One of the most bizare things I have ever seen is Karni Mata Temple in Deshnok. It looks like Italian palace from outside but step in and it is clear you are in India. This thing could be nowhere else.
Rats scurry on the shrine's floor, crowd in a circle around a plate with milk, poke their heads out of holes in the walls, climb up the railings. Nothing for the faint of heart or the sockless (you must remove your shoes before you enter). Rat running over your feet means good luck and if you are lucky enough to spot an auspicious white one your luck will know no bounds.
The rats are – of course – holy. Pilgrims believe that they are reincarnated souls saved from the wrath of god of death Yama. And so they treat them accordingly. They feed them, bring them milk and no matter what step on them. That would displease the deity and they would have to donate a golden model of a rat to placate it. But rats are rats. Temple smells like sewer, floor is covered in rats' shit and you no matter how you wash your them your socks are not going to be clean again. And when a rat gets too clouse to one of the visiting Indian girls, the girl starts to scream. No matter how holy the rat is.
Pilgrims also eat prasad. Holy food taken from the temple's shrine. Which has been nibbled on by the rats before.
A lot of rats run over my feet. I did not see the white one though. One tried to nibble on my big toe, other jumped onto my back from the railing and was holding onto my shirt in absolute terror. I did not eat the prasad.
Few pictures
The temple would not look out of place somewhere in Italy.
Pilgrims bring milk.
I will be very lucky as a lot of mice run over my feet.
