Last week, we ventured down to New Orleans in search for good times- the transcendental variety and took a family road trip. We planned on attending Lord Jagannatha’s Ratha Yatra and so we headed west, no east… no, wait, where the hell are we? ? It’s not relevant anyway.
Upon arriving in New Orleans, we get lost (as we had conflicting instructions) and loud bickering between opposing parties quickly ensued. There is nothing more obnoxious than Indian people arguing very loudly in a moving car about driving directions. No offense, guys but you all know I’m easily annoyed. Meanwhile, my husband (who’s driving) was suspicious of the GPS and asked me to call our devotee-friend for instructions. After a couple minutes of shouting over the phone with my friend, my husband recognized something familiar and the GPS started working again (the piece of garbage kept losing satellite signal intermittently). My husband, still suspicious, relented and cautiously followed the GPS instructions and soon we found ourselves approaching ISKCON of New Orleans straight ahead, thankfully! Relief, I could finally escape my torture chamber and get much needed darshan of Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha Radha-Kanta! As soon as I escaped, I met with Ananta-Hari prabhu, a wonderful Bengali brahmachari pujari, who greeted me with an enormous, “Jaya!” and we quickly offered prostrated pranams to each other. There were several other friends there from Atlanta, North Carolina etc., that I haven’t seen in such a long time. I was blissful and joyful of that experience and didn’t want to leave. Incredibly, this was only the beginning of
my stay there. I wanted to head to the hotel and get to bed early for the Ratha Yatra festival the next morning. I will post some photos for you soon, so you can all see Sri Sri Radha Radha-Kantra and Their loyal servants.
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