West Coast – Day Eleven – Ratha-yatra!
Today I woke up on the floor of the Really Really House. It was in a spare bedroom. Cole stayed here when she first got back into Berkeley.
We both got up and walked to Cole’s house. We slept at the Really Really because Cole’s roommates were having a party. See?
Today was the Ratha-yatra and I was pretty excited. First, however, was breakfast. Cole made some amazing blueberry pancakes…
And Josh came over to help eat them.
We finished up, showered and headed to the BART station to find our way to the city.
The BART system is actually really simple. I got that pretty quickly. But the Muni system, San Francisco’s bus/subway system is pretty foreign to me. The buses turn into subways and vice versa. Sometimes. It’s pretty crazy.
On the Muni to near Golden Gate Park, a nice fellow in a Hogwarts (Harry Potter) shirt sat down next to Cole. Seemingly on cue, she ripped into Harry Potter and all the people who read it. She was vicious and wouldn’t let up. I was the only one who saw the guy in the Hogwarts shirt, and so I was defending people’s choice in reading habits.
A lot of my friends read it and I honestly find nothing wrong with it. It’s not my thing, but if people dig it, that’s great. Cole thought otherwise and wouldn’t let it go.
This went on for a good solid ten minutes. I can’t imagine what this poor boy was thinking. Finally, he got up and moved. I then told Cole that he was wearing a Hogwarts tshirt and was obviously moving because he was offended.
Cole felt really bad, got all red and we had to console her. He got off at the next stop. I would have too.
Dear stranger in the Hogwarts tshirt, I tried. I tried.
Anyway, we reached the Ratha-yatra site around 11:30am. I could hear the drums and kartalas (hand cymbals) and then finally saw the carts.
This was my second San Francisco Ratha-yatra. I think the one in 2004 was a little bigger, but not much.
Radhanatha and Danavira Swamis were there…
And I found Lacie and Alex as well.
This Ratha-yatra always brings out the strange folks and that’s why I love it so much.
The procession finally got started and we danced and chanted (I chanted more than danced) the winding route through Golden Gate Park.
Lacie decided to help pull one of the carts and I joined in after snapping a pic of it.
I walked a bit ahead of the middle cart (Subadhra’s) and Lacie somehow found herself in the middle, right next to Radhanatha Swami. I couldn’t resist taking a few pics. I took three hoping one would turn out, but all three did. Here’s the best one.
Lacie, I’ll send you the larger versions when I get a chance. Until then, enjoy the tiny ones.
At every festival there is always at least one super duper enthusiastic devotee who runs around trying to get everyone to be as super duper enthusiastic as he is. Today, this was our hero:
We got to the festival grounds and as the deities were carried from the carts, this old fellow was offering fully prostrated obeisances. It was amazing and really touching to see. Who was he?
Lacie, Cole, Josh and I hung out for a bit. It was great. I’ve told a few of my friends that I was really really apprehensive about meeting Lacie. From her blog, I had formed an opinion of her that was unfair and simply incorrect. I was wrong and happily so. I thought that she was stern and intense and amazingly unfun. Again, I was wrong. She’s definitely intense and it’s great. But not mean or unfun or anything bad. I’m so glad that I got to meet her.
The day had to come to a close, so we said our good-byes.
It was on the way home that I decided two things. I was probably going to end up moving to Berkeley and that I needed to leave it tonight.
Strange, huh?
Cole and I got some Chinese food and then she walked me to the station. My train arrived, we hugged farewell and I was off for my transfer in Sacramento.
On the way there, there was a girl a few seats away from me. We both got off in Sac. She made some phone calls and seemed almost panicked or confused. I made a few phone calls myself. They announced that the train was coming and she asked me if this was the train to Seattle. I said that it was and we walked out to the platform together.
They were assigning seats and we wound up sitting next to each other. I was kind of happy about this. While a big seat all to myself is nice, conversation is nicer.
And tomorrow we’ll see how that goes.
Night night, folks!
