Only in India

April 10th, 2007 | Published in travel | 11 Comments

I asked at my favourite India travel forum for advice about entering a Hindus-only temple in India (I’m just curious), the same one which refused to allow Lord Curzon and Indira Gandhi to enter (as she married a Parsi). This was the answer I received: try to wear a local made saree and cover your head so much that it’s hard to see your face and enter with a priest( you can hire from your hotel) … you may able to enter.

Price of saree: 100 rupees
Price of priest: 200 rupees
Price of long shawl to “cover my head so much it’s hard to see my face”: 50 rupees

Jagannath Mandir’s 6000 employees (or 20 000 other temple workers) noticing a Chinese girl with a big camera under her saree, who tries to throw the camera to the hired priest and hurriedly wrap shawl around head when caught: priceless

Binto

Please continue writing as you do. Your blog is a good read. What is the india travel forum you mention here?

Have a good day!

popagandhi

:)

The one and only Indiamike.com.

nyx

Arab Street and Haji Lane, here i come! thanks for the visit and recommendation :)

skates

'Priceless' as it might be, so is the humility of letting things pass as a sign of respect for local sensitivities, regardless of how ridiculous they might be.

che

i was just reading your blog entries and i felt highly compelled by some higher power to leave a comment, i would never comment on stranger's blogs but this time your entries about love has inspired me so deeply to do so myself for the love of my life. well, so thank you stranger!

sanjay

Hi Andrianne,
Its not as easy the way u explained by cost of sarres etc.But it needs guts and practice to do this adventure.

popagandhi

Well.. I was just kidding.... :)

kedo

i do like ur blog!
india is also my dreamland ^_^

i'm a student in china now
when i asked " how to improve my english writing skills" in a BBS
they suggested me to read ur blog

Jamie

Hi there Adri,

Remember Pratima, the nice lady that works at The Aliment Hotel in Darjeeling?

She got refused entry to the Jagganath Temple, too, and she's a Hindu! And she was born in Nepal, at the time the world's only Hindu Kingdom.

Apparently, she 'didn't look Indian' enough.

They finally let her in because she could speak Hindi fluently and was wearing a salwaar kameez.

Those are the 'local sensitivities' that you're dealing with.

popagandhi

Yes, i figured as much. Am afraid my hindi is nowhere near - and it's unlikely that plan B, my supposed marriage last year to an influential Orissa brahmin classmate of mine, will work either. I'll have have to gaze longingly at the gopuram from my hotel.

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