Savita Iyengar, Guruji’s youngest daughter, invited us to her home on campus to check out and purchase sarees if anyone needed one for the pitru paksha ritual. I didn’t need one but attended anyways.
The next morning we had to be up early and ready to go. It was arranged for us to have a woman arrive at 8am to help put our sarees on. It’s a very complicated process. A saree is basically a long “sheet” of material that is wrapped around, pleated to shorten the fabric and then a remaining portion which is prettier, sometimes with tassels, is draped over the right shoulder.
I thought I was clever by putting my own saree on without assistance. It looked great until I was told the sash goes over the left shoulder, not the right.
I was one of the first people to the lobby and instead of waiting for the woman to help, I stopped one of the working ladies headed to her job in the kitchen. She got me all fixed up. By the time she was done, a long line had formed, so she began helping the next person in line, then the next, and the next, and the next, etc.
This lady fixed ALL our sarees! The other lady who was supposed to do it never showed up. The following photo is our new friend taking care of one of the ladies’ saree. You can see how long the saree is before it’s wrapped.
At the Pitru Paksha Ritual
My friend Mimi was on my left, and Bonnie, my roommate, was on my right.
The celebration was wonderful. We had a plate of prasadam (rice, black sunflower seeds, bananas, etc.) for offering to the pitris (ancestors) for purification of the lineage. I was limited in the photos I was able to take, so this is all I can share. There are also a lot of details I will leave out, but I can say that it was very auspicious.
Typical afternoon
These two men serve our breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, always with a smile on their faces. The orange food on the plate was deep fried plantains. It was the best treat!
And here’s a typical spread of food. This was lunch. Dal is served at every meal. Delicious freshly made yogurt is served every day with lunch and dinner for digestion. I don’t know what the name is for most of the foods I’ve eaten, but it’s all been really good. Everything is made fresh and according to the Iyengars’ strict Ayurvedic diet – no meat. Sometimes a bit spicy for me, but still very good.
After lunch a few of us went for a walk around campus. This first photo is for the grandkids. (They’ll understand)
One of the ladies in our group was feeding bananas to this monkey. Evidently she didn’t understand what a nuisance monkeys can be! The next day, my roommate was sitting on the veranda of our room and a monkey came right up and sat on the ledge! She said she looked out and there were about 14 monkeys hanging around! Then we found out that our neighbors had a monkey come into their room while they were in there and rummaged through their trash can!
That’s it for today. It’s 2:30pm here (2am where you are). We’re given a two hour break every day, so I’m going to take a small nap before going back into the practice hall for lecture.
Oh! Tomorrow is our last full day here in Bellur. Tuesday morning we will get up, eat breakfast and head to the Bangalore airport and begin the second leg of our journey, first to Chennai by plane, then travel through southern India by bus. Hopefully I’ll have time to keep you updated along the way.
Blogged on Amma’s iPad and iPhone with love!
