Sunday in Markanda

Sunday is our day off and the usual plan is to go into Gadchiroli for shopping and eating the food we can't get at SEARCH like eggs, ice cream, and chocolate. We've been very fortunate to plan some field trips in addition to our stops in Gadchiroli. On my first Sunday here, Sona led us on a trip to Markanda, which is an old temple within a village outside of Gadchiroli. I was especially lucky because I was going on my third outing in the five days I had been at SEARCH!

The temple itself is actually made up of many smaller temples with a large central temple. Each temple houses a god in the form of a statue. Sometimes the statue looks like a person, sometimes it is an animal, sometimes it is something more inanimate. Sona told us that at Markanda, every temple was for Shiva, a Hindu god, just in different forms. In some of the shrines Shiva is represented as the god of death and in others the conqueror of death. (I hope I'm getting this right!) What I gathered from the trip was at a very superficial level, and I'm sure there is a lot more meaning behind the temple and the religion of Hinduism. I was under the impression that Hinduism is polytheistic, but upon reading some material to make sure nothing I said here was completely wrong, I learned that Hinduism can actually be monotheistic. Perhaps one god manifesting itself in many ways? I haven't retained much since 9th grade global history. It's all confusing to me, and if I truly want to understand it I will have to read up on it.

View of a beautiful tree, as seen through the columns of the temple. After our visit of the grounds we sat under this tree to snack on bananas and masala munchies (like cheetos, except instead of cheese flavor, it's Indian spice flavor). Our group stayed under the tree until we felt like we were becoming more of the attraction than the temple itself.

This is an image of the top of the main temple. The stone work is very intricate. (You can always click on the photos within the blog to enlarge them.) Over 250 years ago, lightening struck the top of this temple and it partially collapsed. I'm not actually sure if this image captures that side of the temple, but Sona kept pointing up trying to show us where.

The temple is situated on the Vainganga river, which is an "auspicious" river because it changes directions, flowing both north and south. Here, the women from the Markanda village are washing their clothes. Many things in India are considered "auspicious", meaning promising success or favored by fortune. It is an English word that has infiltrated the Marathi and Hindu languages, and I've heard it used more here in the last two weeks than during the rest of my entire life.

Me with a view of the river.

Beautiful old doors along one wall of the temple grounds.

The group. From left to right: Kate, Amy, me, Miriam, Brenna, Bhagyashree, Marie, and Jessica.

Me standing in the doorway of a side entrance to the courtyard of temples. You can see the large temple over my right shoulder. I had my scarf tied on my head because my hair kept blowing in my face. I think I ended up looking Greek instead of Indian.


After visiting Markanda, we drove back towards Gadchiroli. One of the highlights of the day is that we took a detour to go pick up my suitcase!!! I was very excited to personally pick it up from the station where the airline dropped it off (they refused to come all the way to SEARCH), with all the other girls in tow. We were able to use the van we had for the day to pick up the bag, although it would mean cramming even more into our limited space. We already had 11 people in the van! I am very thankful to the others for allowing us to do this. It felt like a celebration to retrieve the lost suitcase! Oddly enough, the official station where the suitcase was being held was a gas station. Don't ask me why. Anyway, there was a very nice man there who had me sign some paperwork and unwrap the plastic wrap that covered my bag. Later in the evening when we returned to SEARCH I finally opened the bag and was very happy to find that nothing was missing, broken, ruined or melted. I was very happy to finally have my bag and to know that even the sunblock and insect repellent were still in good shape, which meant that the extra batteries and camera battery I had stored in there were also going to be fine.

After picking up the suitcase we went to Gadchiroli where we had a nice lunch at the same restaurant we had eaten at on Thursday. The restaurant is part of the Hotel Rashika. Hotels are often the fanciest places in town, but the standards are very different here. After our lunch we went shopping. I had nothing in particular to buy this time so I went with some of the other girls to look at fabrics.

Shopping for women's clothes is very very different in India, especially in the areas outside the cities where you will not find Western outlets. Since the sari and salwar kameez are pretty much the only style of clothing worn, women here will go to a fabric store where they sit and choose exactly the fabric they want, get measured, and have their new sari or salwar kameez custom made. The fabric stores often have plushy flooring because women, sometimes with their husbands, will come and sit down for hours mulling over the options. (Shoes are always left at the door, so as not to track in dirt). It seems like so much fun! Imagine if, instead of shopping malls with chain stores, all of our shopping was done in this manner. One of the stores we visited even served us chai tea because it was tea time while we were there. Here are some pictures of one of the fabric stores we visited: