Thaipusam

January 30th

Before I go back in time and catch up on some of the missed adventures, I wanted to write about today's events while they are fresh in my mind. Today I met up with my friend AJ from work to check out the festival Thaipusam. It is a Hindu festival honoring the God Murugan where you ask for his blessing. Apparently his blessing doesn't come easy. Many devotees carry a "burden" which manifests in the form of pots filled with milk that are carried from one temple to another...in this case 4 kilometers. AJ himself did this at 3:00 am to avoid the crowds. Others who are more serious, pierce themselves in multiple places, usually through the cheeks, or forehead, but also in the chest and back in extreme cases. I had seen this type of thing in National Geographic, but never in real life, so I was very interested to see what it looked like. I wasn't really sure what to expect, or even if I was going to see anyone with piercings. AJ had a thin rod placed through his cheeks earlier in the day, but it was out now and the mark was not very noticeable.

When we arrived to the procession, I heard a lot of noise, and a chariot looking thing being carried by about 8 guys. While that was cool, I thought that this might get boring quick. Not too long after that, these guys came walking down with piercings through their face. It was pretty neat and looked painful. What came next I wasn't prepared for. A man was walking down the street carrying a semi circle made by strips of metal, supported by his waist. The amazing part was that he had about 50 metal bars hanging off of his front and back which were pierced through his skin. Some of the hooks in the back were so thick they looked like meat hooks. The other interesting piece was that this was all happening in a very urban setting, with malls and shops in the back-drop.

In the Indian mood, we of course went to little India for a fantastic Indian dinner with Somosas, Tandoori chicken and fish, lentils, okra, nan, prawn curry, basmati rice, a great feast to end the day.