Hello

Diana and I have now been in Kerala for a few days. Kerala had greeted us with thunder and rain but it also offered us a wonderful surprise as we had unwittingly arrived just in time to witness a Hindu temple festival.

A small crowd had gathered in front of our hotel. We decided to hang around certain – as you often are when a crowd gathers in the middle of nowhere – that something was about to happen. Sure enough, before too long, a procession led by three huge elephants showed up. Shuffling at a slow pace, the beasts stopped at every other corner to bless the families, who eagerly awaited them with offerings. We followed them, curious to see what would happen at every corner, but with the soft rain pouring relentlessly, we decided to get a rickshaw and bypass the activity to reach the temple three kilometres away.

The temple was so small that we actually missed it. We should have known that the huge crowd of what seemed to be thousands of people was our destination. There were people dressed up as monkeys with very fine face make-up representing Hanuman the Hindu god – half monkey half man. Bands played different Indian music and stalls sold all kind of spicy food and sweets. It was like a village festa in Malta. The only difference was that rather than celebrate a martyred saint they where celebrating their favourite Hindu god Ganish, god of wisdom and prosperity – half man, half elephant.

At the rate the elephants where moving, I figured that it would take them over three hours to get to the temple. I was about to start making my way around the stalls when an elephant’s trunk caught my attention. It was undulating somewhere behind the crowd, and I walked to have a closer look. As we crossed the sea of people, we found ourselves in another square: a square full of elephants!

No less than 70 beasts – all males – dressed in red and gold stood before us. They stood in lines next to each other and, sitting on top of the elephants, were two people holding holy icons with a tremendous sense of importance. Meanwhile, the elephants munched lazily on coconut leaves, occasionally releasing impressive amounts of urine and giant stools, the size of footballs. The whole scene was so funny I ran around with a grin on my face like a child in an amusement park, snapping photos until my battery went dead.

After a while, a loud voice echoed in the square and the elephants started moving one after each other. I realised that they were actually numbered and formed a very long line starting from number 4. (Numbers 1, 2 and 3 were still on their way).

Once it had unfolded, the procession extended over two miles. In the front there was the holy statue of the celebrated god. This was followed by colourful floats depicting holy scenes with people dressed up as gods. Dancers and bands were the next in line, and finally the 70 elephants with different icons, representing some of the 330 million varieties of reincarnations of the Hindu gods and goddesses. The last elephant was a baby and upstaged the whole parade. As nobody was riding him he never stood in line and muddled absentmindedly around at the back with the food he had picked up from the square.

Coming from the media industry, I should not have been surprised to see sponsorship notices. Yet somehow it just seemed so odd: The float carrying the god Krishna actually had a billboard on each side with a body builder advertising the local Fitness Centre! In the middle of the holy trail of elephants, elephant No 47 was actually wrapped in a banner advertising the latest brand of computers! I found the whole thing hilarious! Giggling to myself I started to imagine altar boys back in Malta with a “sponsored by lager” sign stitched to their robes, or one of the proud men in our local processions carrying the Vodafone or Go Mobile flag!

The streets of Verkala were paralysed for hours by this heavy traffic of culture. Never before was I so glad to be in a traffic jam!

Take care,

Dery