Mon Jan 14 6:26pm
Saturday was a
beautiful day, and I spent the morning in the garden with my host family,
reading for class and hanging out. At 3:00 Alex, Danielle, Jessi, Tania, and I
went to Godolia, the main shopping district in Varanasi. Because Danielle,
Jessi, and Tania have all been in India for a semester already they each had
their favorite clothes stores, and wanted to share them with Alex and I. We
started out at a suit store, where both of us bought two Indian women’s suits,
which consist of fabric for a tunic, pants, and a long scarf. We have to take
them to a tailor tomorrow to have the actual clothes made. The patterns on these
things are so much fun and every single one is different. I also got my first
shawl, which I love.
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| Life by the Gunga |
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| Tania and Alex |
After the suit store (Danielle and Jessi’s favorite) Tania
showed us her favorite place, owned by a man named Rahul. This store was in the
back corner of a narrow way in Godolia, and there is no way that I would have
found it myself. It was one of the best shops I have ever been to. Rahul and
his tailor make all of their own cloths and fabrics, and each item is unique.
You cannot find a lot of his stuff anywhere else. Even his kurtas, tunics they
sell everywhere, have cooler patters and are better designed. All five of us
managed to find something we loved, from vests to Aladdin pants. I got three
wall hanging that double as pockets with traditional Indian elephant designs.
They are hanging in my room already.
For dinner we went to Brown Bread bakery, a favorite of the
expat community (they serve meat) and had a beer and a classical sitar concert.
It was great.
The best meal however was lunch on Sunday at the River
Ashram. The River Ashram is the subject of Tania’s independent study so she
invited us along to see what it was about. It is a Jesus Worship ashram, which
focuses on melding eastern methods with western theology. They have meditation
every Wednesday, gardening on Friday’s, and lunch every Sunday. Even though it
is technically a community based around Jesus, it is really just a group of
international hippies trying to find themselves in India.
I was there for three hours and I don’t think anyone even
mentioned Jesus, and if they did they would not have cared that I was Jewish
one bit. It was an informal lunch on mats in the garden (the only green space in
Varanasi outside of BHU) and people from all over the world were just hangining
out, chatting about life, their travels, and even some discussion about the
importance of ritual vs the importance of faith. I felt like I was back at
class with Professor Brooks. There were people from Sweden, Australia, Italy,
Germany, Peru, Namibia, and more. Tania said that this week was a relatively
small gathering, but I made some friends. We are even having movie night on
Thursday. It was really a place where your religion did not matter, your
attitude towards life did. That
being said, I will not be going to Jesus mediation on Wednesday, though Alex is
considering it.
Source of the Hebrew in Varansi
There is a man who runs a bed sheet store, “The Bed”, who
has been working with Israelis since he was 14. He is almost fluent in Hebrew,
and can read and write as well. I went into his shop to investigate, and he
informed me that even though he had never been to Israel he has upwards of 50
books Hebrew. He told me I could borrow them anytime, like I could ever read a
Hebrew novel. He also told me he would love to talk to me about my project
comparing Varanasi and Jerusalem.
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