Varanasi

I can't believe how fast this semester is flying. We are currently in the last week of class, next week is our finals and then we are on our independent projects! I have reached my capacity for Hindi, all the tenses, cases, rules and exceptions are merging together.

Anywho, so what another whirlwind. Like I briefly mentioned, Jaisalmer was wonderful though not as relaxing as I had hoped. We spent a lot of time singing and my voice was hoarse for a few days after. However I learned to play this instrument called Kartal which are these two flat wooden plank-type things that go in each hand and click together in rapid succession. They look really easy, but let me tell you they are not. Our teachers gave me a pair so I will be able to show you how difficult they are to play. When we were able to explore, Jaisalmer proved to be a very photogenic city. The elaborate havelis, narrow alleys and the large Jaisalmer fort kept begging to remembered in every detail. While I took many pictures, i fear none do Jaisalmer justice. On a related note, a bit of a tragedy occurred. While my music teachers were very kind, patient and sweet, they were also a little pushy to be documented for promotional purposes. In one hurried--and on my part reluctant--documentation sessions, I accidentally erased over my amazing tiger footage...I was quite devastated, but what can you do?

After returning from Jaisalmer, only a day later I got right back on an overnight train to Varanasi, the holiest city in India. Though I was reluctant at first, I am very glad now that I did go. We left on Friday after classes and arrived in Varanasi at 9am Saturday. Rickshaws are not allowed within a certain distance from the ghats, so we walked through the bazars, past silk shops, food stalls, cows and lines of people walking in pilgrimage procession to the scared waters of the ganges together. Upon arriving at the waters edge, we were greeted with boats, masseuses, boat rides, friends, opium sellers and more. We got a little lost looking for our guest house and ended up exploring the ghats much further north than we expected. Our guest house was in the old city, very close to the burning ghats. When we arrived at the burning ghats the strangest thing happened to me. We were watching a cremation, several in fact, and all of a sudden I got very dizzy, as if I was about to faint. I wasn't upset by the images, nor was I hot or dehydrated, but my body all of a sudden got very overwhelmed. After sitting down for a few moments I was fine, but it was an interesting way to be introduced to Varanasi. Our guest house had a wonderful 24 rooftop restaurant with a free pool table.

Later returning to the burning ghat, we were able to watch from above about 5 cremations happening at once at various stages. One body had just been brought to the ghat, another was having its final bath in the Ganges. Another had just been placed on the pyre, another had been burning for a long time and I could make out the head, charred and sticking out from the wood. The last was having its ashes spread into the ganges and someone sifting through them looking for jewelery. I was told about 300 cremations happen at this ghat every day. Many people come to varanasi to wait to die. This was very interesting to me since it directly related to my project of Ganga and her symbolic power. I will not bore you know with all the amazing things I am learning and how they all correlate in fascinating ways, I'll make you read my paper later. But in general, the goddess Ganga fell from the heavens to cleanse the sins of this family, but not all of her fell. Consequently, Ganga is a symbol for spiritual purity and since part of her remains in the heavens, she is a direct link to the heavens as well. It is thought that all those who die in Varansi achieve mosksha instantaeously. There are many stories of people who are saved from hell (even if they were burglers or other questionable professions) who because a drop of Ganga's waters bushed his face carried by the wind they were sent to heaven instead of hell. Ok so enough about my research.

Most of Varansi was just walking around and exploring, watching people, seeing things I didn't understand, getting lost in the back alleys and discovering new things. In short I loved it. We took an evening boat ride to see the evening puja in a front row seat on the river. There were like 6 young men performing somewhat of a dance in synch paying homage to ganga and Shiva. We then woke up early for a sunrise boat ride to see the morning light bathe the pilgrims as they washed away their sins and their clothes. Later we went to the Bharata Mata temple, a place where the divinity is actually a marble relief of a map of India. Througout the trip I made many friends, people who remembered as I walked by, most of whom I forgot. On sunday we returned to the train station, only to find out in small incriments that our train was delayed more and more. Our train was scheduled to arrive in varansi at 3:45 pm, we didn't get on the train until 9:45 pm. Our train was supposed to arrive at 4:30am monday morning, we didn't arrive until 2:30pm, missed all our classes and we jumped off the train a few stops before ours and just figured out how to get to school. I have to say I am rather proud of how competent I feel to get around and deal with unexpected situations. What else is there to say? I have many pictures, tell me what you think! Scroll to the bottom, I have added more pictures (though some are sideways)

http://picasaweb.google.com/midnightdiamond/MySemesterInTheLandOfDjinns

Now I am working in finals mode and trying to get my ISP together.