Jan 2016
In a couple of hours we'll be boarding a bus to take us on the next leg of our India sojourn. We leave Diu with some trepidation, as we have become accustomed, over the past weeks, to a somewhat cleaner, more organized, quieter and yes, saner, place than the rest of India. We know it's going to be a bit of a shock. Fortunately we have a bottle of rum to ease the pain - for at least the first night or two. After that we'll be out of Gujarat, which is a dry state, and able to buy more.
Tonight we're stopping in Veraval, by all accounts a dirty, fish-stinking town with absolutely nothing to recommend it. But it's the terminus of the train, and the station from which we leave to get to Ahmedabad (another dirty stinking, but not of fish, town) and hopefully from there on an overnight train to Jaipur. We currently have 'wait-listed' tickets (#4 and 5), which we hope will be confirmed within the next 24 hours. Otherwise we may be in Ahmedabad longer than we might wish for, and/or have to come up with a back-up plan... .
We leave behind some great travel friends, some of whom we hope might come to visit us in Canada (where is that again? and just how cold is it?). We also leave behind a special place for the residents of Diu - a new temple created, lovingly, by Doug, me and our German friend Bodo. This came about quite serendipitously when Doug, having noticed a broken-off 'nose' to a cement road divider that we passed by two, and sometimes three, times a day on our way to our usual restaurant, decided to put it back in place. The road divider was and is a long, low, narrow 'wall' about 30 feet long - so a little snake-like in appearance. Doug replaced what we decided was the snake's 'head'.
Doug lighting a stick of incense at the head of our Naga Shrine
In India, when something happens that has no explanation, it is often viewed as a miracle, and little temples and shrines are everywhere to mark the spots where such miracles have occurred. We decided that the re-attachment of the snake's head would class as a miracle as no one saw Doug replace it. So naturally we felt it deserved temple status, and we set to work creating one.
Fortunately, because of the large number of temples around, and the plethora of 'temple dressings' that have blown away from their original spots, we were easily able to find what we needed to create our temple. We anointed its head with red kum-kum powder, dressed it in a white and gold cape, put pieces of bronze statuary on its head, and draped it in marigold chains. The purchase of a black felt pen to give the snake eyes and a nose completed the effect. Now it is truly a temple to the snake-god Naga - a 'Naga Shrine'.
For the past several nights we have dropped money by the snake head, lit a candle and incense, and done our 'puja' (prayer). The money is usually gone the next day, but that is to be expected. It is unlikely that anyone will take any of the other offerings away - that would be sacreligious. So we hope our Naga Shrine will thrive, and perhaps attract more offerings such as figurines, photos and of course fresh flowers. One of our traveling friends has agreed to take responsibility for buying candles and keeping the shrine going until she leaves. After that it is up to Naga himself.
Note: A couple of weeks after we left, we heard from some of our friends who were still in Diu that some locals had desecrated our shrine by returning it to its 'natural' (ie. broken cement pieces) state. No respect.
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