Nārāyana Guru (नारायण गुरु,നാരായണ ഗുരു) (1856 - 1928) was a great sage and social reformer of India. Born in Ezhava/Thiyya (Ezhava is a middle rung caste and had to face social injustices), he revolted against the brahminical dominance and thereby transformed the social face of Kerala.Nārāyana Guru is revered for his Vedic knowledge, poetic proficiency, openness to the views of others, non-violent philosophy and most importantly his unrelenting resolve to set aright social wrongs. Nārāyana Guru was instrumental in setting the spiritual foundations for social reform[1] in the current State of Kerala (erstwhile states of Travancore, Kochi and Malabar district of British India) and was one of the most successful social reformers who tackled caste in India. He demonstrated a path to social emancipation without invoking the dualism of the oppressed and the oppressor.
To learn more, click on this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Narayana_Guru
Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Sri Narayana Guru. He was remembered all over Kerala with special programs and ceremonies. We knew nothing of this until yesterday morning when I walked to the store to get milk. Anju, who runs the store with his wife, Achu, and his parents told me about the anniversary and that there would be a program at the Narayana Guru shrine at 1:00 and I should come. He told me to "bring a vessel", which means, bring a bowl, because there will be food served. I showed up in the rain at 1:00 and a crowd was gathering.
I walked up and encountered a group of women from our neighborhood dressed in their houseclothes. Most of them I have seen many times, but I am only good friends with a few of them. Except for a handful, the rest did not know my name, though they see me often. They were all laughs and talking and everyone was basically talking about me the whole time. It was really weird. I couldn't understand anything anyone was saying and I stood there with them for almost an hour and
smiled while they took turns grabbing me, pulling on my clothes, my bag, my hair, commenting and laughing. It was all in friendliness, I suppose. But after a while it is hard to just stand there and smile and be the center of attention with no idea what is going on. Luckily, my friends Achu and her mom and the vegetable lady were there to keep an eye on me and tell the rest of the ladies to cool it when they could tell that I was getting a little fed up of being tugged at. Of course, it is a great experience, one I wouldn't trade for anything, and a good way to get to know some of the neighbors. It is hard enough for me to understand what someone is saying when they are being serious and jokes go way over my head. One of the funny jokes was this woman asking if I would take her picture with her cow. I don't know what was funny about that, and I didn't see a cow,
but I said I would. A few minutes later, she came walking around the corner with her cow, and I took this picture. I still don't get the joke, but I got a good picture.
Across the street men cooked large pots of this soup. It is very tasty, but I didn't remember what it is called. It turns out that this same thing was happening in every neighborhood in Kerala yesterday. Pretty much everyone in the state had this yellow-green soup for lunch. In this picture you can see Anju's father, Sudevan (in the blue lungi). His wife is named Sumangala. This family, besides running the store, seems to do most of the maintenence of the shrine. Every morning fresh flowers are put before the statue of Sri Narayana Guru, and every evening oil lamps are lit around him.
While we stood around and talked, children ran and played, and many of them wanted to talk to me.
Here are pictures of some of the 
children from our neighborhood whoI got to hang out with at yesterday's program. 
Aren't they great? And also some more pictures of the crowd.
Sri
Narayana Guru was the first to be served, and he got his own big pot of soup.
Then the bell ringer let us know that it was time for the rest of us to come get served
.
Everyone crowded around and one by one, each vessel was filled and taken
home to be eaten. And that was that. Like I said, the food was delicious, and I had enough for Mark and I to each get two meals out of. But still I was scolded for bringing too small a pot. Most people took home even more.
In other news, Achu got a teaching job at the school near our house, so she is very happy. This was great news. She started on Monday. And Diana, one of our downstairs neighbors won first prize in a huge city wide literary competition this week. All of the kids in the neighborhood were talking about it, and telling m
e about how they were studying and asking me to pray for them to do well. The competition is very big. Diana entered in a category where you had to memorize and recite a long passage from some famous piece of literature. I heard her downstairs, day after day practicing. You are judged on not missing any words and on how clear and expressive she was in her locution. Winning first place was a real accomplishment. She was very happy, and said she had a great time hanging out with all of her friends at the competition and getting to be around the other schools' kids. She said they sang songs on the bus all the way home. They were at the competition from early in the morning until almost 10 at night.
So, it has been a good week here. Mark is rocking and rolling on his work, and I have been going to an Ayurvedic doctor near our house every day for the last 8 days. Right now, I am receiving a course of Ayurvedic treatment, which involves daily massages and herbs. I have become good friends with the massage therapist, a 54 year old grandmother named Indira, and with her daughter in law, Asena! Yep, that is her name. She reminds me of me, too. These are absolutely my best friends here. I am also enjoying a friendship with the Ayurvedic doctor and the other two people, one young woman and one young man, who work there. After my treatment, they want me to keep coming every day so they can teach me to cook some Indian dishes. And I am working up to asking them to teach me Ayurvedic massage, which I have been enjoying immensely.
And I'll leave you with this picture of Mark and me, taken just now. You can see I am wearing a little red mark on my hair part. This is not "the dot" people think of as associated with Indian women. The dot is called a bindi. It is not always a dot; often it is more of a teardrop shape. It is a beauty mark, like jewelry, and it is worn low on the forehead, just above the nose. The red powder mark that I have on my hair part indicates that I am married. And then Hindus will also have a blessing from when they go to temple during the day that is a red and brown clay. This mark goes in between the other two. So you will often see women with three marks in a line down the center of the forehead. The top one at the part is powder and means "I'm married". The next one down is clay and means "I went to temple and got blessed today". The third one down doesn't mean anything; it is just for beauty. It can either be painted on or can be a sticker. I like them, and think they all look great, but I don't imagine I'll ever get the temple blessing. I think you have to be Hindu to go to the temples (except the ancient ones that are no longer in use). The other two marks are OK for anyone. Oh, yeah. I guess there is a fourth mark. This one is farther up on my hair part, closer to the crown, and is made with a brownish red henna powder. I don't know if it has any specific meaning, but my massage therapist always rubs some of this powder into my part when she sees me, and this is clearly a kind of blessing. Hope you are all well. Lots of love to all of you. It is great here, but we really miss you. Sometimes I can't wait to get home. Bye!
