Ganesha Puja in Cabella: Part 2/4

Saturday Evening - Weddings

The unique weddings are now coming to an end with the 90! or so couples lining up to receive silver gifts. Many aspects of the marriages are completely refreshing. Firstly, the grooms arrived on horse drawn cart, back of a farm
tractor and other out of the world vehicles!

Then at the conclusion they read out wishes from 4 to 10 year old children of the new centrassi school. all were cute, genuine and somewhat mature coming from a young cohort of sahaja yogi children. A sampler from memory:

"Wish you many good childeran' not naughty".

"What is outside is not important, what's important is inside."

"Have a lovely wedding."

"Never be angry, always love each other."

The couples have been just instructed to start composing couplets and
qawwali singers from Romania are making their way to the stage. The
newly weds will have their first meal together as a couple.

The night is young.

-r

Ganesha Puja in Cabella: Part 1/4

Saturday (Marriages Morning)

We've been here since last evening, but it feels like a month's worth of excitement has been imbibed. Yesterday 112 marriages were announed with 92 or so actually expected to happen in a few hours.

This puja has a special tinge of Romanian hosting to it, compared to Australian hosted Ganesha pujas I've attended. However the highlight of yesterday's evening of mehendi was music by the Hong Kong /Chinese collective.

It was a personal explosion of joy to see a Romanian presentation of interpretive dance to khalil gibran's poems. I had just finished reading gibran's "thoughts and meditations" on the way to cabella.

This morning was haldi, and those who know cabella, know that the river turns a deep shade of yellow and the haldi party's noise echoes in the valley. I am yet to meet my "daughter" whom I have to give away in marriage later. I was "voluntold" to be a "father of the bride" last night.
Many Americans on the list, which of course adds to the excitemnt.

More later,
From the lunch queue

Gondhali

Gondhali, we are gondhali
Mother Nirmala's gondhali,
We are our mother,s gondhali

Gondhali, smearing some haldi
On grooms to be
For the world to see

We are gondhali by name,
Taking our time to go insane,
In our holy mother's name
We announce our devotedness

We are yearning for attention
But only the divine kind
We are waiting for perfection
For enlightening our minds

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Chinese version of mauli ne thothavile daar

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Another egg falls

Today, I saw another egg,
Attracted by a fatal incline
Made its way, heeding mental notions
Towards a slope that ends in a precipice

The egg, bound to smash,
Would release the bird within
But the shell has to die
And suffer the illusion of pain

Fights for the soul are as such futile,
They are only won,
By avoiding them

I see another, bird enter a cage
And await the spikes to pierce
The spike comes down,
But the bird goes on, staring in disbelief

I asked the bird, if he can extract,
This straw of deadly pain
And choose quick surgery,
Over slow death

The human mind, feeble,
As I have seem my own
Chooses slow sweet poison
Over quick bitter medicine

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High fly cafe

Yogis, waiting point at Malpensa airport.

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The journey begins at DTW

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