Oh no! You must finish!

Saturday morning, we visited Vinay Mandir, an all girls' school. Instead of doing our traditional 3 day camp with the girls, the WC team is teaching three consecutive Saturdays.  Prerna Aaroa, one of our Field Assistants, and her family invited us to visit a Jain temple outside of Ahmedabad with them that afternoon.  The temple is called Mahudi, and the god it was built for is Sri Ghantakar.  We've been passing tons of temples on the roads, and we thought it would be a fabulous opportunity to learn more about the different religions present in Gujarat if we went with an Indian family.  We were told the food at the temple was delicious and how beautiful it was by several different people.  Aarti, Prerna's sister who has worked with WC before, rode in our car and told us a little about the temple on the way.  

(Photo below: intentions made/promises taken at the temple and tied on our wrists)

When we arrived, Mr. Aaroa rushed us in to purchase food, and he demanded that we buy at least a 100 Rs plate to split between all of us for prasad.  While Katy waited for prasad, Prerna took the rest of us to see the statues of the different deities.  When we came back, we found Katy holding a huge tin plate the size of a large pizza, filled with a thick cookie cake (minus the icing and chocolate chips).  Mr. Aaroa ushered us into another part of the temple where we had to offer our cookie to Sri Ghantakar, the god the temple was made for, and the Maharaj (Jain priest) took our plate, put some on a huge platter for the offering, and then made us hold a burning pot of incense.  We waved it over our cookie and said a quick prayer, and then Mr. Aaroa herded us all outside to get these little red bracelets. You are supposed to wear it everyday until your prayer is granted; at this point, you have to return to the temple and visit Sri Ghantakar again, offer more prasad, say another prayer, and get a new little red bracelet.  

We were all slightly overwhelmed while being hurried around to pray and offer prasad, so Mr. Aaroa led us to a small room where there were a bunch of metal picnic tables.  Katy was still carrying the gigantic cookie around, which was made from ghee, sugar, and flour.  She set it in front of us, and Mr. Aaroa looked at us and said, "Now you must finish it all!" He quickly explained that it is both disrespectful to Sri Ghantakar and bad luck to take any of the prasad outside of the temple gates, so you must eat all of it.  The daunting task of eating the entire cookie was only made worse when Prerna's aunt brought over another huge plate of the ghee cookie. "Oh no!" I said. "Oh no! You must finish!" Mr. Aaroa replied emphatically, standing over us and demanding that we eat more cookie.  I am pretty sure we each ate at least four times more than he did.  

Rina and Prerna went to crack the coconuts, and soon we were all shoving as much ghee cookie and coconut in our mouths as possible.  Finally, when only a little was left, the Aaroas said they had to leave and tried to give their entire prasad cookie to us.  When it became apparent that all of us would vomit if we were force fed anymore cookie, he started directing us in different directions to offer the cookie to other people.  

The best part was a family of four, sitting around a plate as big as a swimming pool for toddlers.  They all had the same forlorn expression of dread that we had on our faces, only amplified.  I think they may have bought the 500 Rs plate without anyone telling them how big the tin was. Poor family! 

The whole experience only took about 45 minutes, and we climbed back into the car with ghee cookie babies in our tummies and sugar hangovers.  I don't think we will be returning for prasad anytime soon!  

(Photo below: "We ate too much prasad" faces.)

  

Post by: Sadie McCleary, WC India Volunteer