Christmas, New Year, Bodh Gaya and Varanasi
It's been ages since I wrote anything in this journal, which I'll have to put down to busyness and general incompetence - ah well, here's an attempt to fill in the gaps.
Christmas in Delhi was a slightly strange day. There were elements of English Christmas around - some of the cultural tat has got over to India - so there was a man dressed as Santa Claus outside the shop across the street, and Christmas cards on sale in the Post Office. The students wished us a Merry Christmas ("but sir, why are we always saying 'Merry Christmas'? Why not 'Merry New Year'?"). We bought presents for the youngest members of the household, Batu (10) and Rinku (15), and, just like in England, one of the presents didn't work.
The next week was 'fun week'; well, it's all fun isn't it, all these tenses and prepositions, but the week between Christmas and New Year was devoted entirely to serious fun. I taught my class some songs (they thought 'Penny Lane' was 'so beautiful!') and on the last day we created a pass-the-parcel game for the whole school (this means 40 students, it's not quite an English school) in which there was a prize and a forfeit in every layer. So we saw some great impressions of farm animals and bollywood stars, a couple of good dances and one lovely Hindi song. It was great to have fun with the students for a bit and let them enjoy themselves. Parties with young people here are quite different to in the UK - there's no alcohol, but there's plenty of Bombay mix. Apparently a favourite party drink is milk! So the end of the week was a real high point and I felt really proud of the teaching we've givien to the students and the relationships we've established with them.
Then it was time for our long-awaited holiday. We celebrated New Year on
Most of the carriage was asleep but we stood up and whispered Auld Lang Syne with the one Indian man who was awake - and who obviously thought we were completely mad! So not the most spectacular New Year.
We then stayed in Bodh Gaya for three nights. Since this is where the Buddha was enlightened, you can imagine it's a peaceful and spiritual place where you find a sense of oneness. Of course, since it's located in modern India, it's a bustling, honking, stressing, smelling place, with no shortage of hawkers and touts to separate the unwary tourist or pilgrim from his/her money/sanity. We'd booked a hotel room at a (to us) extravagant 5 pounds 50 a night, on the promise of hot water. To give them credit, after two days of requesting, reminding, pleading and finally shouting (this was Alison; I was past caring at this point) the management did deliver an intermittent service of tepid water. Outside the hotel, we waded through the touts and beggars towards the temples. End of moan.
The Maha Bodhi temple, on the site of the Buddha's enlightenment, was quite a spectacular building (covered in scaffolding when we were there, but impressive nonetheless) on a site which has been in continuous use since shortly after the Buddha's death. It was an interesting combination of a place of pilgrimage and a tourist attraction - for every devout Buddhist prostrating and turning a rosary there was someone posing in front of the Bodhi tree with a camera. The temple was in a large complex of shrines and stupas and the place did have a feel of history and significance to it. It was peaceful to be there early morning or late at night. The other temples are much more modern creations with each large Buddhist community around the world strutting their stuff. The Thai temple was lovely and very reminiscent of the retreat centre in Wales (since Samatha is a Thai tradition). We also found a nice bookshop and an area in which a whole group of Tibetans had set up restaurant-tents selling Tibetan stews (thukpas) and dumplings (momos), so we had a nice change from curry. Mind you the thalis we ate on holiday were fantastic.
We then went to Varanasi (aka Banares), the holiest city in Hinduism, a stretch of temples and Ghats (long steps next to the river on which they cremate people) alongside the toxic Ganges, a drop of which is said to absolve all sin. It's also supposed to be a very good idea to go to Varanasi if you're at death's door - if you die there, you get a very good rebirth. After our Bodh Gaya experience we decided to go for the most peaceful, out of the way place possible and found a lovely little family run guesthouse for a pound a night. We walked along the river and through the maze of the old city, and went on the river on a rowing boat at dawn. It's very atmospheric on the Ganges with all the pujas and cremations going on along the ghats. There wasn't quite as much ceremony going on as when I was there in 2003, but still many people bathing and blessing themselves - quite interesting, but slightly strange to see as a tourist. It's very public, but somehow you feel irreverent observing people practicing in such a devoted way, in a tradition which you do not share. When we got back to Delhi I mentioned to my class that I'd been to Varanasi and some of the students were very impressed and talked about how they would love to go as pilgrims to the Ganges; it made me feel somewhat humble that I'd had the opportunity to experience this as a complete outsider.
Sarnath is a small place just outside Varanasi, where the Buddha made his first teaching after becoming enlightened. It was a hive of Buddhist activity from shortly after his death in around 500BC to 1100AD when it was destroyed by Muslim invaders. It then lay almost deserted until British archeologists took an interest in it in the 1800s. Gradually, the remains of some huge monasteries were uncovered, and in them some very significant and well-preserved examples of Buddhist stonework from the various dynasties that had had a presence in Sarnath. It was a peaceful place to visit, more of an historical site than a place of pilgrimage; lots of Indian families seemed to use the clean, grassy area as an excellent picnic site. We came for a day-trip, then back to Varanasi and overnight again by train to Delhi. On the train we met a couple of British backpackers who had travelled overland from Russia to India. They were having a good time, but said they'd yet to meet an Indian who wasn't after their money. This was the unfortunate reality of much of our experience on holiday in India. When working and living in a suburb you establish some genuine contact with the people, but as a traveller you're constantly preyed upon for the quantities of cash you're known to have. So going back to Delhi was back to work, but also back a much more rewarding way of living in India. Does that sound pretentious? I'll be off to polish my halo then...
Christmas in Delhi was a slightly strange day. There were elements of English Christmas around - some of the cultural tat has got over to India - so there was a man dressed as Santa Claus outside the shop across the street, and Christmas cards on sale in the Post Office. The students wished us a Merry Christmas ("but sir, why are we always saying 'Merry Christmas'? Why not 'Merry New Year'?"). We bought presents for the youngest members of the household, Batu (10) and Rinku (15), and, just like in England, one of the presents didn't work.
The next week was 'fun week'; well, it's all fun isn't it, all these tenses and prepositions, but the week between Christmas and New Year was devoted entirely to serious fun. I taught my class some songs (they thought 'Penny Lane' was 'so beautiful!') and on the last day we created a pass-the-parcel game for the whole school (this means 40 students, it's not quite an English school) in which there was a prize and a forfeit in every layer. So we saw some great impressions of farm animals and bollywood stars, a couple of good dances and one lovely Hindi song. It was great to have fun with the students for a bit and let them enjoy themselves. Parties with young people here are quite different to in the UK - there's no alcohol, but there's plenty of Bombay mix. Apparently a favourite party drink is milk! So the end of the week was a real high point and I felt really proud of the teaching we've givien to the students and the relationships we've established with them.
Then it was time for our long-awaited holiday. We celebrated New Year on
Most of the carriage was asleep but we stood up and whispered Auld Lang Syne with the one Indian man who was awake - and who obviously thought we were completely mad! So not the most spectacular New Year.
We then stayed in Bodh Gaya for three nights. Since this is where the Buddha was enlightened, you can imagine it's a peaceful and spiritual place where you find a sense of oneness. Of course, since it's located in modern India, it's a bustling, honking, stressing, smelling place, with no shortage of hawkers and touts to separate the unwary tourist or pilgrim from his/her money/sanity. We'd booked a hotel room at a (to us) extravagant 5 pounds 50 a night, on the promise of hot water. To give them credit, after two days of requesting, reminding, pleading and finally shouting (this was Alison; I was past caring at this point) the management did deliver an intermittent service of tepid water. Outside the hotel, we waded through the touts and beggars towards the temples. End of moan.
The Maha Bodhi temple, on the site of the Buddha's enlightenment, was quite a spectacular building (covered in scaffolding when we were there, but impressive nonetheless) on a site which has been in continuous use since shortly after the Buddha's death. It was an interesting combination of a place of pilgrimage and a tourist attraction - for every devout Buddhist prostrating and turning a rosary there was someone posing in front of the Bodhi tree with a camera. The temple was in a large complex of shrines and stupas and the place did have a feel of history and significance to it. It was peaceful to be there early morning or late at night. The other temples are much more modern creations with each large Buddhist community around the world strutting their stuff. The Thai temple was lovely and very reminiscent of the retreat centre in Wales (since Samatha is a Thai tradition). We also found a nice bookshop and an area in which a whole group of Tibetans had set up restaurant-tents selling Tibetan stews (thukpas) and dumplings (momos), so we had a nice change from curry. Mind you the thalis we ate on holiday were fantastic.
We then went to Varanasi (aka Banares), the holiest city in Hinduism, a stretch of temples and Ghats (long steps next to the river on which they cremate people) alongside the toxic Ganges, a drop of which is said to absolve all sin. It's also supposed to be a very good idea to go to Varanasi if you're at death's door - if you die there, you get a very good rebirth. After our Bodh Gaya experience we decided to go for the most peaceful, out of the way place possible and found a lovely little family run guesthouse for a pound a night. We walked along the river and through the maze of the old city, and went on the river on a rowing boat at dawn. It's very atmospheric on the Ganges with all the pujas and cremations going on along the ghats. There wasn't quite as much ceremony going on as when I was there in 2003, but still many people bathing and blessing themselves - quite interesting, but slightly strange to see as a tourist. It's very public, but somehow you feel irreverent observing people practicing in such a devoted way, in a tradition which you do not share. When we got back to Delhi I mentioned to my class that I'd been to Varanasi and some of the students were very impressed and talked about how they would love to go as pilgrims to the Ganges; it made me feel somewhat humble that I'd had the opportunity to experience this as a complete outsider.
Sarnath is a small place just outside Varanasi, where the Buddha made his first teaching after becoming enlightened. It was a hive of Buddhist activity from shortly after his death in around 500BC to 1100AD when it was destroyed by Muslim invaders. It then lay almost deserted until British archeologists took an interest in it in the 1800s. Gradually, the remains of some huge monasteries were uncovered, and in them some very significant and well-preserved examples of Buddhist stonework from the various dynasties that had had a presence in Sarnath. It was a peaceful place to visit, more of an historical site than a place of pilgrimage; lots of Indian families seemed to use the clean, grassy area as an excellent picnic site. We came for a day-trip, then back to Varanasi and overnight again by train to Delhi. On the train we met a couple of British backpackers who had travelled overland from Russia to India. They were having a good time, but said they'd yet to meet an Indian who wasn't after their money. This was the unfortunate reality of much of our experience on holiday in India. When working and living in a suburb you establish some genuine contact with the people, but as a traveller you're constantly preyed upon for the quantities of cash you're known to have. So going back to Delhi was back to work, but also back a much more rewarding way of living in India. Does that sound pretentious? I'll be off to polish my halo then...