Ghost in the Machines

I stole these pictures from my friend Chris. While we were out of town, the locals celebrated a fairly unique ritual. During this ritual, or puja, Hindus pay homage to Vishwakarma, the great architect of the universe. To celebrate, the faithful clean all of their machines and offer gifts to Vishwakarma. The machines are elaborately decorated and basically given the day off. Our drivers took this day to gather all of the vehicles and celebrate.

Here all of our vehicles and the drivers' personal mopeds are decorated with an appropriate offering on banana leaves in front.

The drivers; Diso (Singapore), my driver Pinto, Chandran (Chile), Alexander (Australia), and Anand (RAF)

Traditional puja.

Charlotte (Australia) helps spread sandalwood paste.

Holy tuk-tuk!