A wild RATTATA appears!

Hundreds of years ago the female prophet Karni Mata fell into the depths of despair when one of her favorite musicians died. She begged and begged the gods to bring him back to life, but to no avail. So she used her own mystic powers to make sure he, and every other member of her family who died from then on would be reincarnated as a rat and she built this temple to offer them all sanctuary.

 I've never had the same natural revulsion for animals like spiders, pigeons and rats that most people seem to have- in fact, I've always thought it was some kind of racism that a person will find doves beautiful and pay to have them released at their wedding but then declare pigeons to be diseased scum. Doves are just white pigeons. RACIST. So after my initial shock, I found it pretty easy to adjust to the teeming hordes of rats swarming in every corner and running over my bare feet. I wouldn't have a problem if it was sweet little bunny rabbits or even pet mice, so why should rats bother me? They're just another kind of rodent.

Pilgrims flock from all over India to pray at the temple and interact with the sacred rats- they feed them fruit and candy; and then eat what they leave behind- the rat-saliva drenched scraps evidently have healing properties. Babies are encouraged to join the rats in drinking milk from the big silver pans scattered throughout the temple; and everyone keeps a lookout for the extra lucky white rats that are said to appear only once a year.