It's not just anywhere in their world you go on an evening stroll through the local park & end up with a day-glo orange mark between your eyes, commemorating Lord Vishnu. Jess & I recently met the coordinator of a temple very close by, hidden in GK1 park named prachin Shiv Mandir. He knows English well & took us around the small 100-yr old building and explained all the shrines and symbols. Amazing, considering we saw the temple over 3 weeks ago and still weren't sure if we were allowed to go on (we are. i also took pictures.) Anyway, on my solitary walk last evening, I stopped by and he was there. I asked him about his orange mark- which symbolizes Lord Vishnu, who provides food/sustenance, and he mixed up some paste and gave me a bright orange dot. I took a manual portrait of him kneeling next to a statue of a snake which may or may not symbolize Lord Shiva.
In other news, I bought artwork- a card, from Guddu for Rs 20- which is only 45 cents or so- in retrospect I should of paid more, but thats how much he wanted for it- it's really beautiful and I plan on framing it, Jess also bought one.
I have made plans to travel to Varanasi on Friday- Monday. It's a 13-hr non-AC sleeper train, and I'm feeling very excited and very apprehensive at the same time. It also marks my halfway India mark. crazy! Namaste.
Erin
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