varanasi

we spent our last weekend in varanasi, india's holiest city. to indians, varanasi is known as shiva's city (shiva being one of the three main gods, the god of destruction)because shiva went there and never left. to tourists, varanasi is known as crazy. all of india's beauty, history, filth, and excitement are packed into this one city. it is completely and totally overwhelming, to say the least, even after having a month in india of building up my tolerance level.



apparently, indians from all over make their way to varanasi to die so they can be cremated in one of the two famous cremation ghats along the ganges. one of those ghats happen to be the closest ghat to our hotel, so (unfortunately) in an effort to get to the main ghat we ended up looking out over the cremations taking place. needless to say, i was horrified. rachel saw me immediately burst into tears so she didn't look down. phil and rachel had usher me back to our hotel so i could calm myself down by repeating to myself that each of those people chose for their deceased bodies to be disposed of in that way. i can't stop thinking about what i saw, but i wanted to explore india and that includes the parts that are harder to swallow.



they recently started allowing tourists access to certain temples, so we decided to go inside one called the golden temple. we had to buy marigolds first to give as an offering to shiva. once inside we were pushed into a crowded line of hindus, shuffling around barefoot waiting to rub one statue and throw marigolds at another. cameras were not allowed so you'll have to imagine the chaos.



at dusk, we got a beautiful panoramic view of the city from the free boat ride offered by our hotel. i had to avert my eyes from the cremation ghats, but we got to see the rest of the ghats where people were bathing themselves or meditating. it was nice to be able to observe the craziness of the city from afar. we stayed on the boat an hour longer to watch the big ceremony they perform (possibly nightly) on two of the ghats. select few from the highest caste did some special things with goblets of fire and then later with hawk feathers, accompanied by chants and drumming, ringing bells with the left hand all the while. its a huge deal in varanasi, so everyone gathers to watch. from what i understood it is a tribute to the holy ganges.

the taj mahal

we had wednesday off from our volunteer placement so we took a day trip to agra to see the taj mahal.




we could not contain our excitement.




from the train station to lunch to the taj and back to the train station, we had one rickshaw driver who quickly became our dearest friend. he spent all day trying to get us to stay the night so we could have dinner with his family.

the taming of the simee

there are three teachers at mobile creches, one for the older kids and two that switch off with the younger kids. of those two that switch off, one is wonderful and loves the kids and keeps them in line. its fun to help her because she loves giving us the floor to lead an activity and she can handle the trouble makers. the other kind of just sits there and doesn't really do anything. thats makes for a challenging day, which i would consider a good thing if only i knew how to discipline 30 pre-schoolers in hindi. its a toss up which teacher will be there, but you can guess who we hope for.

the first two weeks, simee (the teacher for older kids) had us walking on eggshells around her. she sits quietly at the head of the table on the floor (the table is about a foot off the ground, so everyone sits on the floor), messing with her cell phone or doing paperwork, until the kids' chit-chatting spontaneously sets her off like an explosion. she screams at each of the offenders individually and more often than not she beckons them to her to be smacked. sometimes she spends the whole morning chastising them and making them recite their times tables or the alphabet in english. i obviously never feel her wrath, but she still scared me more than any teacher of mine ever did. we quickly learned from talking to other volunteers experiencing the same shock, that hitting kids is just a normal part of the discipline code here. the idea of authority figures hitting kids seems so backwards to me- i was reminded of how when we were kids my dad's mom used to tell dani that if i misbehave she needs to smack me. i used to pray she was joking.

somehow, despite her scary disciplinary tendancies and the steel wall of a language barrier between us, we've become friends with simee. last week she started trying to talk to us and every so often she'll shoot us a smile. we got as far as figuring out that she has been married for 8 years and has a 7 year old son. this past weekend she even invited us over for tea at her place.

she lives maybe half an hour away from us, close to mobile creches, in an average delhi neighborhood. from the second we stepped out of our rickshaw we had a whole group of people surrounding us, some offering us quidance to apartment #208 and some just staring at us, dumbfounded by our presence. we were seated in apartment #230, no simee in sight, confused and a little aprehensive about being there. finally someone led to around two more corners and up four flights of stairs to a tiny two room apartment (each maybe the size of a king-size bed) seperated only by a curtain, where we found simee. we met her husband, her son, her brother-in-law, and her sister-in-law's daughter and drank chai tea. we couldn't really talk which made it kind of awkward but her brother-in-law turned on some music so we all danced. it was a pretty bizarre outing but i absolutely loved it.

qutub minar pictures

qutub minar, the largest brick minaret in the world




iron pilar with sanskrit inscription


the oldest mosque in india

a whole new world (dont you dare close your eyes)

india -as i see it- is very hard to describe, but thats only because its so hard to understand. one of the speakers who came last week said "for everything you learn about india, the opposite is also true." we were told to dress modestly and always cover our shoulders, but i've seen indian women wearing tank tops and sleeveless dresses and they're not so modest in commercials and ads. we were also warned against public displays of affection, but this is the country that created the kama sutra!

corruption is another confusing issue. india is considered a spiritual center of the world, deeply rooted in its religious values and traditions, yet many government officials and businessmen are as corrupt as they are in america, if not more so. apparently the people who are hired to clean the piles upon piles of garbage from the streets just pay off the officials they're supposed to report to with part of their salary, so they get free money and india stays dirty. public bus drivers do the same to get liscenses without taking any sort of driving test, which doesn't help the already miserable traffic plagueing india's streets and causes the deaths of thousands of people every year. speaking of traffic.. crossing the street my first week here was probably the scariest thing i've ever had to do. whoever honks the most earns the right of way and no driver ever pays attention to pedestrians. rachel said she felt like she was playing frogger. with her life. one of the ccs staff members told us the safest way to cross the street is with a cow because nobody would ever dare to come near it.

over the past couple weeks i've come to realize that my logic just doesn't apply here. like the cow thing. back in the day cows were a source of milk, transportation, and plowing the fields, so they were deemed sacred creatures. now we use planes/trains/automobiles and we have machines for working the fields. the cows are everywhere, roaming around aimlessly, while a quarter of the population goes hungry! it doesn't make sense to me. i just want a burger!

the thing about india is, you can't really make generalizations because its so damn big. there are dozens of religions practised, hundreds of different languages spoken, more cultural variations (dance, rituals, food, values, ect.)than you can imagine. the differences from region to region are so vast that its hard to imagine how india can be unified at all. my mind is on the verge of explosion because im trying to absorb as much of what i'm learning/seeing here as i can. unfortunately, you can't fit thousands of years of history into 5 weeks of living in delhi.
guess that means i'll have to come back :)