Dogfood in an Indian Parade

This is the story of how I participated in an Indian parade carrying a can of dog food. One night a few months ago, we spotted an unidentifiable glowing vehicle, resembling a chariot, driving down our street accompanied by loud chanting. We had no idea, even after asking around, whether this was an Indian or Chinese tradition, or perhaps a shared hallucination. Then, the other night, we saw this, complete with police escort:

It appeared to be the same thing, however, before we could chase it, it got away. Then, we went out to feed the local stray dog. We can't help it, he's cute, and the French restaurant that normally feeds him was closed. Lo and behold, when we went out, the vision was back! This time, we gave chase. Though we tried to remain unseen, not knowing if this was some kind of funeral, we were seized by an Indian man in robes, who stopped traffic so that we could join the mysterious procession. Here is what we saw. It turns out this is for a lesser sea-oriented Hindu festival called Maasi Magam. Which, of course has nothing to do with our previous magic chariot sighting, so the mystery remains unsolved. Those tricky Hindus. And all this time, I was carrying dog food.

Our buddy was happy about that.