New Car Puja

Viv and Judy bought a new car yesterday. It is beautiful, and has the lovely new car smell.

The coolest thing is that they let me DRIVE THE DAMN CAR. IN INDIA. Another bucket off the list. Totally cool and I drove for at least a whole half of mile before it freaked me out to be driving a car they had just picked up 30 minutes earlier. But I get cred for driving in India.

And this meant going to the temple to have the car blessed- a new car Puja.

It was a quick and interesting ceremony. Judy had brought some things to the temple--including a coconut and flowers that are bright orange and strung to be hung on the rear view mirror. We entered the temple complex, leaving our shoes at the gate, and the young priest started the prayers.

Then we went out to the car, and more prayers were offered, along the the necessary tattooing of the hood of the car with the Hindu swastika. Weirdness all through my head--first of all this is a brand new car and the dude is WRITING on it. In ORANGE paint (a powder) and putting a SWASTIKA on the car.

Since my first trip to India, the shock of seeing swastikas used a religious symbols has only dialed down a bit. It was shocking to me the first one I saw in Mumbai--and was assured immediately by my friend and client, Carl, that is had different connotations in India. I get that, but my cultural sensitivity to the icon still reels in shock and wrongness. Even looking for a wiki reference for this post put me in a weird space when I saw all the swastikas on the wiki page. Just an ingrained reaction, apparently.

Viv smashed the coconut on the ground and the milk was used to bless the car all the way around.

Judy blessed the car with the flowers.

And prayers were offered--probably that I never want to drive the car again. I know my prayers were that I do get to drive again...more than a half mile, now that the car is all puja'd and safe from my American driving habits.