loud.  This is a photo of the stage and an audio clip.

I learn that being a Visiting Fulbright Professor has its privileges: without asking the security chief moves us to the front of the food line shown in the photo.  The meal is traditional South Indian: pickle (hot and salty condiment), dahl (lentil curry), palya (spiced vegetable), rice, and rasam (soup/sauce for rice).  I’ll have more on food in later posts.  Find a seat and dig in with the right hand.  Dessert is laddu, a sweetened flour (probably chickpea or seminola) with coconut and nuts shaped as a ball and fried, and warm sweet wheat and rice pudding.  We don’t get dessert at the guesthouse so it is a treat. 

The main story begins about 1030PM when dinner is done.  The audience is large and attentive.  A little after 11PM two new characters make a dramatic entrance with full percussion, a band, the narrator/singer, fireworks overhead, and fire torches on the stage.  I just missed video of a flame thrown in front of the stage.  Here is a short video a moment later.  Everyone but Ivan and I is familiar with the story, which is told in Kannada.  Various people kindly try to keep us apprised of the plot.  We depart about 1130PM.  Yakashagana continues until about 6AM, a total of about 9 hours.  I occasionally hear the narrator until then in my room which is a 10-minute walk away.  At about 5 or 6 AM I was reminded that Indian society is composed of many cultures -- the nearby mosque’s first call for prayers was playing simultaneously with the finale of Yakshanaga. 

Is my name spelled correctly?

I gave a talk to the Mangalore Local Centre of the Institute of Engineers this week.  The meeting started with a snack of yummy fried chickpea balls and coconut curry and tea.  After a blessing for learning,  I was introduced and spoke for the requested 30 minutes mostly on California's water transfers and problems.  The 40 or so engineers in attendance were interested and we had a good discussion afterwards.  I was given a thank you gift wrapped in Christmas paper of cashews, a local delicacy. Someone had mentioned that a reporter was there.  I am told that this article in the 18 January Mangalore Udayavani newspaper summarizes my (English) talk about water transfers and some of California's water problems.  The article is in the local language of Kannada.  Signs here are a mix of Kannada and English. In 2001, one-quarter of all Indians speak more than one language and urban Indians were more likely to be multi-lingual.  English was India's second most popular language with 125 million speakers. Kannada was India's 8th most popular language with 51 million speakers. 

Are you ready for some cricket?

There are a couple of English language newspapers in the canteen lounge.  They have not had one word about American football. I went to nfl.com to see that the San Francisco 49ers won their first playoff game in thrilling fashion.  It may be big news in Northern California this week, but here there is zero coverage of the NFL here.  Cricket is the most popular sport and they are very upset about the test match results this month in Australia where India has been completely humiliated.  The fourth and final test starts January 24 in Adelaide.  Cricket terminology is a metaphor for all the things that go on here that I don’t understand and don’t need to understand to enjoy.  My favorite article from the Hindi News is below. 

Another bleak forecast for India

India's bowlers recaptured the spirit that had animated them in Melbourne to fight back on the second day of the third Test here at the WACA.

But such was the cumulative effect of their batsmen's failure, on the first day, and David Warner's balanced belligerence, spread across two and a half sessions, that despite managing 10 wickets for 155 runs, India trailed Australia by 208 on the first innings.

India had a session to bat on Saturday evening. And that's when the wretchedness of this tour, as if it were possible, grew even more miserable. Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, and V.V.S. Laxman left in such a hurry — hustled by pace and bounce, worked out by swing and control — that the mortifying possibility of a two-day finish loomed like a foul-smelling troll. India kept it at bay, only just.

Rahul Dravid (32 batting) and Virat Kohli (21 batting) took the touring side to stumps on 88 for four. Another 120 is needed to trouble Australia to bat again.

Carnatic music concert

After a sunset beach walk I ran into a friend at the guesthouse who told me there was a concert on campus so we went.  It was Carnatic folk music, traditional music from Southern India.  There were 4 musicians sitting on the floor of the stage playing from left to right percussion, a mouth harp (also called jaw or jew’s harp), flute, and a South Indian violin,   I enjoyed the music; play the audio clip.  There is a detailed history to the development and organization of the music, which the musicians referred to between songs but meant little to me.  There were perhaps 50 people at the concert and my friend said it was poorly attended because it was not publicized.  He found out about it from the musicians who were staying near him at the guesthouse.  Normally the 200+ seat auditorium is packed for such an event.  Most of the attendees were young ~20 year old engineering students at this top rung technical school with western clothes and smartphones.  They seem to embrace both technology and their culture and traditions.  Just after we leave the students stage a huge week long cultural festival on campus that draws thousands of students from around the country. 

First week highlights

In roughly chronological order:

·       Concluding travel to NITK and sleeping

·       Walking on the beach: see 'The beach' post

·       Skype: After breakfast (9AM) I get to see and talk to Kathy (730PM).

·       Meeting the faculty: they are dedicated, smart, friendly, jovial, and helpful.  I enjoy tea with them after morning lectures.

·       Meeting the students: they are curious, respectful, hard working, and helpful.  0.1% of undergraduate applicants to NITK are admitted and attend, so they are appreciative of the opportunity they have.  For comparison, 10% of UC Davis applicants are admitted and attend. 

·       The sign above my office is cool.  See 'First day on the job' post.

·       Settling into the guesthouse: I spent the first week figuring out a routine/lifestyle that works for me.  I’ll write more on food later but the campus is entirely very vegetarian, not too spicy, breakfast is the best meal, lunch and dinner essentially are the same and do not change,  but late in the week I figured out a good alternative and a source for fruit.  I am healthy and clothes, room, and I are clean.

·       Tea with milk: really good and social, I have it after breakfast, after morning lectures with the faculty, at the start of seminars and meetings, and when the opportunity arises.

·       Shiva festival: see post

·       My first weekend: after a whirlwind 10 days, it has been nice to relax and regroup in a now familiar place.

Shiva festival



An Applied Mechanics post-graduate student who is temporarily housed in the guest complex and taking his meals at the canteen I go to invited me to walk with him to a nearby temple for the Hindu god Shiva.  There is an annual 5-day long festival there.  Shiva resides in the temple (a gold figure I believe) and is brought out once a year at the festival to meet the people.  After dinner, about 9PM, we were walking to the temple next to the highway and heard a procession coming from another temple, so we waited for it to pass.  They take up one lane of a 4-lane highway.  There are about 100 people, 4 fire batons twirling in the front, 2 bands, fire crackers, an occasional fireworks fountain, a decorated jeep with flood lights, and a few other items of special significance: a crate carried on top of a man's head, torches with fire, and a 1 meter diameter gold and cloth emblem.  Drums and horns consantly play -- hear audio below.  They enter the temple gounds, fireworks go off to welcome them, and they slowly proceed up into the temple building.  At the open ground outside the temple there are hundreds of people, vendors, 2 small stages, and a bunch of plastic chairs. 

Occasionally there is a short skit on one stage telling part of the story of Shiva.  And there is an occasional aerial or fountain firework set off.  We wander around and eat some delicious warm wheat pudding.  The procession comes out of the temple, still playing, and goes to the other stage where the elders perform a ceremony while the bands play to the ceremony.  My video of the crowd watching the ceremony was poor so for those of you with slow internet (I feel your pain), the photo below will play audio only.

The main event is yet to happen and is scheduled to last until 2AM, so I walk back to my room.  My host, being gracious, joins me.  At 545AM I wake up to hear the procession heading back to their temple along the highway, horns and drums still playing.  The festival was fun.  The combination of ancient religious customs and modern lighting (and likely behind the scenes cell phone communication) seems to symbolize modern India. 

Shiva's carriage.  The wood base has intricate carving.



Shiva temple