It is clean- Trivandrum is the cleanest city I have been to in India. It has wonderful boulevards (that may be a stretch), there are no cows or dogs. There are, however, cats. The buildings are well maintained. The neighborhoods are in picturesque winding lanes. The architecture is unobtrusive. Religions (Islam, Hinduism, Christianity) all live in peace (Jesus is right next to Ganesh on people's dashboards).
It is friendly- people love to smile, they are helpful, they are not menacing as those in Delhi can be.
Women work- in shops, in offices, at bus conductors. They smile and you smile back. There are thousands of woman on the streets
The Heat- is luxurious and not at all oppressing.
THE FOOD IS DELICIOUS-- vada, idli, dosa, BEEF CURRY EVERYWHERE, cashes, th most beautiful red bananas on earth, coconuts, fruits, cashews, and the most flaky parathas ever.
The landscape is heavenly- rocky and verdant. flat and expansive. huge blue blue blue ocean. palm trees. backwaters of stunning beauty. cities truly integrated with nature.
I stayed there for 10 days- not counting 5 days spent on trains. I ended up in the hospital for 2 hours- an experience I would not like to relive ( I hit my head on a door built for someone 6 inches shorter then me).
I met wonderful people. 14 of us rented a house in Kovalam. People from all over the world and partied and relaxed. We cooked at and ate and drank and lounged on the beach under the equatorial sun. Every night we ate the freshest fish imaginable. Emma is one of my best friends and I am happy she invited me to come with her and all of her friends to the Kovalam house.
And now I am home! And I am so so so so so happy-- I am so in love with Banaras, and while I LOVED the south, I would only want to live in the North- why? I have no clue.
And today off to Delhi for the India Arts Summit
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Meri Dadiji ke liye
To my Granny, who is always emailing me about my absence from the blogosphere
Home and Away again.
I have been back in Banaras for 3 weeks, after a wonderful wonderful whirlwind vacation. A vacation that took me first to a the River Ashram in Varanasi, the most beautiful and kind and peaceful place in the world. A Christian ashram run by the kindest, hippie Australian couple and their 6 year old. I stayed there for a week- helping them start a spiral garden (a form of contemplative meditative gardening?) (I do not recommend Indian tools of labor- they are back breaking and highly inefficient and terribly imprecise) An ashram that every Sunday opens its doors to the most loving community lunch-- where a vegetarian meal and the BEST CAKES/BAKED GOODS IN ALL OF BANARAS are served, by a German woman who has lived here for 10 years.
After my time at the ashram- after my cloth buying spree, my 2 trips to McDonalds, my reading, my mosaic making, my relaxing, my hot showering taking I went to Lucknow where I stayed 4 days with one of my best friends Eamon.
Eamon, who studied Urdu this summer in the city of Nawabs, of Kathak, of Mutton, and Chikan, is someone I would never have been friends with in the US. He is a military Irish boy, currently contracted to the UW ROTC. We come from very different worlds, that are also very similar and we became the best of friends-- India will do that. We stayed 4 days in Lucknow. There we ate egregious amounts of meat. Smelled renowned ittar (perfumes-- some can imitate the smell of rain falling on dust), watched as men broke florescent bulbs on their heads and beat their flesh to to mourn the death of Hussain at the Battle of Karbala (Lucknow is the seat of Shia'a Islam in South Asia).
Lucknow, a city ruled by the most corrupt woman in the world- a toad and a egocentric, megalomanic philistine- is wonderful. It is a big city, entirely un-navigable , but wonderful. Its main thoroughfare is lined with gentrified colonial buildings. On every corner is stand selling delicious mutton. The city is refined, or was refined- but the memory of its glory remains and dazzles us through its mosques, its gates, its palaces, and schools, and gardens.
After Lucknow Eamon and I went on a SHOPPING SPREE, with Emma (an America Delhiwalli from Madison) in Delhi. We spent the entire day shopping at the most wonderful of places- Khadi (homespun cotton) handicrafts, arts, etc-- nothing was taboo. I never knew shopping could be so fulfilling- it really made it feel like Christmas (45 degrees, and shining lights-- no ice skaters or frozen breath)
After that we went to the fanciest mall I have ever been to- a mall that gave me anxiety, but also was highly seductive. There we ate AMAZING Italian food- the Delhi upper middle class lives in the malls of the city- and watched the new (terrible) Woody Allen movie.
Eamon's flight to US was cancelled, due to the British snow storms and he stayed more days, while I took the 3 day train down to the South!
A wonderful experience! the South is beautiful- beyond beautiful-- green beyond belief, verdant verdant verdant. Edenic. and HOT.
Home and Away again.
I have been back in Banaras for 3 weeks, after a wonderful wonderful whirlwind vacation. A vacation that took me first to a the River Ashram in Varanasi, the most beautiful and kind and peaceful place in the world. A Christian ashram run by the kindest, hippie Australian couple and their 6 year old. I stayed there for a week- helping them start a spiral garden (a form of contemplative meditative gardening?) (I do not recommend Indian tools of labor- they are back breaking and highly inefficient and terribly imprecise) An ashram that every Sunday opens its doors to the most loving community lunch-- where a vegetarian meal and the BEST CAKES/BAKED GOODS IN ALL OF BANARAS are served, by a German woman who has lived here for 10 years.
After my time at the ashram- after my cloth buying spree, my 2 trips to McDonalds, my reading, my mosaic making, my relaxing, my hot showering taking I went to Lucknow where I stayed 4 days with one of my best friends Eamon.
Eamon, who studied Urdu this summer in the city of Nawabs, of Kathak, of Mutton, and Chikan, is someone I would never have been friends with in the US. He is a military Irish boy, currently contracted to the UW ROTC. We come from very different worlds, that are also very similar and we became the best of friends-- India will do that. We stayed 4 days in Lucknow. There we ate egregious amounts of meat. Smelled renowned ittar (perfumes-- some can imitate the smell of rain falling on dust), watched as men broke florescent bulbs on their heads and beat their flesh to to mourn the death of Hussain at the Battle of Karbala (Lucknow is the seat of Shia'a Islam in South Asia).
Lucknow, a city ruled by the most corrupt woman in the world- a toad and a egocentric, megalomanic philistine- is wonderful. It is a big city, entirely un-navigable , but wonderful. Its main thoroughfare is lined with gentrified colonial buildings. On every corner is stand selling delicious mutton. The city is refined, or was refined- but the memory of its glory remains and dazzles us through its mosques, its gates, its palaces, and schools, and gardens.
After Lucknow Eamon and I went on a SHOPPING SPREE, with Emma (an America Delhiwalli from Madison) in Delhi. We spent the entire day shopping at the most wonderful of places- Khadi (homespun cotton) handicrafts, arts, etc-- nothing was taboo. I never knew shopping could be so fulfilling- it really made it feel like Christmas (45 degrees, and shining lights-- no ice skaters or frozen breath)
After that we went to the fanciest mall I have ever been to- a mall that gave me anxiety, but also was highly seductive. There we ate AMAZING Italian food- the Delhi upper middle class lives in the malls of the city- and watched the new (terrible) Woody Allen movie.
Eamon's flight to US was cancelled, due to the British snow storms and he stayed more days, while I took the 3 day train down to the South!
A wonderful experience! the South is beautiful- beyond beautiful-- green beyond belief, verdant verdant verdant. Edenic. and HOT.
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