Mayhem in Madurai

and then....and then...and then we met SHANNON! That's right. After a couple of emails we tracked her down and we took a rickshaw down to the temple. We were all having a nice time strolling around the temple admiring the various chambers dedicated to Siva, Ganesha and Vishnu when this nice lady came up to us and told us there was a procession coming. We followed her and the throng of people pushing and shoving to see the entrance of the goddess being pulled on a cart wrapped in lights powered by a diesel generator being pulled behind it. Very beautiful! Then we noticed Ganesha. Live in person. He was an older elephant of 45 years with a broken leg and some festering wounds on his feet and sides, but looking stunning non the less. Shannon and I (Kelley) each put 5 ruppees in his trunk and he tapped us on the head as a blessing! Very cool. As Ganesha hobbled away he decided it was time for a little bathroom break and proceded to relieve himself in massive gushing fluids that maybe should have been solids. We stepped away quickly and noticed that everyone else moved towards the fluid and rubbed their feet in it! With a look of shock and awe on our faces we were told by the kind lady (still with us) that this was good luck. Once we turned our focus back to this nice lady we were covered in flowers, bangles, bindis and ankletbangles - all gifts that only cost 1000 ruppees (about 25 us dollars)! Aha - the old indian way of giving. We decided that we only needed a few of her gifts and settled on 400 ruppees. Still way too much but she was very kind and Shannon has a theory about always overpaying in India so there you go.