Jatra Festival in Palshi



I have said it before, that a festival is not what I expected when discussing a trip to Palshi. Even though I had been told that there would be a festival, I kind of thought it would be a few extra decorative flowers and extra decorations by doors or something. Those were there, but my dad started describing what he remembered: humor "for men only" in the morning, transitioning to family entertainment of singing and dancing, with bullock cart races, and wrestling for prize money. In all these decades since my father was able to attend, I guess there was no reason to change a good thing! 

Arriving in Palshi, we did learn of one unfortunate change: bullock cart races were cancelled this year. Last year several carts had crashed and racers were injured. I am not sure if they were referring to human or bullock racers, probably both. This was something that I was really looking forward to, but I understand protecting and promoting lives, both human and bovine.

It also looked like we missed some crazy fun, with many of the men sprayed in red powder, including our host!

I brought some Oregon hazelnuts as a gift for our hosts, but my father surprised me! He brought gifts too! He gave them a book of poetry he wrote and self published, and played recordings of his songs studio recorded and performed by himself. They were impressed and requested that the songs be published to YouTube so they could share them. Maybe that's something we can work on. In the meantime, he left a flash drive with the recorded music.

After spending time at our ancestral house, Serriff headed out to pal around with Yogita, a new best friend (our ancestral home is Yogita's current home!) My father and I went with some of her cousins to the festival.


We passed a delightful assortment of food stalls, plenty of game and toy stalls that would fit in at a community fair back home. We passed the temple, went up a set of stone steps and through an arched doorway to the festival grounds where an earthen wrestling rink had been set up and a canopied pavilion with sound system was hosting local singers and dancers.


My father was grumbling that Serriff and Yogita were missing all the festivities, but I suspected they were around, experiencing the festival their own way. After a bit my father told me to stay put and enjoy the show, so he could shop for flowers and a coconut to bring to the temple. Honestly, I think he just wanted to give his escorts (including me) the slip to enjoy Palshi a bit on his own.


At the temple, the village Brahmin was delighted to see us again, placing a blessing on our heads and marking is with ash from sacred incense.

Serriff and Yogita joined us for dinner at the ancestral house. My father grumbled a bit that there was a big pot of curried chicken cooking in the courtyard, but he and I were served a lovely vegetarian dinner. Serriff's diet, like so many of Gen Z in India, has included some meats like chicken and seafood, so Serriff enjoyed the curried chicken.


We ended our time in Palshi with a little walk, after telling Yogita about Geocaching. Yogita's suggestion is... not for the feint of heart. I took some GPS readings, and we will see if we can make it work!

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