BUCKET BATH OR SACRED BATH?

Tuesday, I spent the greater part of the day in Delhi, meeting with members of the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Delhi-West. It was nice to be able to re-kindle old friendships and to make some new ones. Since I have been coming to India (2001), I have enjoyed wonderful friendships with members of this Rotary Club and have completed two Matching Grant projects with them, this current one in Chahalka Village being the third.

When I returned from Delhi, Sanjiv and I drove to the farm and joined the other members of the team for relaxation and attitude adjustment, followed yet again by another sumptuous repast – dinner on the patio under the stars, and the watchful eye of the MIR space station. We returned to our motel, picked up our keys at the front desk and settled in for another night’s sleep, before leaving again in the morning for breakfast.

We boarded the bus following our breakfast for the ride into the village, and when we arrived at the site, I was amazed and impressed as to the progress made the previous day. When we first arrived on the previous Sunday, there was nothing more than a trench ditch marking where the boundary walls would be erected. Not only had we dumped rocks and then crushed gravel into those ditches, and poured the masala over it to form the base for the footing and foundation, but also bricks were now showing above grade! Huge progress in just a couple of days.

When we broke for lunch, we returned once more to the farm for our now-routine garden lunch, out near the coy pond. Sanjiv suggested we might be interested in traveling into Sohna and visiting a Hindu temple there. The temple had been constructed at the site of natural hot springs. The mythology is that a monk had sat at the base of a banyan tree, and perhaps his spirit had been responsible for the existence of the hot springs. These springs provided restorative powers to the faithful. As a tribute to this monk, the people built a temple surrounding the banyan tree and the place where the monk sat every day. Sanjiv took us to visit that temple and to see the hot springs within the temple. Within, there are several small shrines to the various manifestations of Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna – Ganesha and the monkey god, and many others.

When we entered the temple, we were to leave our shoes outside at the shoe-check. Some of us went barefoot, while others preferred to keep socks on. Dianne did not have socks, so she was able to tie plastic baggies over her feet. The central courtyard area had two pools, where once people came to bathe in the hot springs. Now only one of those pool areas is used. There were four or five young men standing down in the pool, washing themselves. Sanjiv told us we would have an opportunity to bathe in the healing waters, if we wanted to do so. Chris tried to purchase a towel at a shop outside the gate, but the towel was dirty, so he took a pass on buying it. Even for eighty rupees (about $2.00 USD) Chris felt it not with the investment. I had brought a towel from our motel, so I was set to go. We walked around the central area, went to a screened window area, where we were able to actually feel the steam from the hot sulfur springs rising through the screen. It was really quite warm. Some of the ladies in our group walked up the stairs to another area, where it was separate from where the men bathe. Sean and I purchased tickets (20 rupees each) for a private room where we could enjoy the hot springs and stay there for twenty minutes. Although it was not the cleanest shower room, we were able to bathe away from the public pool area for men. Sitting down into the pool (about 18 inches of very warm water) we experienced the sulfur and the heat of the water. There was a metal dipping pail that I took and filled from a small spigot, with quite warm water and poured it over my head. I had a fairly strong headache for most of that morning and early afternoon, and still had it when we arrived at the temple. Pouring the hot water over my head couldn’t hurt, so I did it four or five times while relaxing in the pool. We dried off and met the rest of the group back in the courtyard. Each time I poured the hot water over my head, the headache seemed to lessen. By the time we left that area, and walked around outside for a while, my headache disappeared and never returned. Our teammates were outside and enjoying a sweet dessert.

We then entered an area where the banyan tree and a statue of the monk were located. The priest offered prayers for each of us and put a teeka or bindi on each of our foreheads. We also had the opportunity to offer prayers, as well as some puffed rice to the images of the gods. In one or two of the smaller shrines, priests were inside bathing the gods with water, buttermilk and honey. They then dressed each of the gods before they went back to sleep. The reverence and respect shown by each of these priests was heartwarming, at least to me.

We left this area and Sanjiv stopped and explained the representations of these various gods, depicted in painted tiles on the walls. Each of us was able to walk away with a bit more knowledge of the mythology surrounding Hinduism. Several of us followed the practice of Sanjiv and his sister-in-law, Ollie (Shamoli) and rang the elephant bells hanging down from the ceilings. We left the temple, picked up our shoes and after every member wiped his or her feet on my towel, before going back out onto the narrow, winding street, put our shoes on. My towel look like it had been dragged through the muddy streets, and hopefully the manager at the motel would not be too upset with me for returning it in that condition.

Walking along the streets, we became the attraction for the natives of the city, with stares coming left and right. We entered a few shops, stopped by one or two jewelers to see their necklaces and bracelets – all of which we learned were “demonstration” pieces, the real ones kept in the safes behind the jewelers. We had all seen them being worn by some of the women in Chahalka, and wanted to find out the cost, IF they were crafted of solid gold, which we were told most were, the cost would be about $2,000 USD. It is no wonder the women wore them and never took them off from around their necks. Sean and Chris both donned garlands made especially for grooms at weddings, that were crafted from stapling rupee notes together. Some were made of ten rupee notes, others from twenties, and some actually were made of one hundred rupee notes. These kind of reminded me of the “dollar dance” which is often a feature of weddings in America.
After picking up a few snacks in one of the shops, we returned to the bus that was parked out in front of a Sikh temple. We got back to the motel about twenty minutes later for an hour rest, before returning to the farm for another starlight dinner.