Kite Flying Festival and More

Fri Jan 18, 9:57 pm.

Nitish and Lucas, the education director's son

Monday was an important Hindu holiday, Maker Sankranti also known as the Kite Flying Festival. On this day it is customary to bathe in the Gunga, eat sesame, and fly kites. In celebration everyone involved with the program boarded a boat, went across the Gunga to the beaches of Ramnigar, and spent the afternoon flying, or attempting to fly kites. Nistish, an Indian twenty something who works for the program, is a master kite flyer, for he has been doing it his entire life. He brought along a few of his childhood friends, and the four Indian men valiantly attempted to teach us white people the art of the kite. You would think that an activity that most Indian five year olds can do would be easy for a bunch of college educated Americans, but you would be so wrong.

In a three-hour period I managed to keep the kite up for about a minute in my longest run. It was kind of sad, but I did do better than almost all of the other girls so I am really quite proud of myself. (Full disclosure: I took over the kite string when it was safely in the air, and had nothing to do with the hard part).  Somehow, a bunch of water buffalo made it across the Gunga, and got in the way, causing chaos among the kite flyers. After a nice afternoon on the beach, all six of us girls went out to a late lunch, and then home for the night.

People bathing in the Gunga

Yesterday Alex and I went with our ancient history teacher to the art museum at the local university (BHU) and spent the afternoon looking at art and sculptures from as recent as the 19^th century, and as old as the 200BC. He took us around, told us about the symbolism in each piece, the stories behind the paintings, and the myths the depicted. In classic Indian style he went over the allotted time by an hour, but it was still a wonderful opportunity. The BHU museum is one of Indian best galleries of ancient art, and though the building itself is humble and a little run down, the artifacts it contained were more than priceless.

Last night I went over to the house of a friend’s that I made last week at the River Ashram for a Mean Girls viewing. There were 10 girls there, and we all felt a kinship because we were white in India, but in reality we were an incredibly diverse group of people. There were four Americas, one Canadian, three Swedish girls, one German, and one half German, half Indian. In America we would never really feel a cultural kinship, but Indian society is one that is so closed to outsiders that anyone not from India is one of your own. Today I met a South Korean couple, and felt as though they were just like me simply because they were from someplace else. The ex-pat community is small, and everyone seems to know everyone else, for once you have been in Varanasi for two weeks you are part of the club. You will never make it into the “Indian Club”, but the white, twenty something one is great as well.

Actors during Filming

This afternoon Alex and I took a walk to the ghats to kill a little time before she had stone carving. We were there for no more then 10 minutes when the German, Cora, who I had briefly met at Mean Girls, showed up. We started talking, and suddenly a huge group of men dressed as Sadues (ascetics) descended down the stairs. Hoping for an opportunity to observe a special Hindu ritual we followed them, but the ritual never began. We stood around for a while chatting when the men started moving. And the police started running after them. And the camera started filming. It turns out these men were not Sadues at all, but actors filming a Bengali TV show.

Actors in the Rain

Cora and I watched them film for about an hour and a half, chatting and enjoying the ghat when an unexpected 10 minute heavy rain began. This was the first rain since the monsoon season (October), and nobody was prepared. It almost never rains this time of year so everyone started running for shelter. Cora lives about a minute away from the ghats, so we ran into her place to hang out for a little while longer. The poor actors were all stuffed under this tiny tarp, cramped and unhappy, for they had not even considered making rain plans. But you know what they say about the best-made plans…

Jessi, Sarah, and Alex just left my house after a low key night of banana grahams in my room, and now I am off to bed.

Fun Facts

•   The Indian perfect woman according to ancient art: Big boobs, big butt, thick thighs, slender waist
•   Indian female policewomen wear army green saris
•   Swedish people love India