Throngs of people, but of you I saw no sign. Did my diversion work? Are you in Jaipur, perhaps, riding past its pink walls on the back of a painted elephant? Or further south, floating down the Kerala backwaters, shaded by the curved thatched roof of a rice barge?

Wherever you are, I hope the weather is pleasant.

***

Kuala Lumpur in January is thirty degrees and festival season, which is to say: it is loud and crowded and nobody is watching anyone in particular. Thaipusam brings a million people to Batu Caves. I have always found crowds more navigable than empty streets.

The procession begins before dawn in the city and winds its way north. I joined it for the last hour, which was enough.

Have you experienced the kavadi? You will have read about them at least. The photographs don’t prepare you. Elaborate metal frames, some of them taller than the person carrying them, fixed to the body by skewers and hooks through the skin. Cheeks, tongue, chest, back. The devotees walk for hours this way. They do not look like people in pain. They look like people who have gone somewhere else entirely.

The statue of Murugan at the entrance is forty-two meters tall and gold. Everyone walks past it looking up. I did too, for a moment.

The 272 steps to the Cathedral Cave are painted in bright colors with monkeys collecting their toll of treats at the edges. I climbed with the crowd, which had its own momentum. Halfway up, on the left, a wire fence and a locked gate.

The gate presented no difficulty. I will leave it at that.

Inside: a silence that was shocking after the tumult without. The festival was a vibration in the rock, muffled and distant. I had a flashlight. I had what I took from the Ashram. I had another piece to find.

***

I was wrong. It was not there. Someone must have moved it. Centuries ago.

But my search was not wasted. The one I held... reacted. It revealed a sign. A sigil. I do not yet know what it means. I will decipher it before you do.

— N.

Murugan is the Hindu god of war, victory, and wisdom, and one of the most widely venerated deities in Tamil culture. The Batu Caves temple is among the most significant sites of his worship outside India.