Diwali, Varansi, all with Manoj

One of the big activities that I organized at the home was for all the women to take a night off from cooking and allow me and some of the younger boys to cook dinner for everyone. This was the first time I cooked for around 20 people. I made a big stir fry and threw some pineapple in which threw everyone off; they couldn't believe it, but it went over well. Also, the women were very happy to have a night off and it ended up being a lot of fun.

I ended up staying for the festival of Diwali and postponing to leave for travels and meetings until after.

I arranged a morning family game of cricket on Diwali so that I could learn the rules and also so that some of the family members who worked too much and hadn't gotten a chance to play in some time got to have some fun. It ended up being a tie. I ended up throwing my shoulder out (I continue to remember I'm getting older), and the others who hadn't played in some time were also quite sore after. It is much better to play than to watch, more so than other sports.

The rest of the day consisted of painting and decorating inside the home and then in the evening dressing up, listening to fireworks all night and walking around to all the other houses to pay respect and say "Happy Diwali" and "Ram Ram"-a greeting. In the end, the fireworks made the family buffalo take a big shit and then run away only to be found the next day.

The following day I was settled into India and ready to head off on the road. With me, I brought Manoj, one of the family members. Manoj is 15 or 16, it is unknown. I have learned that in India at some point in school they make a school ID and ask someone in the family the age of the child, often being a father, uncle or grandparent, who says an approximate age. This age they write down is forever ingrained on their record, even if they get a passport, it gets transferred on. Anyways, it has been good fun having Manoj, feeling like he is a younger brother I have come up with many nicknames for him along the way (he asked me not to write them in case his family ends up reading this.

We headed off the day after Diwali on a 20-some hour train ride to Varanasi. Now it is somewhat known that there is lots of bribery and cheating of foreigners in India. I have learned that there are also some advantages to being of a lighter color. Like if I want to go and sit in the lobby of an expensive hotel, nobody will question me. Also, since we bought cheap tickets on the train and I saw that it was completely full I told Manoj to follow me into the nicer, cushier train car that costs much more. Seeing me, they let us in and asked nothing, whereas if it was a common Indian, they would double check his ticket. Through the night ticket agents came and after seeing I had the wrong ticket they informed me and I played the unaware tourist for the amount of time to have them move on and leave us there.

On arrival in Varanasi we found a wonderful guesthouse where we chatted a bit with the family and Monu, the son ended up taking us for a walk around the city, explaining things and introducing us to the local foods; yummy.

Varanasi is quite a holy place where people come from around the world to study Hinduism, practice yoga and meditation and bathe in the Ganges River. Also, loads of wood are continually brought in so that bodies can be burned along the river. This is highly desired by many people and so bodies are burned around the clock as the ashes are dumped into the river. Manoj and I woke one morning at 4:30 to take a boat ride in the river, watching the sun rise as people bathed in the holy waters; this was quite a scene.

We also made a visit to the local university which is one of the largest in the country. What struck me first about this place was how clean it was compared to the rest of India that I had scene, all trees, plants, and grass, with little garbage scattered about.

We bought some bananas and saw for the first time in either of our lives, a double banana inside one big peel. After many takes this is one of the best photos of it. It took a lot of takes because for some reason I found it very funny and was laughing too hard that the photos kept looking fuzzy.

"It is like a family banana" - Monu