September 5

We had an honour to participate in Ankit grandfather’s funeral ceremony. We came over at 12, being slightly late, because the ceremony has apparently began. After a few minutes of hesitation we came inside and sat in the corner. After a moment Ankit moved us towards the door of a room, as it turned out later, where the body was placed!

Chaivala served us the most amazing beverage ever, it tasted like a mix of rosewater, salt, sugar, pepper and stardust.

Ankit's father was crowned as a new leader/king of their tribe, so Ankit

had to carry around a white shawl which was touched by every person in the ceremony. By doing so, family members accepted him as a new leader.

Another interesting fact, majority of family lived in Kullu, though it had more that a 1000 members. People are really family bonded in this part of

India.

Finally, the long awaited lunch followed. We washed our hands and were

taken to a huge room decorated with yellow and red shawls. In the front of the chamber men were sited, women - next to the entrance. We sat with

women. Actually, there were no chairs, nor dishes or tools. All we had

were three-leaves-well-sewn-together and a mat below our bums.

There were 2 people serving all guests. Firstly, they would pour rice on

our leaves with their hands. Then some tasty vegetable/bean/potato mix

would follow. Now, I would mix rice and hot meal together with my right

hand and put it on my first three fingers whilst letting the thumb thrust

it into my mouth. God, we had so much fun! Food was tasty:) In total, I

had no less than 6 "updates" to my "plate" and was the last person to

leave!

Having eaten so much, we met a headmaster of a school adjacent to Ankit's

house. He promised to check if Bashing orphanage has enough school tools.

Also, the school priest gave us Sandhaya- Agnihotra book, with holy Vedas

and mantras. He kindly invited us to come tomorrow morning for a prayer.

We didn't do much for the rest of that day.