Jan 9, Where's the Guru?

Jan 9 – Where’s the Guru?
Once again I couldn’t sit around and twiddle my fingers in the hotel any longer. I left Michael a note with my itinerary and a brief description of what I was wearing (sort of morbid, I know). I took the auto rickshaw to Ghoddard Road that has all types of different stores. In a store called G3 their merchandise are all packed in plastic bags. How did I see the items you wonder? Well as soon as I walked in a sales guy very enthusiastically opened over 20 packages to show me things he thought I might like. I’m not sure what planet he thought I was from though cause I would never be caught dead in any of the things he was showing me. Yet again, another cultural difference. I walked down the street and instantly the beggar children swarmed me. They were like the beggars you see in Chinese movies. They look like someone dropped them in a bag of clay and rolled them around until they just look walking clay people. They all had long walking sticks too. They were fighting each other with these sticks to stake claim over me! I picked up my pace and went to a vendor. I bought peanut sweets for them and they snatched the bag out of my hand and ran away hitting each other with sticks to fight over the bad. A security guard actually thought they were stealing from me but I said it was okay. Much later another beggar woman and her little child came to me. They didn’t say anything but the little girl kept stepping on my foot for attention. I gave her my fruit bar and she zoomed off right away. I have to remember to load up on candies and treats when I go out again because it would be crazy to pull out money in front of these people.
As I was wandering I happened upon a religious procession for a Hindu Guru that happened to be passing thru Surat. There was a band and dancers and religious followers milling around waiting for him to show up. The band members told me about what was going and they welcomed me to join in on the procession. What luck, and I had nothing better to do at the time (I was getting weary of the beggars). I did stick out like a sore thumb. I wrapped myself in a green shawl that I just bought, but I still had my sketchers, capris, and purse poking out underneath. I also have short and colored hair with is incredibly rare here. At first the band man was so nice about telling me about what was all going on. Then he started to creep me out. He was asking stuff like, “what are you doing tomorrow?”, and I would respond that I’m spending the day with my husband. Then he would say “I’ll spend the day with you, I’ll wait right here, all day until you come” etc….creepy. Eww. I had to step away from him at that point because my repeatedly talking about my husband wasn’t a deterrent. I took some pics of the female dancers. They were so beautiful! There was a little girl who was so poised and lovely that I had to take a picture of her. I can only hope that it captured some of her spirit and enthusiasm about the event.