Gowramma, the lake Goddess, there's a fly in the pakoda and why the Chinese have a stake in an annual festival

Today is the habba, the festival, and the temple, a pleasant drive away from the farm, is teeming with people: a group of women singing in a corner, families with offering, decked in their finest dresses and a surprising stack up of cars that bear testimony to the increased prices of land. The air is festive, chaotic and happily loud. 

A month ago, as is done every year here, some clay was dug out of the lake bed a short distance from the temple, and fashioned into the Goddess' petite figure, decked with her cloth and jewellery. Today, the Form will go back into the lake; the adornments stored for next year. 

The lake is sacred and conserved; the rule of religious conservation belief reigns as it does in so much of India. 

Children pay little attention to all of this. They, and the Chinese who make the cheap, disposable toys sold here, have a stake in these stalls, except for the ones that serve food. The ones with the stake there are adults with a touching belief in their iron constitutions. And, yes, flies have a stake too and are having a time of their (short) life  (though I don't want to put you off your meal). 

A fly and a flea in a flu
Were stuck.  So what could they do?
Said the flea, Let us fly
Said the fly, Let us flee
So, they flew through a flaw in the flu

I seem to be the only one thinking of the plastic waste that will pile up after today, but wishes aren't horses.....
Change will come one day. But may the festival of  Gowramma - her creation and immersion - never change.