Navjote notions

Our seven-year-old grandson Zain Sidhwa was born in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, where he resides. He has attended a few navjotes there. His parents have just started talking to him about his navjote, which they plan to have performed in India. His mom asked him to write about what he thought his navjote would be like. Here goes his understanding of the event (reproduced word for word!):

"A navjote is a religint thing that Indeans do, otherwise they will have to find another religint. First I will go to the temple. Then I will recite my prayers. Then my friends and family will arrive. I will play with them for 30 minutes. Then they will call me for my bath. Finally when I come out of my bath I will have my navjote! But first they take a coconut and an egg and spin it around seven times and they take a leaf and I choe it and spit it out and have a bitter juice and drink it. After doing my navjote I get presents like shirts, pants, underware and vests. I might play with my friends. I will also get a gold chain. Then everyone went home and so did I.”

DILNAVAZ E. BHAGWAGAR

Nagpur

diledul@yahoo.com