Sai Baba’s 85th Birtday celebrations

November 23, 2010

Meant to leave Hindupur at 6.15 am. Finally, at 8 am the government car complete with the government employee and his wife using it, arrived. The introductions went something like in our German advertisement for Bausparen (saving plans) that shows these schoolmates meeting up after many years and pull the photos our of their purse competing around their achievements on the three-some status symbols 'my house, my car, my wife'. Only in this case, it went more like 'my house, my (government) car, my (government) job.' No mention of his wife who sat in the back of the car wearing what seemed a bucket load of apparently new bangles. Particular attention to more German like status symbols like the ladies' handbag was not paid. The poor bag was so worn and torn, it was hard to recognize what it once used to be and I seriously considered buying her a new one right there and then.

Once on the 'highway' we had our idlis. Practically packaged in a non-sticky butter paper and wrapped into a diary, these savory cakes made from rice and lentils are typically dipped into some spicy chutney from ground nuts aka peanuts. Together with Ragi, sticky cereal-type balls made from finger millet are the most common South-Indian breakfasts. Ragi is extremely nutritious and considered one of the best ways to ensure a healthy diet especially for villagers living mostly on polished rice or maize meal. In Tekulodu, the location of ProtoVillage, this is what pretty much everyone seems to eat in the mornings.

Idlis are finished. Sweets are next. But what to do with the rubbish??? Oh, let's just throw it out of the window - that's easy. I am used to Indians throwing everything wherever they just stand or walk. But even in this case of educated government employees my curious and perhaps slightly distressed sounding question why we wouldn't take it with us and throw it at the next bin, was just met with a wiggle of their heads. Wow, I'm thinking. What the heck??? What am I doing here?? I don't want to blow things out of proportion but that's certainly a behavior not even a school kid back in Europe would consider displaying.

Along the next sixty odd km we pass (in no particular order) monkeys, school kids in uniforms, farmers going to their fields with their lunch packed in those typical steel containers, wet and dry rice paddies, corn cobs and corn that's drying on the sides of (and sometimes right ON)  the road, lush green shrub forests and water ponds, every now and then rock and monolith formations, hockers with their varied goods on carts, bikers transporting their (live) hens and chicken between their legs or simply dangling them from their feet, women preparing meals on their smoking chulas... and of course, cows, sheep and goats.

We passed the Sai Baba Airport, the Sai Baba Railway station and the Sai Baba Super Speciality Hospital where doctors from all over the world devote a portion of their time (mostly their annual holidays) to treat each and every patient for free. Eventually, we also mastered the road diversions put up to cope with the immense traffic of devotees coming to celebrate Sai Baba's 85th birthday with him and arrived in Puttaparthi where his main Ashram is based. We parked the car (and the driver), took an auto rickshaw and had a very adventurous 2-3 km drive to the main entrance of the Ashram. From there we walked pass numerous buildings such as an indoor sports hall, galleries and schools, schools, schools. For boys, for girls, from nursery to Ph D studies, it's all there and yes, all of that is free of charge too.

When we finally got to the Hillview Stadium purely designed for the annual sports and cultural meets and of course, the celebrations of Sai Baba's birthday (the stadium is capable of holding some 30.000 people on its spectator gallery alone), I was 10x overwhelmed already. No cloud was saving us from the heat increasing by the minute and the crowd impatiently pushed and shoved it's way through the many barriers. Soon it should be over with Indian hospitality as I had gotten to know it. Volunteering staff members completely lost their calm, any feeling of spiritual grounding and equanimity that surely surrounds this place normally was gone. I'm guessing that, in addition to the 30.000 spectators seated in the galleries, at least another 20.000 people tried to find a place to sit cross-legged on the ground in the stadium itself. Water and nibbles were given out, as well as little paper shades to at least protect the head from the worst of the heat. Many thousands, we learnt, had camped out here at night to get a seat at the  respective ladies-OR-gents-only sections of the gallery. Our delay in the morning now took its toll. No way of getting onto the gallery seats, the only option left was the middle of the stadium and even that looked impossible. With the help of a friend amongst the staff members Kalyan's mom was allowed to stand and we were allowed somewhere near the posts shielding THE path where Sri Sathya Sai Baba would pass by on his golden chariot.

We waited for what must have been a couple of hours, the aggression levels rose by the minute as more and more people looked for a place to stay  and there was times when my mind went into bouts of thinking 'this is more like a camp'. Having some of the volunteers clearly abusing their power, pushing and hitting even elderly and children and just having watched the movie 'Waltzing with Bashir' may have contributed to such abstruse thoughts. I was clearly stunned. This was not at all what I had expected. But that's how it goes with expectations, right? They aren't met and we don't meet them either.

Inside, I remained calm though, I had nice 'conversations' with everyone near who spotted the foreigner in me and the camera in my hands. The usual 'photo, photo please' worked here as well and nobody minded me video documenting and photographing the whole lot. Neither the beautiful moments of sharing a water with another, helping someone up after being pushed down nor the harsh scenes. I had no idea when Sai Baba was supposed to arrive or what would happen after that and I was separated from the others. But you could tell by the vibe of the crowd, so, when he finally was about to enter the stadium I knew immediately. Musicians play a tune, the procession starts and before I knew it, Sai Baba had passed and was gone. No speech, no addressing his devotees, instead there was one speech after another BY them. Nobody seemed to care however, everyone got up and left, at least the entire crowd squatting in the center did not. That was it!!! We traveled hours, walked for ages, waited for another century and THIS WAS IT????  Hmmmm…..

I should take some more pictures of people then, I thought. Catch a glimpse of the vibe. The results of that (videos will need to be edited) you find as the latest photo album on our Facebook page. Enjoy checking them out, I enjoyed taking each and every one of them. In the meantime, I'm making plans to double check against this experience and go back to the Ashram on a 'normal' day ;-).