Temple run (the second)

On Saturday we took Nisha to be blessed at the Hindu temple near Birmingham Shri Balaji Temple. Three and a half years ago we made this little pilgrimage, greeted by two great white elephants, with Nikhil strapped to my chest in a baby bjorn and in exactly the same way as Nikhil did, Nisha slept soundly through the whole thing.

For those non-Hindus in our party the highlight of the trip was the food, not only the lovely food available once you’d had your Archana (or blessing) but also the dosa stall on the far side of the car park which we hit up for some excellent masala dosa, idli, and vada, a large bag of which followed us home to be enjoyed with tea later!

The temple is lovely and the process very reminiscent of temples I’ve been to in India, Nikhil pleasingly recognised that he needed to take his shoes off upon entry. Combining this experience with that of our Saturday swims, he promptly slotted them inside mine which was very sweet.
He and his cousin Adaya took all the intrinsic temple related processes in their stride and were interested in what the priests were doing.

So our second baby related temple run went beautifully even though it was much colder doing it in January rather than September.
We have also decided to repeat the baptism/Hindu naming ceremony at Pembroke College but that’s going to be a whole different kettle of vegetarian fish.

Not orchestrated at all!

All of us at the temple (Nikhil is hiding)

Waiting in line, photography prohibited.