Pongala Festival

Today is Pongala, an annual, sacred festival held in Trivandrum to honor the Goddess. At 5:30am I arose and walked 5k to the home of dear friends Susan and Dr. Raj, who live near Attukal Temple, locus of the event. Most of the 2 million or more women attending, mainly Keralite Hindus, were already in preparation.

Here are two short videos with ambient sound taken on my walk home at 10:00am. The first shows women getting water used in cooking, and the second, taken across from where I live, shows lighting of fires, which happens at an auspicious time. Women line the streets beyond what the eye can see; men stay indoors or serve the devotees in some capacity while they make delicious, sweet, porridge-like payasam.

Update

• I am deep in the throes of grant proposal writing, please wish us luck!
• A very exciting art installation called Lucid has been conceived by Latha Kurien Rajeev and me, with influences and input from many. More on this one day soon!
• There are also signs of growth for Watermark, a show of solo works and performance on the theme of appreciation for water.
• In January I started my journey toward a research-based PhD from the School of Arts and Humanities at Oxford Brookes University, under Shelley Sacks of the Social Sculpture Research Unit.
• It's unseasonably hot in Trivandrum and throughout Kerala! Water is on everybody's minds...

Peace to all.