Postcards – Somanathapur

We arrived at Somanathapur dehydrated and jostled.  Riding for a few hours on the country bus into the outskirts will do that to a person – or maybe just to me.

A short walk from the main road, a few photo clicks along the way and we were in – a shaded haven.  Now for those that don’t know, custom dictates that folks need to remove their shoes before entering a holy site.

There’s a shoe rack that rests outside of the main gate, and a few government approved tour guides milling around in the shade.  As we were taking off our shoes, one approached and asked if we’d like a guide.  We declined, but he was still cheery and helpful, saying with a wink of the eye, “You might have to remove your shoes, but no one said you couldn’t leave your socks on…”

Even with us bending the ‘no footware’ rule, we still had to scurry from shaded spot to shaded spot just to keep our feet happy and heat-blister free.

Maybe I’m just a wimp, or it might be that my meditative techniques are lacking, but I was amazed at the barefooted man wandering throughout the temple at such a measured, slow pace.  He kept his back towards us and always remained several steps ahead; his pace and stroll a meditation.  The overbearing heat had little visible effect on him as he walked, barely breaking a sweat and casually untying and retying his dhoti.

My jeans suddenly felt clumsy and out of place, but you wouldn’t catch me dead wearing something that required me to unwrap it in public.  My luck would be I’d end up flashing the family jewels at some group of old women, and end up in jail, or worse yet – betrothed.

A suggestion has come through that I spread out a lot of the pics, so let’s give it a whirl!

I hope you sign up to the RSS feed, or just check back to see some of the new pictures, hear my music and take a few minutes from your crazy days to bliss out for 5 minutes before diving back into the fray…

This is totally a work in progress, so feel free to contact me and let me know what you’d like to see!