a quick trip to Kashmir

ha!
no we did not go to Kashmir!
but we did finally give in to temptation and pay 30 Rs. for a mini-pilgrimage up pretend Kashmir mountains. And met monsoon on the way down.
A large giant mountain was created out of papier mache and they have plasticky characters of pilgrims, deers, monkeys and soldiers with AK47s and then at turns incense and all sorts of Hindu gods surrounded by worshipful papier mache elephants. Forgive my ignorance for not knowing the stories very well. We have Bharvi to explain at every turn who this is and what they do, but I didn't write them down to rehash later!
Of course, as with everything here, it must be done barefoot even through a fountain and mock-Ganges river! At the end we came upon a large ice sculpture in a cold room and the men were yelling for donations and throwing rice at us (apparently to eat). The ice sculpture is Krishna incarnated as war- it was really like a large bullet of ice. Supposed to be like a "sheath."
As we came out of the room to descend the large mountain (probably three- four stories high), it started POURING. Crazy rain, and everyone backed up into the room as we ran ran ran down the mountain.
We went to the shoe storage and the boys inside screamed at us in Tamil- apparently things like "you big white idiots! seek shelter and wait for the rain to be over!" Everyone at the carnival surrounding this new year's mountain were huddled under food stands- they sure weren't going to waste their 30 Rs tickets by running home!
But we were all too willing to sacrifice those 50 cents and take a rickshaw out of there without seeing the rides.