Hours before daybreak in Avaniyapuram, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a large crowd gathers to celebrate the annual harvest festival called Pongal. Spectators occupy long makeshift galleries erected on both sides of a barricaded track. Those who can't find space climb onto the rooftops of nearby houses.
At one end of the track below, dozens of barefoot men in brightly colored numbered shirts and matching shorts are jostling, pulling themselves up onto others’ shoulders and trying to see what stands behind a narrow opening.
