The Priest looked like Aragon

It's official. I've lost it. Not the possession of my mental faculties you dolt, my old poonal. For the non-brahmin readers of this rather modest blog, a poonal is the thread that brahmins consider sacred. Avani Avattam is the day we replace the old poonal with a new one. As usual, it was a day of bizarre occurrences for me.

First off, the priest really reminded me of Aragon. He had the same facial structure and teeth. On a tangential note, did anyone else notice that a majority of the cast in the LOTR trilogy had very poor dental hygiene? Was it just me, or did Aragon and Eowyn have really messed up teeth? Next, the guy sitting next to me also was really familiar. It was really aggravating. I finally figured out where I've seen him before. I once designed a character in a game who looked just like him. What a loser! Imagine being born with a face someone has designed in a computer game!

During the actual ritual, this game guy suddenly produced a twig out of thin air and placed it in front of me. It had a centipede on it. Either a centipede or a millipede. It was blood red in colour and was struggling to get off the twig. It eventually did, and proceeded to weave a course towards me. I was transfixed by this evil creature heading my way. I picked up a twig and caught the 'pede on it and placed it down so that it's feet were off the ground. Harmless thing to do, I thought. My uncle next to me however, kept staring at it. So a neighbour gave him a scrap of paper ostensibly to cover the twig with but my uncle freaked out and grabbed the 'pede with the scrap of paper and folded it and threw it behind him. Seriously more interesting than the slokas.

There comes a time in every brahmin's life when he wears both poonals together. For just an instant. Therein lies the fundamental inconsistency of brahmin scriptures. Or my clumsiness. I managed to get both the new and old poonals intertwined in a matter of seconds. My uncle and I were struggling for about fifteen minutes trying to unravel the darn thing, only managaing to make it worse, when a kindly soul lent us a blade and we chopped off more than half of the old one. I walked out of the temple with half the old one dangling from my shoulder. When I went home, it took all of two minutes for my aunt to untangle the mess and I was a free bird!

The same thing happened last year too. It was like God telling me not to wear a new poonal. Or telling me to wear both. Or telling me to be more religious. Anyway, I don't understand why God can't make his intentions clearer if he is omnipotent. But thats another story, for another day.