Today was a devotional holiday to Dussera in which Hindus perform small poojas to celebrate their "tools of the trade." Obviously, our drivers wanted to celebrate the automobiles they drive on a daily basis. We are down to one driver this week, with my new driver starting tomorrow, so Rahul insisted he perform poojas on both of our cars and that we needed to assist him. Here is how to perform a pooja on your car.
Step 1: Wash your car.
Step 2: Decorate the car with a garland of marigolds, red powder in the form of a swastik to the god Laxmi, bindis on the license plate, branches to signify an offering of gold to Dussera, and a box of sweets to place on the hood (in this case very nice almond and chocolate birfi).
Step 3: Surround the car in incense.
Step 4: Have madam smash a coconut on the ground. (This is actually a lot harder than it looks.)
Step 5: Have madam pour the coconut water over the car and place the shells on the garland of marigolds. Then, ask madam to eat the birfi. Now, the pooja is complete.
Here Paul stands with his car, Rahul and Lily after his pooja.
Motorbikes after the Dussera pooja is performed.
2 comments:
Nice - Is that a Slayer t-shirt on your driver?
Sounds like the car needs to be washed again after it's had chocolate and coconut milk put on it!! :) Interesting!!
Kelly S
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