Brooklyn. Barcelona. Belgrade.

Our way home from seeing Ra-One, the Bollywood blockbuster of the year, included many a detour. We first came upon a “puja” or celebration in honor of the Hindu goddess Kali, the destroyer. The fearsome goddess’s name literally means, “the black one”, so my presence, as you can imagine, was regarded as portent. Normally, only men dance at these celebrations, as you can see in the video, but I was invited—more like begged, implored, and damn near dragged—to join in. I escaped before it came to that. Would hate to anger the goddess with a bad impersonation. Or tangle with energies I don’t quite understand yet.