On Saturday we met early to take the city bus into Udapi. We wandered the streets a bit until we reached a restaurant where we enjoyed buns (a lot like Kenyan mandazi’s) and dosas. Afterwards we walked to a nearby Krishna temple, thousands of years old and famous in the region. Festival carts lined the streets outside the temple and cows wandered about. The Krishna idol in the temple is “dressed up” in various ways depending on the day or time of year. Today he was dressed in a suit made entirely of diamonds. While you had to peer at it from a distance behind bars, it was incredibly beautiful. We circumambulated the structure and painted powder on our foreheads. Outside it looked like some big event was starting as people began to gather. From the festival cart sacred coins, fruit, and other things were thrown into the crowd. Soon the mass of people began to drag the cart through the streets, preceded by a huge elephant dressed in a colorful blanket. We were lucky to be there on a day when so much was happening!
Afterwards, we saw the cow stable before catching rickshaws to Big Bazar, the Target(ish) of Udapi. I bought four new kurtas, a pair of balloon-like pants, and a new towel (my travel towel just wasn’t going to cut it). We then rode back to the art gallery to drop off our stuff for the rest of the day and have the artist we met last night draw us our own individual pictures. He drew me picture of Ganesha, the elephant God. It was amazing to watch him draw it, you can just see how incredibly talented and visionary he is.
After the gallery we walked about fifteen minutes to another nearby temple where the head of the Ayurveda department who will teach some of our classes was having a Puja done. He was recently promoted to head of the department and wanted to receive good blessings and clear obstacles from his path. We watched the ceremony and then joined the crowd for a traditional meal served on banana leaves. The food was much different than the Indian food we had eaten before. We ate with our hands and tried tons of new dishes, most of which were delicious.
Later, we took rickshaws to a law college in Udapi to hear a talk by a human rights organization about doctor patient relationships, primarily doctor negligence and patient rights. Our rickshaw driver got lost on the way there and didn’t understand English so we waited by the side of the road for someone to walk by who knew English and could translate our directions. Fortunately though, Katie Jo called and had someone on the line that could explain it in Kannada, the local language of Karnataka. The talk was extremely long and a lot of us were forcing ourselves not to fall asleep in the beginning, but he brought up a lot of interesting points. When it was finally over we took the bus back to Manipal for a much needed break and dinner.
Afterwards, we saw the cow stable before catching rickshaws to Big Bazar, the Target(ish) of Udapi. I bought four new kurtas, a pair of balloon-like pants, and a new towel (my travel towel just wasn’t going to cut it). We then rode back to the art gallery to drop off our stuff for the rest of the day and have the artist we met last night draw us our own individual pictures. He drew me picture of Ganesha, the elephant God. It was amazing to watch him draw it, you can just see how incredibly talented and visionary he is.
After the gallery we walked about fifteen minutes to another nearby temple where the head of the Ayurveda department who will teach some of our classes was having a Puja done. He was recently promoted to head of the department and wanted to receive good blessings and clear obstacles from his path. We watched the ceremony and then joined the crowd for a traditional meal served on banana leaves. The food was much different than the Indian food we had eaten before. We ate with our hands and tried tons of new dishes, most of which were delicious.
Later, we took rickshaws to a law college in Udapi to hear a talk by a human rights organization about doctor patient relationships, primarily doctor negligence and patient rights. Our rickshaw driver got lost on the way there and didn’t understand English so we waited by the side of the road for someone to walk by who knew English and could translate our directions. Fortunately though, Katie Jo called and had someone on the line that could explain it in Kannada, the local language of Karnataka. The talk was extremely long and a lot of us were forcing ourselves not to fall asleep in the beginning, but he brought up a lot of interesting points. When it was finally over we took the bus back to Manipal for a much needed break and dinner.