About a month ago AFS informed us that they would be sending the 4 of us to Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct a research project of our choosing in Hindi. While we were very unclear what the purpose of this research project was and what AFS wanted we picked topics ranging from famous Varanasi silk saris to ghats and Hindu mandirs, to classical dance and song to Kinnars (see my last blog post). Our week in Varanasi is the closest thing the 4 of us got to a spring break while on our NSLI-Y/AFS program, but we were more than happy to escape from the more recently suffocating environment of Daly College and do some exploring.
Varanasi is the oldest living (continuously inhabited city) in the world. Its name comes from two Ganga tributaries Varuna and Asi. Varanasi is also known as Banaras and Kashi (it has enough names to satisfy all the generations is has been standing). It is THE major pilgrimage spot for Hindus were they go to bathe in the Ganges River and dispense the ashes of their dead. Their silk saris, paan, and 80+ ghats put them on the map for foreign and domestic travelers alike.
Indore to Delhi, Delhi to Varanasi, Varanasi airport to Sunbeam School on a 1.5 hour bumpy and squished car ride. The stop in Delhi was wonderful, we all overate and stuffed ourselves with as many pastries made with eggs and pizza hut products as we could in our 1 hour layover. Luckily when we arrived in Banaras the weather was wonderful, not hellishly hot yet, and remained that way for the majority of the week. Liam and I both suffer from chronic car sickness (we take our illnesses very seriously) so we were busy trying to fall asleep to avoid nausea or trying not to concentrate on how uncomfortable the 4 of us were crammed into a backseat meant for 3 people. Traveling in India is always bumpy, on unpaved and cracked roads with lots of sudden halts. It’s definitely a fun time for people who suffer from chronic car sickness! We finally arrived at Sunbeam, the school we would call home for the next week, and piled into our rooms.
Varanasi is the oldest living (continuously inhabited city) in the world. Its name comes from two Ganga tributaries Varuna and Asi. Varanasi is also known as Banaras and Kashi (it has enough names to satisfy all the generations is has been standing). It is THE major pilgrimage spot for Hindus were they go to bathe in the Ganges River and dispense the ashes of their dead. Their silk saris, paan, and 80+ ghats put them on the map for foreign and domestic travelers alike.
Indore to Delhi, Delhi to Varanasi, Varanasi airport to Sunbeam School on a 1.5 hour bumpy and squished car ride. The stop in Delhi was wonderful, we all overate and stuffed ourselves with as many pastries made with eggs and pizza hut products as we could in our 1 hour layover. Luckily when we arrived in Banaras the weather was wonderful, not hellishly hot yet, and remained that way for the majority of the week. Liam and I both suffer from chronic car sickness (we take our illnesses very seriously) so we were busy trying to fall asleep to avoid nausea or trying not to concentrate on how uncomfortable the 4 of us were crammed into a backseat meant for 3 people. Traveling in India is always bumpy, on unpaved and cracked roads with lots of sudden halts. It’s definitely a fun time for people who suffer from chronic car sickness! We finally arrived at Sunbeam, the school we would call home for the next week, and piled into our rooms.
After our arrival at Sunbeam we headed to the ghats for evening aarti. Every day at around 7PM pundits (Hindu priests) gather on the Dashashwamedh Ghat for this aarti performance. At least a thousand people crammed onto the ghat stairs and on select reserved areas to watch the show. Lucky us, we were able to sit in a reserved section right in front of one of the seven pundits. Liam and I were entrusted with a sting connected to two bells in order to ring them when the time was right and pooja in full swing. After devotional songs aarti began and lasted for the next 30-45 minutes. In front of each pundit there was a table with a conch shell (to be blown), diyas, bells, incense, and other various Hindu pooja related items. This time basically consisted of these seven pundits moving each item in a circle from right to left while turning directions themselves simultaneously, which is pretty much the definition of aarti. It was cool, definitely a fun experience to people watch and see one of the more famous poojas of India. Here are some pictures!
The following morning we woke up at the ungodly time of 4AM for Subah-E-Banaras, a morning version of the aarti we attended the previous evening but on the Assi Ghat. We watched the pundits do their ritual for a while before we joined pooja around a fire. We sat on the floor surrounding a fire which a pundit would pour ghee (clarified butter) into while we then doused the fire with more wood. Chanting, fire, and ghee all fun stuff. After we finished aag (fire in Hindi). We descended more ghat steps until we were on the bank of the Ganga (the cool, more hip Indian way to say Ganges River). This was my favorite morning solely because of the Ganga’s presence. We watched the sunrise while drinking some kick fire lemon masala tea and I embarrassingly tried to capture the beauty with my camera and ultimately failed (some things are just too big and too amazing to capture). The fun didn’t stop here, oh no, we hired a rickety boat and it’s driver and took a cruise on the river to see all the ghats and morning activity on the river. Dhobis (washermen), pilgrims, and people of all walks of life congregated on the banks going about their day. This river is really something else. In Hinduism is is believed to be the source of life and I can now understand that on a basic level. Morning baths, worship, washing clothes, sending away the ashes of loved ones, even brushing teeth were all centered around this river. It was astounding to see the life, in it’s most literal sense, if brought to its banks and to the city.
,From the best morning of my life we went to eat some street aaloo ki sabji and kachori a Varanasi/UP special. Fun fact: Kachori in MP means a fried pastry stuffed with some daal or other filling but in UP it means poori (a fried roti (tortilla)). I am totally pro at eating with my hands but I haven’t figured out how to eat standing up with only one hand. I had to shamefully scoop my subji with my kachori. I so desperately wanted to shout out to the street, “I AM NOT SOME HIPPY FROM AMERICA COMING TO FIND SPIRITUALITY I AM AN INDIAN! I AM AN INDIAN DAMN IT! I refrained for the sake of my Hindi teacher and Americans.
From our morning breakfast street stand we headed to Ramnagar Fort, a fort built in the 18th century on the bank of the Ganga. We had a fun time trying to be admitted into the fort museum (some conflict about us not being students and inevitably being foreign) and seeing the rotting relics ranging from tiger skins to royal robes. The whole complex wasn’t preserved too well and had a heart attack worthy bat home in one of the hallways. It smelled wonderful, as you can imagine. Luckily we stopped at a shop famous in Varanasi for it’s lassi. Lassi is a yogurt/kurd drink served in a clay pot and it’s possibly my favorite item from Indian cuisine. This lassi was freezing cold, topped with rabadi, another Indian sweet, and was the best lassi I have had in my life.
That evening we drove to the Muslim quarter of Varanasi, easily identified because of the green paint and conservative dress, to visit a famous weaving shop. We walked into the heart of the neighborhood - if we didn’t have little kids telling us where to go we would have been lost forever - and ended up with a large fan club of 20+ little kids in front of a building with a lot of clanging and clashing coming from the inside. The shop owner showed us the hand looms and the power looms, both very loud and very intricate. This was Liam’s area of interest - his blog post about his experience is here - so Lauren and I eventually wandered around until we were invited into someone’s home for ice cream where we were drilled by the family’s older girls about whether or not we had boyfriends and what we liked in school. It was a successful meeting for Liam as he learned a lot about the weaving trade and a fun time for me and Lauren as we got to eat ice cream and make some new friends!
The next morning we headed to Kabir Chaura, a neighborhood area in Varanasi famous for it’s narrow lanes, musician residential area, and previous home to Guru Shri Kabirsaheb, a famous yogi and poet. We met with Sajan Mishra, a musician famous all over India for his classical music. Later we drove 13 km out of Varanasi to Sarnath.
Sarnath is notable for its significance in Buddhism. It is the first place where Buddah taught Dharma and it where the Dhamekh Stupa stands. This visit would have been more exciting if we had any interest in Buddhism or old historic ruins, but alas we were more interested in Hinduism - hello the whole Ganga river scene?? Either way I appreciated the frescos depicting Buddah’s life inside the temple. I just felt like I could really relate to the emotions portrayed. Sorry for the not so stellar report of this day, it wasn't my favorite and a I was ripped off by a golawala (frozen ice ball snow cone) so that didn't help too much either.
Sarnath is notable for its significance in Buddhism. It is the first place where Buddah taught Dharma and it where the Dhamekh Stupa stands. This visit would have been more exciting if we had any interest in Buddhism or old historic ruins, but alas we were more interested in Hinduism - hello the whole Ganga river scene?? Either way I appreciated the frescos depicting Buddah’s life inside the temple. I just felt like I could really relate to the emotions portrayed. Sorry for the not so stellar report of this day, it wasn't my favorite and a I was ripped off by a golawala (frozen ice ball snow cone) so that didn't help too much either.
That evening we went to our Hindi teacher, Dr. Rajopadhyay’s childhood home where he was born. According to Guru Ji (our new nickname for Dr. Raj after our Sarnath tour guide insisted on calling him so) his home was over 200 years old. We met his distant relatives who still inhabit the structure and rent out portions of the home. Dr. Raj’s family is Maharashtrian, from South India, so they are all very calm, polite, and enjoyable people to be around. They showed us around their home which was very confusing and involved crossing bridges over street lanes to access other areas of the house but probably one of the more memorable parts of our trip. Careful to avoid holes and broken steps in the roof they took us to the top of the house where we were able to see a modest skyline of their historic neighborhood and actually see the stars, a luxury for us stuck in the city.
The following morning we went on a temple crusade! We visited the Bharat Mata temple, Sankat Mochan temple, Vishvanath temple, and the Kal Bhairav temple. The Bharat Mata temple was the least temple like, it was literally just a topographic map of India in an old, historic building but Lauren and Alessandro, our accompanying Italian exchange student, held a python outside of this Mandir. We weren’t allowed inside of the Vishvanath temple because of “security reasons” being foreigners who didn’t have their passports glued to their faces. Luckily our Guruji went in a took Darshan for us so we were still blessed. The Kal Bhairav temple was the most elaborate temple visit for that day which involved purchasing offerings, navigating through many head shaven pilgrims, and paying a pundit 10rps for some special blessings. The last temple we stopped by was the Sankat Mochan temple which honors Haunaman, the money god. Naturally, there were monkeys everywhere and, naturally, I was overcome with monkey cuteness and excitement. Luckily those monkeys were not very forceful about stealing your prasad so there was no need to be scared of them.
We spent Friday roaming around the narrow back lanes of Varanasi eating sweets, paan, and more lassi as well as bargain shopping. It was nice to have a relaxed day to wander around in the middle of the craziness. Although we did spend the majority of the day trying to convince our superiors to allow us to take a dip in the Ganga, something on all of our bucket lists. They were nervous Nellys about the apparent "security risk" and we conveniently ran out of time before we could get too angry about their ruling. We returned to Sunbeam, the school where we were staying, for their evening award ceremony for a conference they happened to be hosting for all of their teachers. In Indian fashion we were thrown in and asked to perform a classical Indian song from the 1950-60s, “Kisi Ki Muskurahato Pe Ho Nisaar”. Its a song everyone in India loves, kind of like America’s version of “Take Me Home Country Roads” by John Denver. So we sang with the “chalta hai” (anything goes/no worries) attitude we have come to adopt as a means of survival here and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and their white people entertainment.
Our last full day in Varanasi was spent at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where we visited another temple and had a preview of Holi! Holi is a festival of colors here in India but I'll write a post about my Holi break soon so I won't talk about it now. After our time at BHU we headed into the city for my along waited kinnar interview! To see how it went check back on my previous post!