Lassi dreams and language woes

Well, my dreams of making wonderful Lassis at festivals when I come back to the U.S. has been broken. Today I made a Lassi for myself and Manesh after lunch, it wasn't as good as the lassis I'd had before even though I did everything the same. Then I remembered what my friend the Lassi-wallah told me, "You can make Lassis in the U.S. but do you ahve good milk?" Varanassi has over a hundred thousand head of cows within it's city limits (I guess I'm still in love with the city, so I'll keep talking about it), that would be like Ashland having over 2,000 cows walking the streets. And that doesn't include the Buffalo. In Varanassi cows milk isn't sold. That's because there are enough buffalo to provide milk for all the people who don't have their own cows. Cows are held sacred here and the milk is too, so in the sacred city of Varanassi you can't buy it except in little prepackaged packets. What is the fun in that when you can go to the 24 hour milk market (It really exists!). Still on a tangent, excuse me, the cows all wander the streets by day and return at night for food and to be milked. Around 9 at night one finds little dairies have popped up all around the city. Basically people milking their cows and storing the milk. Nighttime is an adventure in the narrow streets, dodging the sleeping cows and trying not to anger them. I have been butted by cows, thankfully never by a cow with sharp horns. Anyways, the yogurt that I used to make the lassi paled in comparison with what is used in Varanassi. I'll just have to bring a water buffalo back with me :D
I thought for some time about what I wrote on my last blog post, I think I was too harsh on the english education. Education in english is a good thing, but, what is lacking is the education to keep culture and traditions alive. All across India people are throwing away their culture to follow the newest trends and to act "western." Coming from a western culture and recognizing that money and stuff doesn't bring happieness as well as the knowledge that if everyone on the planet lived like we do (those of us who are priveledged, to look at my blog, on a computer, connected to the internet), then we'd consume all the resources left in a matter of years. In fact we are doing that, but I'll take my emotions about the state of the planet out on my journal. You want to know about India. In India there are over 250 recognized languages, and I believe 17 official languages, english included. Someone I met told me that recently in the tribal northeast ethnologists who were sent to study a culture and unique language instead discovered a new one... There are a lot of languages here. Today I was listening to the radio and someone called the station from Assam, one of the Northeastern States and asked the MC to please speak in english so they could understand. English is becoming the way that many Indians communicate with each other from across the states and many cultures. It is a neutral language since it was introduced from outside, and the fact that it is probably the most important language to know, makes it a pretty good language to teach school in.
On a side note, my Hindi is pretty stagnate because of the Hinglish and English. Pooja told me that she had to ask the kids at school how to say pinecone in english. She is speaking on the phone now and at least 1 in 5 words is in English. This is the evolution of language at work.

From One Extreme to Another

I'm sitting in the living room at my new residence. The home of a workaway host. Workaway.info is a website that connects people like me who are looking for volunteer opportunities with those who have them. Pooja and Manesh have a small school in the mountains around Dehradun. Today was my first day of work and the first impression that comes to mind is obedience. Compared with the last kids that I was dealing with these kids are little angels.
I thought of Ashland the whole day today. The school is located about 4,500 feet above sea level and it's Spring! The biome is quite similar to Ashland's, there are pines, oaks, rhodadendron and other species that are around our area. It feels very much like home... and well, I was missing Ashland a little bit. I was thinking about spring rains and Trilliums in the forest.
I taught English and read the script for the play that the kids will be preforming on April 8th. For my introduction I used a map to show where I was from and taught the kids to say "Where are you from?, I am from..." The school is an "English Medium School," as much as possible is taught in english. There are goverment schools in the area, in fact there is one not even a hundred feet down the road. But the education at these schools is quite poor. I can attest to this because the government schools that the kids were going to in Varanassi before coming to Saraswati Center's "Coaching," taught the kids to purely copy things and repeat whatever is said to them.
Neither the "English Medium" schools or government schools are in my opinion the way that things should be taught. Government schools teach kids nothing and "English Medium" schools impart on kids that their culture is backwards and english is sophisticated and better. Dehradun is north India's center for education, the city abounds with schools with names like "Maple Bear Canadian School," these private schools bring kids from all over North India into this city.
In Varanassi I had a room that by stretching out I could touch both sides. Now I have a huge bed and my own bathroom. I took my first hot shower in ages. The night before last I went to a men only cocktail party with Manesh, the opinions of these well-to-do Indian men was quite different than my own and many of the other Indians I have met in my travels. English words are always sprinkled in to Hindi, but in this upper strata of the population English is spoken as much as Hindi, it is really Hinglish as Pooja's daughter told me. English is used for emphasis and for emotions, as well as almost all technical talk comes in English. I find it rather funny to hear English swear words interspersed in Hindi dialogue. Since the whole family is fluent in English I have to be rather ostentatious to keep them from speaking English with me as well. I do my best but since my Hindi isn't nearly as good as their English it is quite difficult. With that said I ma proud of myself for how quickly I learned Hindi. Before I left Varanassi people would ask me how many years had I been living there rather than days or months.
I have fallen in love with India, this place is truly indescribable. The more I learn the more astounded I become. The history is like tracing the roots of a giant tree, the branches lead all across the spectrum of civilization and imagination. Every city is located on some ancient spot that has been razed and rebuilt over the centuries. When I go into the hills where the school is people are growing wheat and corn in the same way that they've been for thousands of years with almost no change. One totally random tidbit that I read which I think is absolutely ridiculous and awesome is that in the south of here, on the Deccan Plateau a tribe of people used to capture and train monitor lizards so that they could scale cliffs to attack citadels. They would tie themselves to the lizards and with their help climb the cliffs and invade the fortresses... it's like freaking Lord of the Rings. Here in India the imagination doesn't need to go far before it runs into reality.

Munna Guest House

I'm leaving my guest house tomorrow, back to Dehradun and I've been meaning to write about it. I really don't spend that much time there but it is such a unique and special place that it just has to be described.
Munna guest house has no signs and there is no way to find it unless you know where it is. You would think that your just walking into someones home... except a very dirty one. We have our own pack of wild dogs! Beat that, it's like turf wars! Huh, are dogs will whoop yours! But seriously, we have a pack of dogs that lives, and shits all over the gust house. They also try to come into my room and cuddle with me! Munna is a nice guy who seems to like long term stayers who are students or musicians. I felt like I was living in a dorm or something this. Lately though, with the tourist season in full throttle I've come back to find 20 people hanging out right outside my room. Luckly, India has taught me how to sleep through anything. Munna guest house has the whole gamut of foreigners, jugglers, dancers, sitar and tabla players, kids working on their masters and lot's of dreads. Dread locks are the fashion for travelers in India!
My room is locked with a rigged chain and my door has a hole in it. I haven't measured it but I'd say my room is about 10 by 8. I have an old dirty mattress on the floor, a couple of bricks and a rock for a table and walls covered with past peoples art. It's perfect, I have two windows that look out on the Ganga river and the beautiful sunrise. It also means that my room has more mosquitos than you can imagine. They live in my room because there is no screen on the windows and my backpack and strewn clothes make perfect sleeping places for them during the day. Even with my misquito net I get shewed up and spit out by the nasty little bloodsuckers. I'm trying to remain equanimous and not kill, but they love the tops of my feet which always itch the worse!!! Grr!
I'm leaving Varanassi tomorrow! I'm going to miss this place, I've made so many friends, writing this means I'm missing two invitations by friends which I will osmehow juggle both this evening! I'm speaking hindi now at a conversational level, I bought my train ticket entirely in Hindi! I can't believe the change that it has caused. I feel so much a part of this place. I owe multiple food stalls money because they just tell me to come back later, between paying back people who I owe money too and doing avors for friends I could be totally busy all the time here. I don't want my visa to expire!! Yesterday I cleaned my favorite temple and hangout spot for a couple of hours with the Baba and today I pealed hundreds of peas and grated carrots for a feast that I hope to take part in as soon as I get off the computer. Every moment of my life here is amazing. I have no way to truly share it with anyone outside of the little bubble that I've created. I'm living simply, i have removed all pressures and I've just gone with the flow. The flow told me to learn Hindi, and wow, everything as changed, when I sit in conversation with only Indians and understand what is going on it is the best feeling. There is no way to understand a culture without understanding the language. The language reflects the culture and visa-versa, now that I have the key of language I'm like a kid in front of a wall of doors, opening one afterr another and marveling at what is on the other side. I could honestly write a guide to this city of all the best local places to eat. Becasue I've found almost all of them, the only one that I'm on aware of but haven't found is a 12 rupee Thali, but that's for next time. The easiest way to talk to people is to buy food from them, and thus I snack my way around this place talking with shopkeepers. Talk to everyone from another city!

How?

How to describe this fantastic, wonderful world in which I inhabit. I am a seeker, a pilgrim along the long walk towards finding myself. In the process the world expands and contracts with adventures of the most mundane to the extremely precarious. A new world has invited me into it's midst with a green cheap carpet laid down at my feet. If I am not careful this world will eat me up, swallow me and turn me into the disciple of an Aghori bab's disciple (google it). My hindi has improved with leaps and bounds each day is a new adventure just becuase I can help in some small way. I could easily be kept busy doing small things for friends and aquantances. That's just how India works, if you a have a little more, you give a little more. As a foreigner it is just assumed that we have more. Every place that one has to pay entry there are two prices, one for Indians and another for foreigners. It is the same everywhere, each thing that I buy, even a small chai is sold for double the price to me. Now I understand what's going on and I do my best to avoid paying the tourist price. There are things worse than my spelling, looking dejection, poverty, disease, and injuries in the eye everyday is one of them. Where can I help? how can I step in and make a change? This is something that I'm searching for. Now I can give these people company, because I speak hindi. Yesterday I took two boys who gather scrap cardboard for money out to lunch. One kilo of cardboard is 8 rupees, 15 cents. Plastic bottles are 10 rupees a kilo, I learned that from a girl named Khali this morning. She asked me if I had any plastic bottles.
Since the last time I sat down on the computer I've has countless adventures, I walked 100, 88.5, or 75 kilometers in 14 hours. It's a story to tell, I took part in a pilgrimage a couple of days ago. I want to do this blog justice and really try to capture the imagry of India. I feel like i flonder in my descriptions of this place that is beyond my comprehension and I'm here, living it daily. India, no Varanassu, the sacred city comparable with Jerusalam has taken my soul and held it captive. I will come back here, this city is an Oregon Country Fair, it's the best analogy I can think of, haha. I'm leaving on wendesday, if all goes as planned, but I know that a part me has burned away here, and that has given birth to new growth within myself.

Blessings From India!

Flipping Coins and Full Moon Nights

I'm back on a sticky keyboard. Dang, but my belly is full. I just had a dinner of Indian Thali, all I could eat of yummy Indian cooking. One of the dishes was horseradish, potato and something like spinach, of course with all the indian mouth watering spices. THen I got a bananna lassi at a shop that I'd never tried. To top it all off I got a pan, the indian version of chewing tobacco, minus the tobacco. THey meake a "sweet" version with a bunches of spices in it. Pack it in your cheek and chew away. So basically, I'm content, for little over a dollar I'm full to the brim with tasty food!
During my trip I have been flipping a coin to decide what to do next when I'm unsure. I have a membership to a website called workaway.info I've been looking for different volunteer opportunities through this website. I recieved two positive responses from an eco-lodge in the Jeff Corbett tiger reserve and a small school outside of Deradun where I was previously. I flipped the coin and I'm going to go and help at this small school after I take a short jog to where Buddha recieved his enlightenment. Wow, I ahve a plan! haha kind of odd to say, I still don't know when, but I'm going if all goes well.
On a side note I just sold my heavy and expensive guide book for 1/20 the price that I bought it for. Which is just fine because I'd like to put an emphasis on heavy. THe guide book has been a love hate relationship but really using just means that I follow the same paths of all other travelers rather than forge my own.
Last full moon I was invited by a Brahmin that I met, he spends the mornings sitting under a handmade bamboo parasol along the Ganges preforming small poojas. We've become friends, because I pass him everyday on my way to Hindi class. He told me about Kirtan (Indian devotional singing) that happens everynight at a small Brahma Temple. Full moon seemed liek a good night to take him up on the offer so I walked over to where I understood the temple was, well I didn't understand him well enough (he doesn't speak english) so I went to the wrong spot. Luckly in my error I met someone else who has become a friend of mine and well, more stories, anyways, my new friend Ram Krishna showed me where this temple was. When I arrived at the temple everyone was inside a small tarp shelter. Turns out the Baba who lives at the temple is preforming a 100 day ceremony that keeps him basically in the shelter tending the flame that cannot go out. All the others who were there brought small offerings. THe Baba could speak almost perfect english, his name is Muni Baba, which means silent Baba. He spent six years in silence some years ago.
Varanassi's chief diety is Shiva, who smokes marijuana, has dred-locks and lives as an asthetic on mount Kailash. The greeting with the holy men here is Mahaday, whcih is another name for Shiva. Not only are there a million hindu gods but multiple names for each one. Anyways, in Shiva's name these holy men smoke weed. So before Kirtan a chillum is passed around, haha. I'll be totally honest and say that I didn't smoke, this place is crazy enough without any substances. I can just sit as a passive observer here and get enough stimulous to never get bored. After everyone smoked they busted out the dolac, a two sided drum, small cymbals and a harmonium.

Well that's as far as I gor before the internet closed on me.

We sang Kirtan as the full moon rose in the sky cupped by the Gigantic Bodhi tree above our heads. It was magical, the power was cut at some point during the process and an owl flew into the tree and landed above our heads. The energy was amazing, a bunch of stoned guys banging away on instruments in the name of god. That's only one perspetive though being amongst the energy and the closeness of everyone, especially after the power was cut a veil held us wrapped in its mysterious arms. I left Kirtan with the sounds of cymbals banging in my head and chants pulsing through my body. It was a good night!

Change is Here!

Sinking into the Indian culture has finally begun in earnest! Ha, the adventures to tell! My Hindi is still quite poor, but I'm getting better every day. I'm just doing my best to surround myself with the local people. I walk everyday to a suburb outside of Varanassi called Nagwa. The walk would be about 45 minutes but now I have to give myself at least double that to talk with everyone that I know along the way. I bought a dhoti, basically what we'd call a sarong. Indian clothing is often more than not just different sizes of cloth wrapped around the body. Really it's pretty ingenious because they become multi-purpous to the imaginations end. Just wearing the dhoti means that people just assume that I know Hindi! haha, which really I don't but it's awesome to have people start conversations with me in Hindi. Yesterday a man just stopped me in the street and told me (in Hindi) that can come to his house any time!? Indian people are amazingly open and inviting. The last two adventures I've had I just said yes two invitations, even though I had no idea what was going on.
I would love to stay in this city, Varanassi is absolutely amazing in a way that I've never felt before. This city is alive, an entity. I'm reading a book about the city now and the stories surrounding this city are inexhaustable. Sadly, the volunteer work that I'm doing isn't the most rewarding. I'm volunteering totally unsupported and well, without a cirriculum to teach on and kids that only ant to learn the way that they've been taught. Makes an extremely difficult challenge for someone like me, who isn't really a teacher. They have been taught to copy what they see, I keep them occupied in class by just writing things in english on the board and having them copy it. I've tried songs and other things but they won't have any of it( it ended with me locked into the classroom).
The kids themselves are not street kids. I've been invited into one families home, another story entirely, and the family refers to what I'm doing as coaching. The kids go to school during the day and then in the afternoon they come to Saraswati education. This of course isn't necessarily the case for all the kids but the situation I've described is for most of them I'm sure. This really doesn't change anything though, because these families live on maybe a couple U.S. dollar a day, if even that.
I'm going to stay in Varanassi until the second of march when the Shivaratri festival will happen. The festival is devoted to the god Shiva who is this cities principle deity. After that I'm not sure where or what next but I'm looking for other volunteer opportunities!

Lassi and More

This post is devoted to food. I haven't written about it once. Since it occupies my thoughts almost constantly it's about time to write about it.
When I was in the Vipassana Meditation retreat I realized how much food means to me. Sitting for hours a day made me remember how much I miss my mothers cooking and for some reason meat. I was craving meat like I never had before. I'm my mothers son, and most definitely Italian. In the past the daily life of Alex Landt was spent walking around aimlessly in cities and looking for new foods to try... Well that was then, now I sprint between my activities and snag food on the run. It's not quite that extreme, but India provides a ceasless stream of food to indulge myself in.
Varanassi is at a confluence of Indian culture. There are quite a few South Indians here, The South Indians have brought their breakfast foods which can be found at almost every corner of the city. Dosas and Idili, dosa is like a crepe, the batter is different but it looks about the same. Different things are put in side of it and it is dipped in different sauces and of course eaten with the hands. It is quite good and I found a man who makes masala dosa, dosa filled with chillies, tomato, peppers and other greens, for only 6 rupees, 12 cents. Idili is... steamed something rathe, I don't have a clue what the batter is made from but it is like a steamed dumplng eaten with the same sauce as the dosas. The sauce, chutney, is supposed to be a coconut sauce with black pepper in it. But I never taste the coconut. I would imagine that it's because Varanassi is a far cry from the coast and coconuts.
For lunch and dinner, when I have to buy them. Really, I've been eating almost a meal a day with one Indian family or another. I have to write about that separately because well there is so much to write about. Being invited to eat with the Indian families has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my stay here in Varanassi. Thali, is the go to food of india, Thali means plate and it means a lot of food for very little money often times it is an unlimited fare. Thali is rice, roti (indian flatbread), Sabji (Mixed veggies cooked indian style, spicy and extremely tasty), Dal(lentils cooked one way or another) and some sort of pickle or salad. The food comes on a plate that has little ridges to separate the many food stuffs. And the best part is that it's all you can eat. The traditional places will refill without charge or minimal charge. There are no menus in these places but the fare will change daily, at least the type of dal or sabji. Rice and roti are ever present in the indian diet. I'm not sure why except I guess that because these places are traditional and we are in a holy city, some days these retraunts serve food for free. This means a long like of rickshaw-wallas and all other types of poorer people. somehow two nights in a row I went to two different restaurants and ate for free. The first time I didn't know about it and I walked into the restaurant before the people started yelling free food which of course attracts a huge line. I was unaware that I was going to be eating for free. I watched the workers pile food onto plates stacking them on top of eachother. when the restaurant filled they served everyone simultaneausly, everyone went to town, the only sound was indians chewing, no mouth closed politeness here, just lip smacking enjoyment. The workers came around and dolloped more onto the plates when people cleared them. Then it was out as fast as possible so that the restaurant could fill up with a new wave of people. I didn't understand what was going on and when I first went into the restaurant a little begging boy sat down next to me and was staring at me, I made a mistake and firmly asked him "What?", thinking he was trying to get something from me. He changed tables and sat down, three other guys came in and occupied the table. That was when I realized that something was happening that I didn't understand. I never cease to learn lessons here.
Lassis are the best, if I'm addicted to anything, it's lassi. Lassi is a mixed yogurt drink. They mix milk and sweet curd together, in the traditional places, by hand and then top the drink off with the cream of the curd. Flavors are added to the lassis, rosewater is traditional but I've also seen lemon and makhania ( No idea what it is, but tasts great!) The lassis are served in unfired clay bowls. these bowls are made by hand and then when the wonderful elixer is finished they get tossed into the street. They return to the earth as mud. It blew my mind the first time, a beautiful hand made pot, just getting tossed away after one use. But that's the way it's been done for thousands of years and is still done. There is no lack of manual labor here! It also explains why there is no waste management. For thousands of years everything was decomposable, now plastic has infiltrated every corner of India, it burns, and so it is burned, or eaten if it has something tasty inside. Watching a cow eating a plastic bag is no longer startling, but normal since I see it literally every day! All this writing is making me hungry... off to Hindi class, I'm sure I can find something yummy along the way!