A Night of Friends and Fabulous Music

One of the highlights of coming to Varanasi for me was visiting Jo's long-time friends Ramu Pandit and Rabindra Goswami. For those of you who don't know, Ramu and Goswami are internationally renowned Indian classical musicians (Ramu on tabla (small Indian drums) and Goswami on sitar. Jo first got to know these two during the 9 months she spent in Varanasi on the U. Madison program in 2004. While you might have heard of R and G before, you might not know they have played an interesting role in Jo's and my courtship. Jo's and my “first date”, so to speak, was when they played a special birthday concert for her in Northampton, MA. She invited me down from Keene, NH to see the concert, and I spent the evening doing dishes, nervously trying to remain useful and inconspicuous. The rest, as they say, is history... (She says she thought I was the one before this evening, but she really knew it when she saw me doing dishes.)

Seeing Ramu and Goswami play together is always a special treat (I've been so lucky several times since that first birthday concert). Watching the musical interaction between these two friends who have been playing together for more than thirty years is just magical. Indian classical music is improvisational, so when the musicians know one another's playing styles well, they're able to improvise together. Goswami-ji leads the improvisational compositions, while Ramu-ji accompanies him on the tabla. Needless to say, when one of Jo's mentors and friends, who also happened to be in Varanasi with his parents, decided to help organize a concert at the Goswami family's home to welcome us on our first trip to Varanasi, we were all ecstatic.

The night was just amazing, and started with a really fun cycle-rickshaw caravan of 4 cycles (us, Jo's folks, Andy, and his folks) heading from the hotel to the Goswami's through the narrow lanes.

Rickshaw ride



After we arrived we were treated like royalty, with garlands, and lovely snacks while sitting in their living room, which has a small raised stage specifically for these types of small gatherings.

Garlands for the guest of honor


Listening to the music and enjoying the ambiance was unforgettable for all.










Following the concert, we all headed to an unnamed restaurant for a fabulous meal where they get around the lack of alcohol license by serving a “special Indian tea”. Here are the dads enjoying their special tea at the end of the day (my favorite part of all this subterfuge was how the waiter kept coming by and asking if they'd like any more “special Indian tea” with a wink).

Special tea anyone?



The next night we returned to the Goswami's for a wonderful home cooked meal, and another night of music, albeit one slightly different.



This one involved yours truly playing some old-time banjo...


Goswami feeling the beat on "cluck old hen" Kya bat ! (What a thing!).


...and one of Goswami-ji's students playing Nepalese flute. Another magical evening.

Varanasi: Down on the river

As I indicated in the previous post, for many tourists, Benares is synonymous with sunrise river trips. After ours, I can definitely say it is an unforgettable way to get a different perspective on all that goes on down by the riverside.



When walking along the ghats at any time of day one is accosted by innumerable boat-folk (spacing on what name I'm sure can be applied to them). "You need boat, sir? Sunrise boat, no problem". We settled with a nice chap whose English was above the normal cut.



From the boat one could see many beautiful things, such as candles floating among rose petals...



which left Dave Weaver smiling serenely...





to strange things, such as a boat with a tv in it playing/selling bollywood movies...




To profound and slightly disturbing things, such as the burning ghats with wood stacked towards the sky, that yes, were burning at 6 am...




which left Jo and I with somewhat long faces...


Perhaps the most interesting thing I saw was this temple that was emulating the leaning tower of Pisa...


An unforgettable morning made complete, in my mind, by my rendition on the harmonica of "Down to the River to Pray"...maybe a video of that later on if you're lucky...

Varanasi: the best of times/the worst of times

Varanasi-also known as Benares (Banaras). A town I've been hearing about from Jo since we first started dating. Hearing Jo tell it, it sounded like simultaneous heaven and hell. While for many, that couplet may describe India in general, Jo kept indicating that it was unique. She has spent extensive periods of time here, first coming in 2001 for a few weeks, and then 9 months in 2004-5, and again for some time while leading a study abroad program in 2006. This is her home-town Indian city, and it's really amazing, the three days we spent there provided such a window into understanding her, her life, and her relationship with India that I'm still flabbergasted. After just three days there, I'd have to agree, Benares is a place unlike any other in India, and while for some it is a complete hell, for me it was hands down my favorite place in India.

For those who know nothing about Benares, it is the holiest of Indian cities, located on the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh. It is so holy that if one dies there they are believed to go directly to liberation, and as a result many people come here specifically to die (more on that later). Life in Benares revolves around the river. The old city itself, which is believed to have existed for approximately 3000 years in some form or another, is strung out over several kilometers of the river bank.

Getting to Benares' old city was for some of our companions the entrance to hell. The traffic from the airport was character-building if nothing else...




However, once we got to Benares' old city we had to abandon the taxi and carry our bags through the labyrinth of gulleys (small alleys) that comprise the old city (this was actually one of my favorite parts of the city...the absolutely endless jumble of narrow gulleys).



Dave Weaver looking out over the Ganges with Benares in the background



Benares is a tourism mecca. Tourism in a broad sense. The overwhelming majority of tourists are domestic religious tourists. There are thousands of small temples in Benares. Next to our hotel was one in which a local friend recommended we do an early morning pooja (prayer) for the health of our new baby...


View of temple from our room



Circumambulating....



Sending a little prayer out to the Ganga





However, there are a fair number of foreign tourists as well. Particularly the annoying stoned hippie tourists on spiritual quests, whom you sometimes spy sitting at feet of Sadhus (Hindu holy men) along the banks of the river.



Aside from its wandering gurus, another thing Benares is famous for is its river sunrises. They are simply magical, and given that most hotels face the river, one often wakes up with the morning light(more on taking advantage of the river sunrise with a river cruise in a later post).




Yet another things that Benares is famous for is the burning ghats. Ghats are essentially steps down to a water body, such as a river or lake. In Benares, the entire border of the city with the river is lined with Ghats. There are 80 something in total. There are ghats specifically for washing.








And ghats specifically for cremation.


Scale for weighing wood used in cremation (200 kg are needed per body; costs for cremation vary widely depending on quality of wood used)



A common site along the ghats is people having their heads shaved; these are usually members of funeral parties.



A common site in Benares, bodies being carried towards the river shrouded in white cotton funeral shroud and assorted religious adornments


And the burning which goes on at all hours in an effort to slake the demand (approximately 800 bodies/day).



However, not all are burned at the ghats: holy men, pregnant women, people with leprosy/smallpox, people who die from snakebite, people who commit suicide, and children under 5 are not cremated at the ghats but are placed directly in the holy river, usually weighted down by a stone. They are not burned because they are either too young to have accrued much bad karma, which cremation helps eliminate, or they are believed to have suffered enough in life to burn off their bad karma without the necessity of cremation.

So what is there to do in Benares? Well, witness and participate in the incredible spectacle of everyday life. For us, this included long (hot) walks along the ghats. At this time of year (pre-monsoon) the river is low and the ghats are continuous, providing a river-walk of sorts. As the rains come in a few months, the continuity of the ghats is broken and one would be required to traverse the gulleys in order to make it to the neighboring ghat.



Other fun events included getting a haircut/shave/head massage at one of the local riverside barber chairs


Dave Weaver blissed out while getting a head massage


A sadhu appreciating Dave's shave and contemplating the deeper repercussions of getting one himself...




Buying postcards from a young girl


Watching the building of the boats using amazing joinery




And of course...shopping!

Everyone doing some bangle shopping


Gail and her new Ganesh statue



Watching the evening Aarthi, a religious ceremony when the Mother Ganga is put to sleep



And eating a slice of phenomenal apple pie (yes, apple pie) while watching the moon rise...






So as you can tell from this longest of long blog posts, Benares was incredibly captivating. True, the street traffic was bewildering at times, the burning of bodies pretty profound, the alleyways a jumble of ordered insanity, but this is everyday life in India simultaneously glorious and miserable, disgusting and enticing. And now I understand what it is that captivated Jo's interest all those years ago, and keeps on bringing her back...

The First Flock Touches Down!

This last week we welcomed Dave and Gail Weaver as our first family guests to come through Delhi! Their visit was long in the making on numerous levels.First, has been almost 10 years since Jo first came to India, and she has been working on them, slowly and incessantly, trying to get them to hop across the pond. Their visit was also long in the making as we've been sending various brown boxes of items from Amazon that we can't get here in India. The unpacking of that suitcase was a gatorade, coffee, clothes, quilt, and music filled long awaited and slightly belated Christmas.






What is that small quilt in the above picture? No, it's not for an Elf, but for our baby! Yes, that's right, for those of you who haven't heard yet, we are having a baby!!! More on that all later, but the basics are that the baby will be born here in Delhi in late August.

With only two days in the environs of Delhi we high tailed it to Lodhi gardens, and then down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.





Our trip to Agra was....rapid. Ask Dave for several other adverbs and adjectives that we could apply...with not a ton of time we hired a driver and car (with AC!) for the 8 hour round-trip drive to Agra. Even with an AC car, however, the 4 hour trip was pretty intense: the distance is less than 120 miles and so given the nice quality of the roads should have taken around half the time, however in India even on the highways one will find camels, elephants, cycle/autorickshaws, and all other manners of controlled insanity...leaving Dave and Gail to both feel a little exasperated.



Having been to the Taj several times previously, I knew that it is an absolute madhouse, making the drive down look peaceful, and so wanted to provide a slightly more peaceful introduction to its beauty. We went first to the Megtab gardens that are directly across the river from the Taj, providing a serene and beautiful view of the mausoleum.








With this peaceful view of the Taj to provide the sweet side of the experience, we headed across the river to the Taj itself for the main event...






Was it worth it? We'll leave that one to personal experiences....(but you might not want to ask Dave Weaver!)

Ajanta

Over the weekend Sarah and I took a phenomenal trip down to the various religious caves in the state of Maharashtra. I've been wanting to visit the caves of Ajanta and Ellora since when I read about them on my first trip to India five years ago.



A little background on Ajanta from Wiki:
The Ajanta Caves ( in Maharashtra, India are 31 rock-cut cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BC. The caves include paintings and sculptures considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art (which depict the Jataka tales)[1] as well as frescos which are reminiscent of the Sigiriya paintings in Sri Lanka.[2] The caves were built in two phases starting around 200 BC, with the second group of caves built around 600 AD.

Sarah and I took an overnight train from Delhi, getting down at Jalgaon. A few interesting train incidents later (more on that to come!) we took an early morning bus, and arrived at Ajanta.

The landscape in Maharashtra is very arid and reminiscent of our time in Rajasthan...in the summer! That's right, leaving the relatively cool days of Delhi, Sarah and I were both surprised to be "greeted" by days that felt like they were in the high 90s. But the small degree of heat stroke was so worth it.






Decades of restoration later, they are a well deserved World Heritage Site.
The caves, and their sculptures, are all carved out of a single cliff, so in the photos below remember that it wasn't as if the caves were hollowed out and the sculptures brought in....it was all carved out of one massive rock...all 31 caves....now that's incentive not to mess up!













The caves are just breathtaking. The degree of carving is amazing on its own, but what really surprised me was the intricacy of the frescoes on the walls, and the fact that they had survived to some extent. One reason that the frescoes on the caves remain is that Ajanta was basically "forgotten" with the decline of Buddhism in the region. As the site was abandoned, trees and shrubs obscured it, and it became a home for bats (more on those as well!), birds, and...tigers! Yep, it wasn't until 1819 when a British commander on a tiger hunt rediscovered the caves.