Neighborhood Temple Visits

Each neighborhood we explore, and most here in Bangalore, have countless temples and shrines. We live in Malleswaram, a 100+ year old 'suburb' which was named after the Kaadu Malleswara temple... Around the corner from our house is a large Ganesha temple, and a few streets down is a 4 story-high ornate Krishna temple tower. Across the railway tracks is Subramanyanagar, named for the temples honoring Ganesha's brother, Subramanya. Everywhere we walk, among the livestock, traffic, and busy markets, people are praying, making offerings, and undertaking their daily spiritual rituals.... It's an underlying current of all activity here in India.

Sylvie's Journal Entry - Sept.9, 2010
Today we went to a bakery to find veggie puffs. On the way we went over a train track on a big bridge. We went at the perfect timing, because two trains went under the brige at the same time. One of them was really long. We found the bakery and got apple cakes, chocolate cake, 'mixture', and butterballs. I didn't like the applecakes, but everything else was yummy! The veg. puffs were still in the oven, so we took a little walk around the town, and visited a little temple. Before we entered we had to take off our shoes. A nice priest showed us around, and told us about all the different gods, and he even blessed us. For the blessing he lit a little candle and waved the smoke around us. Then he put sacred water in our right hand, and also gave us flowers. My Dad tried to offer money for the temple, but the priest wouldn't accept it. That temple even had a sacred peepul tree that's supposed to be a home for a god. We put on our shoes and right after that, another man showed us up the street to another temple, and we got blessed again. We learned about more gods there. We learned about Ganesha and his family, like Subramanya (brother), Shiva (father) and Parvati (mother). There was also a shrine that resembled the sun and the planets. It had 10 statues for the 9 planets and also the Sun God. Then we went home, and got the veg. puffs on the way! That was a very interesting morning!