Electricity has been out for the whole day. We're cleaning up and looking at birds flying around. We spot a hoopoe and a good number of others we are yet to identify. I can see that working on our book of uddipan will be a rather laboursome task, though certainly worth the trouble in the end. After all, who wouldn't like to know the environment of the lila better?

In the afternoon, we head to Amiya Gopal's and Subhangada's place at Radha Nagar colony. They are a sweet couple from Spain who have been living at Radha-kunda for years. They are very dedicated in their bhajana, going daily for a parikrama of Giriraja and taking good care of their Thakurji. Amiya and Subhangada have recently purchased a house built by another gurubhai, Acyutananda, who is now living in Hungary again. The samadhi of Narahari Sarakara is located in the yard of the house. Narahari's tirobhava-tithi (disappearance day) is the day after tomorrow, and the festivities are already starting.

The samadhi used to be located at Nuton Ghera right next to Radharani Seva Center, but a local family purchased the property and in the course of the construction broke down the samadhi. Acyuta collected as much of it as was available, and fortunately also saved the samadhi-pitha that was still intact. Recently, he had it put back together, filling up the gaps with cement. Rebuilding it with the original red sand-stone would have been an enormous task. Whatever you see painted in the picture of the samadhi is renovated, the rest is what's left over of the original samadhi-mandir.

The babas were busy preparing the festival arrangements. It started four o'clock Indian time, which means about an hour late. Four kirtaniyas gathered and began the adhivas-kirtan. Consider adhivas-kirtan something like the mangalacharan of the upcoming kirtan and festivities of the next day. The next day, incidentally Ekadashi, would be kirtan all day long. I get around half an hour of it on tape, then it becomes too dark to record anything. Expect to see the video in the media-section soon. Some thirty devotees attend the occasion. Not that there would have been much more space in the yard, anyway. The kirtan goes on for around an hour and a half, followed by parikrama of the samadhi-mandir. Amiya and the babas then distribute some sweets to everyone attending. It is already dark.

We stay around for a while more, taking darshan of the sweet Giridhari living in the house. We also chat with Amiya and Subhangada for a while. We haven't really had the chance to sit down and talk much yet. Eventually we make our way back home through the bazaar.

After hearing of the three-day electricity strike, Malati had told Giridhari that if he wants to eat good, then electricity must come back sooner. True enough, the lights turned back on in the middle of the adhivas-kirtan, and Giridhari got fresh rolls and cream cheese together with pasta in the evening. The elecric owen we got from Mathura seems to be serving its purpose surprisingly well.