7.7.11. 6:33AM. Day 6. Cliche.

So it's not raining this morning, but it is really cool - almost cold. Amazing. It's still very cloudy so there is always hope.

 Hopefully it doesn't rain when Dr. Muthu is going to show us where the one internet cafe is around here. We actually stumbled upon it the day before I got sick, but it said "internet phone calls" so i wanted clarification before we went in. He said he would take us both shopping, and to the internet cafe and talk to the proprieters to give us good deals. He's cool like that. Hooking us up.

Even this early there seems to be more busyness about than usual. The smell of incense at first wafted in through the door, but is now a permanent fixture. Yesterday, flags all but magically appeared along the street walls. They replaced the wheeled gate in front of the Ashram with a sturdier whelded gate. We could tell something big was going to happen...We asked  the French lady from our yoga class if she knew what the flads were for and I only caught the second half of what she said, but it went something like this (with a French accent), "They are for the ones who are coming. They come from the mountains at night - thousands of them, and they all come into the city wearing this color (touching the orange on the flag). Their whole families come, but their women stay in the mountains. they can get so loud, I was here last year at this time, and they frightened me with their wild screams Do not go out at night. it would be too dangerous!"

And sure enough when we were coming back from our pre-dinner walk we noticed a lot more men with the orange cloth doing the ceremony. I guess they'd been trickling in over the past few days, but now they are coming in greater numbers. We even saw a van with a "PRESS" sticker on the windshield not long after our straight from the movies ominous warning.

We are not sure what is coming but we are both curious and pleasantly scared. We don't feel too threatened because we usually call it a night after dinner at 7:30. I've decided to ask Dr. Muthu about it today after the lecture. I'm sure he'll be able to give us a clearer answer.

2:04PM. More Monkey Business.

So today Dr. Muthu talked about massage thereapy. He listed a few, but he mainly focused on Sweedish since that's what they specialize in at this center. He further broke it down to full body, general, and parical. Then he described the different hand movements of massage, and there were  quite a few. After our lecture we asked him about the flags. He had apparently not noticed them because he gave us an unclear look. Then we summed up what Frenchie told us yesterday and once he realized what we were talking about, he waved it off saying that the flags were in preparation for some political leaders who were going to come to the city in a few days (8th and 9th to be exact). He said that it had nothing to do with wild, forest men. Though not nearly as amusing, I found this story both more credible and believeable. So there is that.

But before this were were having breakfast in our room, and after we had finished we were just lounging around. Mary was writing in her journal and i was absent mindedly looking through the camera photos, when out of nowhere a mother monkey, with her baby hanging upside down, slowly walks into view from the little anti-room our our room. i notice them first and just kind of stare. No noise. Just an unregistering look. The mother still creeps uneasily closer and still I sit there, with camera still in hand, on playback mode, and finally Mary notices. She reacts, "Oh my GOD!" gets up and begins to try to shoo the monkeys back outside. The moter monkey turns around and begins to walk back out the door unphased by the shooing. it was pretty much at that point when it finally dawned on me that a monkey had just walked into our room...walked right in...calmly, quietly....walked...right...in. And I had the camera turned on, in my hands and I DIDN'T TAKE A PICTURE!!! Epic fail on my part. I was practically all but given a freaking monkey and I just sat there and stared at it. Ugh, and they were so cute too..

2:33PM. Pooja

So after our lecture, Mary and I had previously decided that we were going to go up to the temple in the top of the hill. She had already been there a few days ago, the day i was sick i believe, and she said that the views were amazing. And that  they had her do a ritual where you bow to stuff, you ring bells, they give you some little white things to eat, you're supposed to drink the water, and then they put a little red dot on your forehead. And i said, "oh, that sounds like a pooja - I want to go." She also told me about  the kinda creepy priest man who doesn't seem to know the American standard of appropriate touching because he made her very uncomfortable. but she brushed it off and was totally willing to go back with me again today.

On we went up the hill. It was all paved, and a relatively short and easy climb but by the first 100 feet I was sweating buckets, and it only got worse. It took maybe 10 minutes to walk there but I think this afternoon was one of the most humid so far. either the road was very steep or the temple only appeared to be far off in the distance because we were there in no time at all. There was one of the few signs in English that we saw all week, it said: THIRTEEN STORIED/ SRI BHOOT NATH TEMPLE,

 and sure enough we climbed round and round, up and up, with each rotation of the staircase the view of Rishi down below got more and more amazing. Finally we finshed the  the very steeply inclined steps and we reached the 13th story where the temple priest was. He was a fairly frail looking old man, short and bald with white stubble. he welcomed us into the little shrine area tjat was devoted to Shiva and asked us if we could like a pooja and we said yes! He came and sat down next to us in front of the statue of Shiva and took out what Dr. Muthu said was probably siolidified ghee with a wick, and he lit it. he circled the saucer with the flaming ghee in front of Shiva then had us do it too. Then he lit some insense, cirlced it in front of Shiva and then gave the sticks to us so we culd do the same. After, he took some red paste stuff and put a dot of it on our foreheads. We made a donation and then he gave us mala beads (prayer beads) and put them over our heads. In my case, he felt so inclined  to actually tuck it in under my shirt collar. We shook his and and said Namaste and then goodbye. We stood outside  for a bit looking at the view from the tippy top and then he showed up again asking if we wanted a picture of the view. Mary all of a sudden seemed in a hurry and we said no thank you, and went on our way down about 3 stories to where there was a bigger terrace with lots more bells. After a few moments he appaeared again and told us to follow him. He unlocked this little white retractable gate thing from the buidling and told us to enter. At this point we're both like: uhhhhh...., but then we followed anyway. there was another shrine and this time, he told us,  it was devoted to his guru, who had apparently long since passed away. He said this place was off limits to everyone else. "Special for you." he said with a fairly toothless grin. the gesture was genuine enough and we felt very moved that he decided to show us this place that was so scred to him. It was again time to say goodbye and he stuck out his bony old hand to Mary, who took it,  and he pulled her in for a hug. THis hug seemed a little off to me but I couldn't quite place the reason why. He let her go and as she walked back through the gate he stuck out his hand for mine. Hesitantly, I obliged, and this old man has quite a firm grasp and clasped my had and began drawing me in. he hugged me and then - he....I don't know how else to explain it other than....he buried his face in that nook between my shoulder and neck and then...he smelled me. He released me barring his toothless smile. I jumped thought the gate to where Mary was, we waved and quickly walked down the rest of the steps. We were never afraid, nor did we ever feel threatened. we just decided that his was how he perceived Americans say goodbye. he knew that here was a handshake and he also knew that there was a hug. The problem was, especially with Mary's encounter a few days before, that he didn't know that some kinds of touch are not appropriate - especially on the first pooja.