House Blessiings started

The Blessings have started....first last night we had to assemble the things for Puja [which I guess is like praying, conecting to the Gods]. We had to bring everything with us from town and the plates to put the puja on were forgotten- oops. Luckily I had my gelhari hangers there and could use those plates. After this we are going to have extra special gelhari feeders....

When the musician started Praveen and I sat with a Pandit at a little alter and repeated an invocation- mostly these things are beautiful but there are moments when I find things a little daunting- mostly I have little idea what is going on and so don't know the right responces [and the music was VERY loud so hard to hear]....still with help it went fine.

Relief afterwards when I could sit down to listen.

The musicians were wonderful, I wish I understood sanskrit- even verse books were given out to follow along but my Hindi reading is so slow I can only get every 10th word or so !! The story of Hanuman was the theme for these songs...why he was chosen I have yet to find out but I love his story and  am happy with the choice. He is the Monkey God, through his love of Rama he rose above his animal nature and attained the the stature of the gods- a good story for us all; through love, loyalty and our own endeavours we can all rise up in our lives;

I was born on a Tuesday- the day special to Hanuman...

After a few hours of singing his story we did another puja, first Praveen and I then our guests participated in this, below is Mukesh who will be our caretaker [sounds a bit posh to me but it is necessary to have someone who knows the place to look after gardens and security when we are away- he seems a very nice natured young man]

Then young Uraj, the biggest boy of our friends Pananlal and Kanchen had his turn, 11.30 pm and he was as bright as a button, this kids loves to work...he ran around taking water to guests a few times, delivered chai and blessed sweets to everyone just after this- gorgeous boy.

These young men are our electricians, when I first met them I thought they were too young to know what they were about- but they have done many things for us over the years and a very good at their work- they are doing their work in the nights because we have uninterupted power supply then, half of each day we are without power due to government rashioning.

I really appreciate the internet, it has allowed me to share this with so many people near and dear to me and yet very far away....it has also allowed me to become aware of other 'unknown  friends' who have come out of the woodwork to wish us well.

Thank you to everyone....

It is 6.00am [we got home at 1.00 am last night] now,  Praveen has just gone to prepare the fire for the next stage of ceremonies around 8.00am and then there is a dinner tonight.

Hindu ceremonies are beautiful but very demanding- image 9 days of various things for a wedding?

Rain clouds blanket the sky- really, really overcast which is not something I have seen before in India, we are trying so hard to tempt them to be bountious. Last night in our village, we are about 1 kilometre along the road but it is our village still,  there was a procession from the temple through town with fire and insence and chanting ,also calling on the Gods to be generous.

Indra is the God of fire and the clouds are seen as his cows- call your cows up please :)