Lions and Tigers and Bears... oh my!

Changes of plans often turn out for the best. Remember how I said yesterday that I was having a princess-moment? Well today, I was the princess! My planets were all aligned. (Where the heck’s that King?!)

This morning I attended mass in a beautiful historic old cathedral here in Bangalore with a colleague of mine from the office. The church was made of the oldest of old stones and was left completely open – meaning all the towering doors at all the entrance points and several windows were open. (You can see in the picture below they’re currently working to preserve the building, and there was scaffolding all about.) Birds fluttered about freely in the narthex, resembling what I think a service might have been like in that cathedral hundreds of years ago. The message today was on thanksgiving… and I certainly had many things to be thankful for. (My luggage is still “baggage” you can tell :-).) It was a lovely way to start the day.

Now, I have mentioned this Festival thing, and aparently it's not just in Mysore - it’s a religious holiday across the country. As luck would have it, they have to spot the moon before starting the Festival. They didn’t spot the moon on Thursday night or Friday night… but they spotted the moon on Saturday, which essentially made Sunday a national holiday. It’s kinda like having a floating Christmas based on the tidal flow, I guess. But what this really meant – is that ALLLLL the shoppes were closed today. So the plans for finding fabulous fabric and an expert tailor to stitch me a holiday ensemble is delayed by a day. Never to fear, my personal tour guide (Michelle) had a backup plan. Somehow I think this woman always has a backup plan. She even has a Punjabi tailor lined up to meet me at the hotel, should we not have time to see a proper tailor in the next day or so.

So, anyway… back to the lions, tigers, bears thing. This morning Michelle meets me at the hotel lobby and I go on and on about yesterday’s Mysore adventure. And everything I was excited about involved cows, monkeys, or the little baby lamb they put in the car with me after the shepherd blocked the road and my driver told him I wanted to take the little one home. So Michelle suggests we go to the Animal Park… it’s the Bannerghata National Park, and of course I’m up for it. The park is manned by the Karnataka Forrest Department, and is a refuge for elephants, tigers, lions, bears, bison, blah, blah, blah. Since this weekend begins Dasara, the place is 3x it’s normal weekend crowd… We wait in line maybe 35 minutes before beginning to board our caged bus to begin the “Grand Safari” (all of $4USD each). I’ll digress – they used to let people drive through this park in their personal vehicles… until a tiger reached into a car and dragged out a child one day. I cannot imagine – these roads are absolutely the roughest roads I’ve ever seen (and in my part of the world, we drive through “hollers”).

Anyway… we’re in queue boarding the bus and it’s about half full (to be full+ by the time it departs) and this Indian man standing at the hood of the bus gets my attention and shouts something to me… I kind of ignored him. I sort of stand out here… :) and so I’ve pretty much become immune to random people saying things my way. As I board the bus, the same man is coming through the driver’s side door and pointing at me AND THEN POINTING AT THE JUMP SEAT ON THE FRONT OF THE BUS! You got it! He pegged me to sit shotgun – with clear photographic view front, left, and right! Yes, folks, I won the Safari Lottery. I couldn’t leave my friend Michelle behind, so we got her pulled to the front on a seat cushion above the motor – squeezed between the driver and me. But folks – it gets better!

So this is an animal park – it’s a safari… It’s kind of like Jurassic Park in that they have high fences of barbed wire and deep concrete troughs in front of those fences. To keep the lions from – God forbid – eating the bison… they keep the animals separated and we “shuttle” between areas by driving the bus into a cage that is closed in front. Guards shut the cage from behind and then open our front door into the next “section” of wild animals.

So – this driver who tagged me for the “customer throne” also likes my camera. As in, he must have taken half the pictures (the ones on his side of the bus). And he did insanely wonderful things – he put the bus in neutral and revved the engine to get the tigers to look… he opened the door and leaned out over the careless bear to get just the right shot…. he’d roll the bus backward if the lioness decided she wanted to stretch after we started to take off. The result: some amazing pictures and incredible memories of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On our way to a late lunch and the temple, we spent a few minutes at the Lagh Bagh park. This is Hindi for “Red Garden” because the park in known for its roses. Parks are interesting in India in that the grass is not “manicured” like parks are stateside. The grass is weedy and overgrown – and still, people camp out… families picnicking, lovers leaping, they’re all there.

As if that weren’t enough, we ended the evening with the biggest temple (or church) I’ve ever seen in my life – and I live in the buckle of the proverbial Bible-Belt! It has been a long time since I book-ended a day with church – but this was absolutely great. We visited the Hindu temple of Isckon. Now, my words can’t adequately describe the opulence of this temple. But – continuing with the Day of Tonya (DOT) – my gracious host had borrowed a “Lifetime Member Pass” from a friend of hers to get us to the front of the line. She told me this before we got there, but I didn’t quite fully appreciate what that meant until we arrived. As we pulled into the grounds of the temple, there were literally THOUUUUUSANDS of people lined up to participate in prayer services. This is Festival night… and the line cascaded through stairs and stairs and stairs… I can’t tell you how long that line was… And there were, I promise, thousands of Hindi in line awaiting the opportunity to worship. But we… we didn’t have a line. We went up… and up… and up…. Stopping occasionally at specific enclaves to pay homage to certain gods, all decked in real jewels and pure gold. When we got to the main worship hall, we continued to be shuttled along the “Special People Party” line… And then, to my solemn surprise, we were ushered directly in front of the altar (in front of the worshipers who had waited hours, who could get no more than 30 meters from the altar) for a special blessing ceremony performed by a Hari Krishna disciple. I think I’m likely the only Anglo in the building (among thousands) and here I am in the middle of the believers – some going prostrate on the ground in front of the altar. I am fed the holy water (a blessing – not communion – Michelle assures me) which we drink from our hand and then rub through our hair. I find out later that rubbing through the hair is to keep the holy water from hitting the ground. Well, I did the respectful thing and removed my hat to rub “on” my hair… but not knowing it was to keep it from hitting the ground, I’m glad I thought to rub it into my hands… :) (P.S. Temple = no shoes and no camera. Waaaah.)

Humor flash: I’m so glad I got a pedicure before this trip. Seems everywhere I went this weekend, they wanted to keep my shoes. The palace in Mysore didn’t allow shoes. At the Isckon temple, they wouldn’t even let me walk away from the car with shoes that I was going to tuck into my purse once I got to the temple. And those painted toenails attracted the attention of more than one toddler… as the fair skin (and hat, I have no doubt) attracted the attention of more than one of the Hindi faithful waiting patiently behind me in line…

To end my Day of Tonya (DOT), I came to “my” restaurant in the hotel. They have “my table” ready. Four nights here, and already they are keeping a small table in the corner for me to sit with my laptop, drink a glass of wine, and blog-away my adventures. How very lucky I am. Thanksgiving – it began the day, and it shall end it.