Picture a bright ballroom, lined with eight chandeliers and covered in tile flooring. Red and green canvas carpets line the section of the ballroom closest to the stage. Kids, teenagers and young adults are seated in each row. Where the carpets end, a mass of cushioned seats face the stage, occupied by elders from all over the city. Next to the stage is a raised platform covered in a massive, ornate rug that could have been produced only from a South Asian bazaar. No violinists, guitarists, or pianists are to be found, but rather an orchestra of harmoniums, sitars, tablas, dhols, mridangams and all kinds of Indian folk instruments being played on the platform. On the stage sits an enormous shrine, or "Chowki", dedicated to the Hindu goddess Durga. It is the evening of January 1st, 20XX, and it doesn't matter which year I'm describing, because this prayer was hosted at this place for every single one of them.
The place I just described isn't a place in the middle of India, though you'd be reasonably accurate to guess that. This is a place just off Beechnut Street and Highway 6, in southwest Houston, Texas. One street over, one could leave the Hindu temple and enter the world of Vietnamese Buddhism, or go one more street and find himself or herself in a mosque, just in time for Maghrib (sunset prayer).
