After my walk along the beach yesterday I realized that the fishermen must be a different caste, and their entire behavior is unlike that of the temple worshipers that I had spent time with during the past 2 days and had been so open and friendly and generous. Here I met with no response to my initiating a hello to them, since the past 2 days everyone had initiated a big smile and hello and I saw how nice it is to be like that in the world, so I decided I could do that too…but instead met with a serious glance and no reply, not even the kids!
Walking in the village again I saw a core group at the temple taking down all of the decorations and washing dishes etc, all dressed in temple clothing (men with colorful sarong and white shirt and sash and head kerchief, and women with brocade see through blouse and sarong and sash) and I realized that even here there are those that come and enjoy and participate, and there are those that are busy organizing and preparing and cleaning up and are more involved in the inner workings and may also be a different caste…I was told that even if someone wants to be a dancer in the temple, if he is not from that caste, he cannot. So it is becoming clearer that this open heart that I feel among them is mainly from this inner core of temple people. We shall see.
During the Ramayana performance I reached a point where I could physically no longer sit an my tush on the ground…it had been 3 hours already without moving and I had no idea how much longer this was going to go on…and as fascinating as it was…enough!But then I remembered that he said this was the first time in 100 years that it was being performed here, and it was such a powerful experience I kept comparing it to a once in a life time chance, and me complaining that I can't sit any longer?! Come on! and if I could appreciate the miracle of being here, would I be able to sit longer? What is the body anyways, compared to what is going on here?! Just detach and focus on what you are witnessing and stop identifying with your sore ass. So I decided to ask the man next to me how much longer it is (since they know the whole thing by heart) before I decide to make a super effort. And he said, "about another 10 minutes" ahh…okay I can hold out 10 more minutes, great! And then he said "ah, no actually about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour…no actually it will take another hour, yes, at seven o'clock it will end". Another hour!! How can I?! but, I decided it is an invitation for a super effort and now is the time to make it. So even though there was only about an inch on my left side and another inch between me and the person in front of me, I managed to kind of turn myself onto my side and thought this will be a temporary reprieve, and we will see what to do after this starts to hurt too. And surprisingly enough, it felt fine and I was grateful that instead of pushing my way through the 10 deep crowd, I chose to hang in there for another hour. 5 minutes later the battle between the dark forces and the light forces began, and everyone in the front rows began to stand up, and he said "Now we can stand too" ahh….and then 5 minutes later with the crowds cheering on the forces of light, other then the one funny force of dark that everyone likes and so they also cheered him, the play ended with the light overcoming the dark, and everyone began to file out of the temple. End of play. I looked at him, surprised…"why did you say an hour?.You knew it was only another 10 minutes?" and he chuckled, having managed to throw me a teaser and see if I was willing to choose to stay,
in spite of the discomfort, in order to be part of the communal victory of the light over the
dark for this coming year.
I was sitting on the beach yesterday evening, hoping to see the sunset, and meanwhile observing the life at sea of the locals at dusk….kids and men holding tin cans with fishing line wrapped around it and a weight at the end with some bait, walking along the shore, then stopping for a moment, and swinging the end of it like a lasso out to sea, taking their chances of catching a fish…then continuing to walk, as they wind the line back around the can, hoping that maybe a fish will be enticed and get hooked. There are also narrow fishing boats out at sea, and one of the had 3 young fellows on it rowing back to shore. Once they landed they tried pushing the heavy boat onto shore, but weren't getting too far. I watched them, as I sat nearby, trying again and again. Having been an "experienced boat pusher" from my previous walk on a beach I "sign- languaged" them if they would like my help, and they giggled and shook their heads "yes"…so I began to walk over and just as I was 10 metres away they suddenly had a burst of energy and pushed it almost to the end. I laughed, know ing that it was the adrenalin of me coming to help that allowed them this burst. I joined in and we did the last 2 pushes together, and we said goodbye…
In the morning as I returned from the walk discovering this new shore, I saw 8 people gathered around a fishing boat on the sand. I decided I wanted to be part of the action, so I walked up next to the 3 women that were there, and stood next to one of them looking to see what everyone is looking at. And there on the sand next to the boat, the 70 year old fisherman was pulling out of the bottom of his narrow boat the fish he had caught a few minutes before…he threw them onto the ground one at a time, about 9 big ones and 7 smaller ones, and the women were arguing among them and moving them into separate piles, big, small, mine yours, etc…then started the bartering between the head woman and the fisherman, she yelled a price, and he laughed at her and turned his back, disinterested and carried on unloading the equipment from the small wooden boat. The other men looked on too, smoking , moving a fish to the right or left, looking at the mornings catch. And she continued to yell at him and convince him and this went on for at least 10 minutes, where at last she took all of the fish, gave him a bunch of crumbled up notes from her little money purse that she kept in a torn towel wrapped around her waist, and began to gather up the fish, giving a few of the small ones to a woman next to her that paid her a little, and the rest…I didn't wait to see how she would carry them off…and the price for the 16 fish which were each a meal in themselves, and left the fisherman content after the bargaining was a big…$3.50!!
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