ganesh and the guru

shonila, my host teacher guru, continues to awe me with her wisdom and strength. the guru has rebuked richard gere and refused to marry when asked by the suitor's family to pay a dowry. "if he needed things, he could have gone to the bazaar. i lost all respect for him that day, and i will never marry someone i cannot respect." when she said that in class, i felt compelled to stand and promptly burn my bra. her friends dub her "anglo indian," too western to truly be indian and too indian to be a westerners. either way, she is too fabulous for words.

next to the guru, ganesh, the hindu elephant god, is the indian figure with which i am currently most enamored. ganesh is the son of parvati and shiva, though ganesh was created out of the dirt parvati produced from bathing. during another bath, shiva returned to parvati while ganesh was guarding the door. confused at the boy who would not allow him to enter, shiva lopped off the boy's head. extremely distraught, parvati demanded that shiva save her son. shiva set out in search of the first living being that was sleeping with its head facing north. consequently, an elephant fit his description.

ganesh is sometimes called the god of education because he creates and removes obstacles in people's lives. he represents patience, devotion, truth, wealth and wisdom. he is also believed to be the destroyer of pride. during our visit in haridwar, cole and i ran into the procession of the ganesh chaturthi, the festival honoring the god. the parade displayed the temple statue of the elephant god on a pull cart accompanied by tubas, drums and about a hundred dancing followers. i guess you could say i am becoming a ganapatya (ganesh worshipper). and you all thought i was a heathen!