'How did we end up here?' level: Hindu mass

Today I went to see Little India with a friend of mine (finally, I have been wanting to go there from day 1). Since Sunday is apparently the only day off for most indian workers the place was completely crowded. The streets were full of male indians, a setting in which I blended in perfectly. We happened to walk by a hindu temple and decided to look inside. (What else would you do if you encountered a building like this?:)

Once we got inside we tried to figure out what to do in order to offend these people the least, but there was no pattern or distinguishable logic behind the actions of the men in the building. The seemingly fortuite structure of the temple itself was as clear as the sun compared to the moves of the people that varied from sitting around looking in all possible directions, to lying face down on the floor or running around without an apparent concrete destination. The ringing of the little bells we did not dare to touch and the different statues dedicated to different gods(?) did a good job distracting us so we basically stood in everyone's way.

So when we just thought that we were getting some control over the situation this appeared around the corner:

We went back to total confusion as these musicians approached us (we always stood in the right spot as you can see...) followed by a mass of indian men. Bevor we knew what was happening we were surrounded by them (again I was harder to spot  in the crowd than any ninja) and the priests had gathered around this curtain. The loudspeakers of the temple (I am assuming those were loudspeakers, they might as well have been a bunch of guys singing in the background) were now playing hindu prayers to which some of our neighbours sang along. 

The curtain is lifted and we see this altar (?) to which the priest starts blowing  all kinds of incenses while some other priest lights on about 7000 candles. After 10 minutes of incenses and indian prayers we decide to try and get out of the crowd in order to look around. We got out after a few minutes as the crowd was dissolving, in fact the priest had given up the incense a few minutes ago and was now throwing flower buds at the statues. Getting out was easier than I thought for I was taller than most man there. 

Notice the beautiful necklaces made out of flowers that people sacrifice for the statues. (They sold them on the streets, too, but I was not sure if buying them and not giving them to the statues would be considered an offense, so I'll have to ask...). In the main part of the temple a priest was handing out the white powder that they put on ther foreheads (I am so well informed, this is a pleasure to read...). Another frequent move caught my attention. People would put their hands over the fire from the priest that was walking around and then hold their palms against their faces. I don't know what it means but they did so very fervently.

Here are some pictures of the very colourful statues:

(I really need that many arms, to be able to finish all the stuff I have to do right now...)

This is the outer decoration of the temple. By the way, people were asked to take their shoes of at the entrance, so we were doing all this barefoot:

The amount of shoes found in front of the temple was therefore immense. I am pretty sure not everyone finds their shoes after being there, especially because they all looked the same (standard sandals, in which case it probably does not even mater if you get ones that are not your own, as long as the size is correct...). Being one of about 3 women in the temple I was not very worried about my sandals, though.

Here is a picture of me and my friend. I know this is a tourist overkill, but I wanted to show you how litte we (and specially I) stood out there. 

Important note: It was permitted to take pictures inside of the temple and I really started taking them after I saw that some of the indians themselves took some with their cellphones. I know that I am a big fat tourist at the moment, but the respect for other religions is an important priority.