Communicating in Delhi

My Hindi is very poor and largely consists of a collection of phrases to give directions to auto-rickshaw drivers or to bargain with shopkeepers. However, with a few words of Hindi, lots of English and plenty of hand waving and smiling, I can usually achieve my limited goals in communication.

Last Saturday was an exception. I was walking along our street and saw a man selling the little lamps that are used in puja (Hindu religious ceremonies). Lots of our neighbours had them in front of their houses as Diwali (the Festival of Lights) was fast approaching, so I thought I might as well buy some and do the same. I asked him how much they were, and he said 10 rupees each. 'There is also a thali for 50 rupees', he said (this whole conversation taking place in Hindi). A thali is a large metal plate and I'd actually been looking for one for our kitchen. I said I'd take the thali and handed him the 50 rupees.

To my surprise, he then put the little lamp and some oil on the thali, then started adding little piles of sugar, pepper and other things that looked like condiments, plus several yellow flowers and a strip of black cloth as well as a handful of metal screws. I turned to Jess who was with me and remarked that he must think we want the thali to do puja, so he's putting all the relevant items on it. 'Never mind', I said, 'as soon as we're home we'll toss the condiments and cloth and keep the thali and lamp'. I thanked him and started to wander home with my thali.

I'd only gone a few steps when an old lady grabbed me and pointed me to a roadside shrine. I was pushed down some steps and herded into the roadside shrine. I stood there a bit bewildered when a man in white came over and showed me what to do. I was required to pour the oil over the idol's head, place the black cloth on top, light the lamp and throw my offerings of condiments, flowers and metal screws at the idol's feet. OK, so I did all that, thinking 'well I've managed to geet rid of the things I didn't need, but I've lost my lamp. Never mind, I still have my thali'. The man in white then indicated that I needed to toss some more money next to the idol. I asked if I could take a picture, which is above, and you can see my little lamp burning near my thali.

The man then took the thali away and gave it back to the guy selling the puja ingredients! So I had intended to buy a lamp, got talked into buying a thali, but instead I walked away a total of 60 rupees poorer, with no lamp or thali, having just done puja to a Hindu idol. My Hindi communication skills need improving!

A few days later I asked my university students about this particular Hindu god - what had I actually asked for when I did puja? Apparently this particular god specialises in doing harm to one's enemies - if you want some misfortune to befall someone else, you go and do puja to his idol. I wonder who I inadvertently cursed?