25th January 2019

25th January 2019
In which I will spare you the full Suresh-explanation of what happens at Kali-Amman 

Today was set aside for a visit to Santi's family in Seetaramanpet because it is the beginning of several days of the festival of Kali-Amman. This goddess is the one special to the village, but her statue/ shrine is in Kavanur. During these few days every year she is brought back to her native village where she is greeted with fire crackers, drumming, pipe music and animated dancing. She is paraded through the village slowly street by street and at each house gifts are offered to her, offerings of coconuts, bananas, and money. We wondered where that money goes...? This we witnessed happening outside Suresh's house. We also witnessed someone having a pot of turmeric water poured over her head- we understood this was for cleansing purposes. Suddenly in the midst of the music, the heat, the dancing ( see photo of Brian Morris getting into the groove) one woman - a family member I think- suddenly went into a frenzy of screaming and thrashing and hurling herself about. Several people together tried to calm her, but this proved impossible. Then, after quite a few minutes of this, suddenly she returned to normal. Supposedly the goddess had taken possession of her. 

Suresh and Vijaya Kumari had planned to renew their marriage vows in front of Kali Amman and a family special celebration was to happen. However just a few days earlier Santi's 97 year old mother in law  had died, so the family was in mourning and thus the celebration was considered inappropriate. It will happen next year perhaps. Whilst Santi prepared her lovely food for us Suresh was designated to entertain us. Goodness me, that man can talk! Janice succeeded the most convincingly in appearing to stay with him as he detailed all his theories about yoga ( of which he is now an instructor) and the Meaning of Life. I could not help smiling at the thought of Sceptical Scientist, my usual companion on this trip, and what he'd have made of it all. One thing is for sure, religion, ceremony and festivals/ rituals are absolutely integral to the daily lives of these Indians. We heard that the whole thing gets out of hand by evening time, with the drinking of alcohol by the village men leading to all manner of wildness. We were glad to get home for a quiet lie-down and leave the youth to their excitement. 

 

This is Santi's youngest girl Veejayalackshmi who is home from Chennai with her gorgeous 8 month old Abisha. 

The goddess being carried through the village.