Simhacalam

Dear All,

It's been a while since I last posted this site, and I hope you enjoy this piece of my life.

I am in South India, in the hilly and forested state of Andhra Pradesh, home to excellent idlis and eloquent telugu. The writing, the hair and the smiles are full of curls and swirls, and people welcome guests like demigods. As a guest, this state has hosted me like a goddess, I have stayed in houses where of aquaintances I hardly know and been served hand and foot with smile and cheer.

Recently I went to the the most popular temple of Simhacalam, an elaborate temple at the top of a hill. Here is a poem of the temple:

Twilight in Simhacalam

Gathering clouds darken the dusky sky.
The wailing winds scatter people into their houses.
I run up the stone steps; the first few rain drops splash.

The fight begins.
Lightening flashes.
Hiranyakashipu's sword cracks open the columned clouds.

The sky heaves,
Thunder cracks a lions roar.
An army of rain bullets the mountain.

Within the hilltop temple, the evening puja sounds.
Drums and shennai boom and wail.
A Brahmana offers a flaming ghee lamp to the lord.

I sit and write braced
by the black stone
dimpled from centuries of rain

Camphor pellets illuminate and perfume
the sheltered perimeter of the temple
silhouetting Laxmi Devi's palanquin
carried in tumultuous procession.

Brahmanas with bold tilak and large gold earrings follow,
chanting mantras and offering pujas at the corners of the temple.

White lightning shivers distantly.
The black sky rumbles deeply.
The sky slowly calms.