Jam biscuits and religion

Listen, my children, and you shall here, of the rest of my time in Varanasi. I desperately need to upload more of my pictures onto my computer, and then onto Facebook, but I shall put that off slightly longer because I'm trying to simultaneously watch Slumdog Millionaire, complete a homework assignment, and update this blog. Apparently Slumdog Millionaire was not very well received in India because of its harsh portrayal of social issues, but I think despite its dramatization, Indians are probably displeased with its scary level of truth. I have not personally experienced anything like that in the movie, obviously, but I know it's there and it's openly talked about. Bollywood movies, for the most part, show a glowing, overly westernized and wealthy version of Indian society, but everything I've learned here has shown me that that isn't what it's actually like for the vast majority of the population. It's also cool to watch, though, because I understand the Hindi phrases used throughout the film.

But let's get back to Varanasi. On Wednesday, we went to the arti at the main ghat on the edge of the Ganga Ji. It was larger than the arti in Rishikesh, but also a very lovely ceremony involving devotional songs, the holding up of lamps, and praying. On Thursday, we were very lucky and were able to go to Goutam Ji ki Mata Ji ki ghar (Goutam Ji's mom's house!). It's also the house where Goutam Ji and Archna Ji (reminder for my non-regular readers: Archna Ji and Goutam Ji are my married Hindi teachers who took the eight of us on the Kiran Centre workshop to Varanasi, formerly called Banaras) live when they're not in Delhi. We sat in their bedroom and ate snacks and looked at baby pictures of Goutam Ji. It was generally very enjoyable, and I was introduced to Mata Ji as "loving child," their favorite nickname for me, other than "Carboholic."

Post-home visit, we went to Hanuman's temple that Goutam Ji always used to go to. Hanuman is the monkey god that features heavily in the Ramayana, that classic Indian epic that I went to see (that Rachael wanted to leave in the middle of). Because it's Hanuman's temple, however, people feed the massive, red-butted monkey families that populate the area. So with the constant reminder not to EVER look them in the eye, we walked to the temple, checked out things, and entered the temple area. There was a pathway covered in a plastic roof, and about halfway down it, EVERY SINGLE MONKEY IN VARANASI (aka approximately 48,537 primates) decided to screech and stampede across the roof. It sounded, however, like a thunder storm/giant monkey war, so needless to say I had another monkey-induced life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment.

Every day after class, we would go to the Kiran Centre bakery in Varanasi city and buy jam biscuits and peanut biscuits and pumpkin jam. They were delicious, so we bought 100 jam biscuits to bring back to hand out during our presentation, and I bought 50 just for myself (and I'll give some to my host parents for Diwali, which is on Wednesday).

Next post: a boat ride, a six-hour delayed train ride, and a legitimate party!