Sat Aug 23rd 2008 - Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
By the lunar calendar many pundits have calculated the birth of Krishna to fall on this day. A small group of Krishna devotees, including myself, were invited to attend a chariot festival for Balaji, a Vishnu form of the deity. With a South Indian approach to worship, the priests at this large Ganesh temple are accustomed to executing many rituals before the chariot moves, by people power, in a circumambulation around the building. We were asked to lead the chanting while booming drums resounded and two horned nagesvarams penetrated with their sounds. It felt like being in an ancient world with women in orthodox saris and men bare-chested with unstitched cloth wrapped around in a lunghi fashion from waist down.
Most of my time today was spent less in procession and less on my feet, but more on the director's chair. I was just putting the finishing touches to a script "The Eight Boy" a new and artistic rendering of the advent of Krishna. Rehearsals have been few. Volunteer actors, mostly youths trying a crack at acting, found it hard to squeeze in time for the rehearsals. They did their best to formulate with me new scenes. I worked with a bunch of young boys to move to a recorded Krishna rap song "When your world is going crazy!."
The practice was all in preparation for tomorrow's festival of Janmastami held at the Avenue Road Krishna Temple. Rehearsals went until 1.30am which is standard for a new production.
5km
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