Superstition and Birthdays

November 20^th

Well, I am not blogging well this time around! I have a feeling that this blog will be more of a list of ramblings then anything else. There is not a lot that is new to me here so I have fewer things to reflect upon then I did two years ago during my first visit. Since Praveen doesn’t make it home much we really just want to concentrate on spending as much time with his family as possible.

We may do something but at this point I am not sure what. One thing that we are planning which I am excited about is a trip to the leaf reader. There is apparently someone here who claims that thousands of years ago some amazing person was given the gift to know the future of every soul on earth. He wrote down everyone’s future on palm leaves. To find the leaf with your future, they need your finger print, what time you were born and some other random info. Apparently they don’t have everyone’s leaves-- only those who have pervious lives of a certain spiritual status. Anyway, we are going to go to this man and see what he has to say.

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That is one thing about this part of the world that is very interesting. It seems to be very superstitious. Praveen’s parents had a visit from an architect yesterday who has suggested some major structural changes to the house in order to increase good luck. Praveen’s father would really like to make the changes, but is being pressured by both his children not to. There is a laundry list of things that have been tried over the years including butchering goats and various prayers and pilgrimages. It seems when things are going right it is believed that the reason why is because of all these adjustments. The things that go wrong are blamed on not enough adjustments.

Praveen’s uncle, who is a doctor, told us that when his house was built a few years ago a priest came over with a cow. The priest let the cow wonder around the house walking all over the very high-end floor. The cow climbed up the stairs and back down and finally back through the living room without leaving a scratch. The cow crossed back to the center of the living room and took a big dump and pee right in the middle!!! The priest said, of course, “this is very good luck!” The priest then said that the mess needed to be left for a full day AND Praveen’s uncle needed to sleep that night in the living room. The next day some girls were sent over to clean the mess. Wow!!! That’s all I can say!

Anyway, I wouldn’t say I lack superstition. I have been to card readers, palm readers and had my fair share of interesting encounters. I do believe in reincarnation, karma, clairvoyance, and energy among other things. I also think that if something has been practiced for thousands of years there may be some merit to it.

Yesterday was a long social day. Socializing always wears me out more then anything else. I am always trying to figure out what people are saying because even though most people in the South speak English often time it is difficult to understand each other. Praveen’s Grandfather, who is one of the most important figures in the family, had an 80^th birthday celebration. Praveen’s grandfather lives in a neighboring state called Kerala, which is my favorite state in India thus far. It is really beautiful. There are lots of trees and greenery. I can’t say I have been around much of Tamil Nadu, the state where Praveen’s parents live, but what I have seen of it doesn’t do much for me. The town is large but nothing like an American city. It is very dusty, dirty and well “developing.” The parts of India that I have really enjoyed have been either the ‘back’ country, like Sampath’s farm, the back waters (of Kerala), or some of the more decorative towns like Jaipur. What is important about Coimbatore is the people and that is why we are here. Being able to spend time with his family has been really, really beautiful.

Okay, so back to the birthday party. The family hired some traditional dance group to come and perform a story. Normally this dance is five hours long. It has a lot of singing and acting, but few people understand the language because it is a much more traditional formal dialect then they speak. Luckily the group has a written version of the story in English so you can follow along. Praveen’s mother talked them into reducing the time down to 3 hours, which is the shortest time they would agree to. I mostly kept myself occupied playing with my cute niece and nephews, who I truly adore.

After the play we had a traditional Kerala style lunch which was very similar to the meal we had at our wedding. It was various chutneys served on a banana leaf that you eat, of course, with your hands. Eating with your hands is one of the interesting things about the south and I hadn’t done it since our last trip to India, but I quickly found some nail clippers and adjusted.

I really do like south Indian style food. It does have to grow on you though. Many of the things I love now, I had no taste for the first few times I ate them. Thank god too that I like it because there really are no other alternatives and this trip could be really miserable other wise.