Settled in Mumbai

Now that I am settled in Mumbai with working internet and all, instead of posting about my multiple city adventures, and of course all of my wedding outfits. I wanted to post a video of what was a normal occurrence hanging out with my friends in Varanasi. You see, as I traversed Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and now Mumbai, people ask me about my time in the lovely city of Benares. I try to explain why I liked it and miss it, but realized it was not the job that I missed, and certainly not the city, but moments like these when I was lonely at night, because there is nothing to do at night in Varanasi, and I would head to see Nawal-ji and hear him and his roommate practice late night ragas. So enjoy. This was the highlight of my trip and the thing I miss the most.

Love,

Violet

Hi from Delhi

Sorry for the lack of contact. My last days in Varanasi were a whirlwind. I manage to leave all my loose ends untied, which was simultaneously perfect because I didn't have to do proper goodbyes and really annoying (I left half of my clothes on a laundry line outside my guest house). Now I am enjoying Delhi, I LOVE THE METRO!!!! And saying more proper goodbyes to the people with me. Next I am off to Chennai. I will check in when I am there.
Love,
Violet

Off to Calcutta

Hey all, Now that I have given you a good long time to actually read my comic, I am sad to report that I am off to Calcutta for the weekend. Well actually I am not sad, I am really excited. But it means no internet. As a peace offering, I am taking requests for souvenirs. If there is anything you want me to bring back for you, besides myself of course, I know that is what you all really want, comment or email me.

Love,

Violet

Farewell Comic Book

Things I do when I am bored

When I am bored, I do a variety of things. Sometimes I practice the tabla, pictured in my room above, sometimes, and I do mean sometimes, I clean my room, mess pictured above, sometimes I go to the park with some of the kids from school, and sometimes I give myself little crafty projects. Michelle and I embarked on an afternoon of making a backgammon board entirely out of paper, with dice also. And as a going away present for Michelle I made a comic book, which I will post the entirety of at some later date. Oh, there is another one I forgot. I got my legs waxed, you know, just for fun. It was painful but the ladies in the salon, yes I may have gone back for a facial yesterday, refuse to speak anything to me but rapid Hindi, which I love. So those are the things I do everyday.

Love,

Violet

Auto rides

So, continuing with the thread of my daily life, I thought I would post a video from an auto ride, how I typically get around. When you are a cheapo like me, the best way to go is by shared auto. Then it is ten rupees per person anywhere and you do not have to deal with negotiation. What you do have to deal with is getting squished into an auto with five or more other people that you have never met, the usual turbulence of the ride and my favorite thing, the soundtrack provided by the driver. Sometimes they put on songs I know and I get to sing along, which everyone thinks is hilarious of course, especially because I make half of the words up. Anyhow, the recipe described above seems like it could only result in one thing: car-sickness, or auto-sickness? Is that a thing?, but surprisingly I remain relatively unscathed, even sitting in the middle.

Love,

Violet

P.S. Ten points to the person who can figure out who is driving.

A Normal Day

So, my mother requested something that showed my everyday life. Luckily Michelle, one of the other interns, took a video of me teaching a first grade class. They are super cute. This is pretty typical, barring unforeseen mishaps. For example: collage materials + fan + first graders = chaos. So two days a week I teach at the campus in Varanasi, video above, and two days a week I am at the village campus. It is very beautiful there, but eight or nine hours without filtered water or electricity is really tough. The kids are very eager to learn, at least early in the day and when it is not a hundred degrees, so sometimes. Other daily struggles involve the untrained dogs that people always let into the guest house. I ran into a small unidentified dead animal that they killed and dragged into the school on the way back home today, and then about five minutes later had the pleasure of kicking the same dog out of our common area where he was rolling around on the mattress we sit on. Sanitary. Anyhow, mostly things are great but I really hate the dogs. Haha. Anyhow. After being sick all last week and going to Lucknow, I am really exhausted, so I am going to bed.

Love,

Violet

Weekend Trip to Panchmarhi

This weekend I journeyed to a hill station where it was 70 degrees. That is right!! Be jealous heatwavers and otherwise fellow melting people. Alas, all good things must come to an end so I am back in Varanasi where I took pictures of adorable kids for ten minutes and was actually drenched. On the plus side if your sweat circles actually connect no one can tell what color your shirt is supposed to be. More from my trip soon. So many beautiful pictures and moments.

Love,

Violet

Tibetan Temple

Internet being finicky. Text later, enjoy the photos.

Love,

Violet

Sarnath: Indian Temple, Chinese Temple and Japanese Temple

At the Indian temple, there was a tree that had been planted from a branch of the tree Budda attained enlightenment under. Wow, was that a real sentence, I honestly cannot tell. My English and Hindi has gotten so jumbled up, that I can never figure out if the word order I am using is correct. Most of the time this does not cause any difficulty. The one exception is our new French friends, or the Frenchies as we affectionately call them. They have a hard enough time understand English, so adding my ridiculous grammar and complete lack of pronunciation, after I say something they often just give me a puzzled look and then say .... WHAT? I immediately apologize and try again, but sometimes I just cannot manage at all. Anyhow, after that brief speech failure related tangent, I will go back to the photos. As I mentioned we visited a lot of different temples. It was like an Asian architectural tour. I enjoyed it a lot despite the gazillion degree temperature (yes, as you might have guess it actually does get that hot here. Although here we use Celsius. So it hovers around (a gazillion - 32) x 5/9 degrees C, to be exact and culturally appropriate. Despite the architectural diversity, the human diversity was the same. There were neither Chinese nor Japanese people at the temples, and we were the only tourists that decided to brave the heat.

More heat and the last, and my favorite temple later.

Love,

Violet

PS Did I mention it is unbearably hot. It is SSOOOOO HOT.

Sarnath: Stupa and Thai Temple

One of the first weekends I was in Varanasi (I know, super late in putting up pictures. P.S. Happy Varanasi Monthiversary to meee!), we went to Sarnath, which is the place where Budda gave his first sermon. To commemorate the occasion they put up a gigantic stupa, which roughly translates to gigantic stone hump (my own translation). The carvings on the side were very beautiful, and there were chanting monks scattered on the lawns around it, despite the sunny, 100 degree weather. In my opinion, the coolest thing about the area is that different countries constructed temples in their own style because of the importance of the site. The first one we went to was the thai temple (pictured above). We also went to the Indian temple, the Chinese temple, the Japanese temple and my favorite, the Tibetan temple. All I will be posting about later. At the temples, and on the stupa, people put little pieces of gold foil (you can kind of see this in our group photo. The result is a collaged effect on most surfaces, which shows all the people that have come here over the years. It would have been quite a moving experience, if I had not been drowning in my own sweat. Story of my life in India! How am I supposed to have my stereotypical religious awakening if I am melting into the pavement.

Send mops in care packages.

Love,

Violet

Arti Ceremony

Here is the video of the small section of the Arti. It went on for quite a while, involving multiple lamps, and bells. While we were out on the boat it started to rain, so they brought us closer in and we stood on the roof of a square, house boat-like thing. During the Arti you are supposed to float a candle on the water and make a wish. All the candles in the water, with the rain making little circles all around them was a beautiful image. It made getting wet completely worth it. After the prayer was over they set off fireworks. Everything is better with fireworks.

Love,

Violet

Birthday Note (Arti on pause)

I just wanted to write a quick note to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. I had a great day here. In response to someone wishing me a happy birthday two of my friends who work at the school (Indian) launched into a conversation about how white people always look so old, at which point one of them asked me very seriously if I had just turned 30. HA. 21 going on 31.

Love,

Violet

Arti: on the boat

The internet is back, for now. Here is the next installation of the arti extravaganza. We rented a boat, as one should when viewing the puja. The first picture shows candles that one is supposed to light. You make a wish and put them into the water. When they are all floating out there with the boats, and the music and all the tourists and religious pilgrims mixed up on colorful boats, the result is truly breath taking. It is not hard to see why the river was deified. More arti later and maybe even video if I can manage it!

Bring Varanasi to your computer desk.

Love,

Violet

Arti Part 2: On the waterfront

Here we are at the edge of the Ganga, at Dashashwamedh Ghat before the prayer started. In the third picture you can see the brahmin priests getting ready for the production, which is truly the right word for it. This is by far the most touristy place in Varanasi. Which is why we were accosted by various people trying to buy things. It is very common to have at least 5 people at a time asking you to visit their shop, buy postcards, or buy other souvenirs, they all tell you that they have the best prices, the best quality, the most selection. So when a guy came up to us to advertise his "shitty shop",we were shocked. Let me remind everyone that Indian people are not known for their sarcasm. This guy had clearly been taught this trick, sort of like the hobos on the street whose signs ask for beer, so he did not have the intonation down quite right. Between that and being accustomed enough to India, it is as if he actually came up to us and told us he sold horse shit and cow shit and other shitty things. I was scandalized. Luckily we were ushered on to a boat before too long. More on that tomorrow.

Love,

Violet

P.S. Happy Birthday to Grandpa from India!!

Arti Part(y) 1

One of the main things to do in Varanasi is to go to the Ghats and watch the Artis, which are the prayers to the goddess of the Ganges. There is one very famous, touristy one that we went to that had so much pomp and circumstance to it that I thought it deserved multiple posts (I also took about 300 pictures, and I want to display all of my handiwork). The first set of pictures are of our trip to the Arti and the area around the ghat, called Godolia circle (no one knows the right spelling so that is my approximation). The area is very dense and colorful with tons of shops and people trying to get your attention. On my way there I got hit by a cycle rickshaw (pictured next to the horse). It left a really impressive bruise. The next installation: at the water front. Stay tuned.

Love,

Violet

P.S. A very good example of Indian frankness and different sorts of flattery and etiquette presented itself yesterday. One of my friends Tanya was looking at pictures of my family with me. She looked at the picture of our family in front of the cape house and said: your mother is reeeally beautiful. I said: thanks, I know. Then she said: no, like really beautiful, like definitely more beautiful than you. I was still flattered, but no exactly sure what I was supposed to take from that. So to Jessica: you still got it!