I was at a friend's house this weekend. She is in the seventh month of her pregnancy and her family had planned a traditional South Indian ceremony called the "sreemantham" for her. This ceremony signifies satisfying the craving of the pregnant mother and is similar to a baby shower. Prayers are offered for the healthy physical and mental growth of the child. This event was significant because my friend lives here in USA and her parents-in-law came all the way from India in time to especially to set this ceremony up and help her with the last few months of the pregnancy. An important part of the ceremony is making the mother-to-be wear green glass bangles on her hands and fresh flowers in her hair. My friend's mother-in-law purchased dozens of glass bangles in their native Hyderabad and even bought long garlands of jasmine flowers in Bombay hoping they would survive the 15 hour trip to New York. Unfortunately Air India lived upto its reputation as a completely unreliable airline and canceled their flight from Bombay. The parents-in-law luckily found seats on the flight to New York the following day but the flowers died a sad death. A last minute trip to a grocery store in New Jersey, a purchase of some flowers meant for a vase, and instead cut and arranged in my friend's hair, saved the day.

This desire to celebrate an important family occasion in a typical Indian style made me think about the remarkable capacity, that human beings have, to adapt themselves to the surroundings around them. I always considered Hinduism to be more a way of life than a strict religion. It is only logical to assume that when a person moves from India to another country that has a completely different social environment and culture, the person will have to abandon his or her original way of life. This logic does not seem to apply very well to Indians in USA. People from other parts of the globe have integrated into American society much more seamlessly shedding their old traditions and customs. Indians, however, have found inventive and humorous ways of adapting Indian customs to USA and integrating American customs into their lives.

Most large US cities have an Indian Hindu temple, usually on the outskirts of town. Unlike India where there are separate temples for Vishnu (Venkateshwara), Shiva, Iayappa, Ganesh, etc., in USA, the temples are of the all-Gods-in-one kind. They host the traditional deities like Venketeshwara, Meenakshi, Ganesh, the Shiva lingam and also have pictures of Sai Baba, Rama, Lakshamana and Hanuman. An American Hindu temple is thus a mixture of North Indian and South Indian representations of Hindu Gods as well as holy men. This mixture of Gods enables a Hindu from any part of India to find his or her favorite God to pray to. The temples themselves are wonders of adaptation. Appearing in many avatars ranging from the Tirupathi gopuram styles to one roomed houses, they have all the American conveniences of heat, air conditioning, soda machines, and slot machines for jelly beans and chewing gum. It is common to meet troops of American school and college students touring the larger temples which are considered representative of Indian architecture and anthropology.

Most Americans accept that the USA plays host to people from all parts of the world who have different ways of going about life. Some Americans are not that accepting and complain about the loud ringing of temple bells, and large crowds of people who come to visit the temples. Because of this attitude, some Indian temples have had to relocate or have trouble being built near a residential area. Despite these objections, many temples have been built throughout the length and breath of USA. The oldest and smallest temple is the Ganesh temple in Flushing, New York. Other important temples are the Pittsburgh Venkateswara temple built in marble and with gopurams, the Bridgewater temple in New Jersey, the Meenakshi temple in Houston, another Venkateswara temple in College Park, Maryland, the Livermore temple in California, and the rather unique ISKCON temple located at West Vrindavan (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) in West Virginia.

The temple priests in these Hindu temples are drawn from all over India. The more traditional South Indian priests who speak all slokas in Sanskrit, the cell phone wielding priest from Himachal Pradesh or the ex-Army priest from Uttar Pradesh who saw action in wars between India and Pakistan are representative of the mix. I spoke to one Telugu priest from Vijaywada who had performed a Gujarati wedding in New Jersey. Was it difficult? Performing a wedding to an audience who understood no Telugu and not much Sanskrit? There had been two translators at the wedding. One person translating from Sanskrit to Hindi and the other from Hindi to English and sometimes into Gujarati. The priest said everything took three times as long and he was exhausted at the end of the ceremony. And that the Gujarati food was not spicy at all but he got a huge tip and this made him happy.

The priests have adapted in a remarkable manner. They have figured out the intricacies of American fire alarm systems. When they arrive to perform any ceremony at a home, the first thing they do is to walk up to all the fire alarms and remove the batteries. Unsafe, but that is the only way to be able to light a small fire or many incense sticks without having a fire truck appearing on the doorstep. They know that the average American coconut has no "tail" with which to hold it when breaking it. So they send you away, outside the temple, to find a strong stone to break the coconut against. This is no mean task when in winter when the temperature is zero degrees Fahrenheit. It is really difficult to break a "tail"less coconut with frozen fingers. It is quite amusing to watch the priests control the crowds. Quick sharp commands are barked out in English, "Everybody in line. Stand in line" or "Line please". They know that in USA, a queue is a line. The priests have to face requests for the kind of services that they would never have seen in India. People ask them to perform a wedding in a certain time limit, like two hours, because neither the US born bride nor groom can sit on the floor for a long time. Some clever priest made a three hour recording of all the marriage related Sanskrit slokas on a compact disk and played the disk instead of exhausting his breadth in sub zero temperatures.

Naming ceremonies, ground breaking ceremonies and house warming ceremonies all require a long list of special ingredients. People in states like New Jersey and New York hop into their cars and head towards the large Indian grocery stores where they can easily find everything they want. In the smaller cities or places far away from a well stocked Indian store, a long drive to the nearest big city with an Indian store, sky high prices for the items bought from the priest himself or mail order are some options. Not everything is available in USA though. Some items like camphor tablets which are always burnt in a small diya cannot be bought in USA.

I remember hearing about a somewhat traditional Indian family buying a house in a rural American community. In the South Indian tradition, during a house warming ceremony, a cow is made to enter the new house from the front entrance and leave through the back entrance. This Indian family spied the huge, and not very placid Jersey cows in a neighbor's farm. They showed up on the farmer's doorstep to introduce themselves and request the services of a cow. The farmer's wife was worried that the cow might be butchered in some barbaric fashion and she insisted that her husband accompany his cow. Finally, an astonished American farmer watched as the small framed Indian priest tried to force the large cow to enter the new house and leave it. Even now, after many years of residing in the community, the Indian family is still known for its "cow tale".

On the other end of the spectrum are Indian families who try to integrate American traditions into an Indian lifestyle. Thanksgiving and Christmas are big American holidays and Americans of every religion and color celebrate them. Thanksgiving is similar to the Indian Pongal or Baishaki festivals. The tradition demands that a big bird called the turkey be eaten on Thanksgiving Day. Many Indian vegetarian families with children born and brought up in USA have hit upon clever solutions. Vegetarian turkey made from soya. Or a chocolate cake in a turkey shape. My cousin's family sets up a Christmas tree decorated with little hanging diyas. True examples of where there is a will, there is a way.

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